Ukrainians are using new drone and counter-drone strategies to blunt Russian offensive. Ukraine is targeting the radio-jammers the Russians use to ground Ukrainian drones while setting up their own jammers to ground Russian drones.
Russia attacked Avdiivka with masses of tanks and infantry. This cost Russia a lot of losses in the range of 17000 casualties over a month or two. Russians then tried to use explosive first-person-view drones, some outfitted for night flights, to attack supply lines in the hope of strangling the garrison and forcing it to withdraw.
Small, explosives-laden drones steadily have become some of the most dangerous weapons in the Russia-Ukraine war. Electronic defenses against these drones and other larger spy and attack drones have become critical.
Many of Ukraine’s radio-jammers have come from the United States, most recently in September as part of a $600-million aid package.
Ukraine adopted the jam first strategy in the summer.
Taiwan is building out a fleet of thousands of drones.
Taiwan is fast-tracking the creation of a self-sufficient drone supply chain. China currently has the lead in drone production and dominates the commercial drone industry.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Unmanned combat fighters appear to have been blocked by the USAF:
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3889/the-alarming-case-of-the-usafs-mysteriously-missing-unmanned-combat-air-vehicles
Bit of a shame, as it they would be bloody useful in Ukraine right now. No need to train local pilots over months and years. Just get the drone crews in their and get some american/Nato ground crews in via Private Miliatary Contractors in well protected Bunkers.
We could drone on about this all day. Sorry. The long term reality is going to be that nothing biological is going to be able to survive long on future battlefields. There may be battle armor or whatever (shades of Starship Troopers), but there won’t be anyone inside. And combined arms tactics will dictate many different kinds of drones.
And they will be designed to go full autonomous mode should they be jammed from remote operator control. Legislation against this will be useless. And, eventually, they will be far more terrifying in autonomous mode than they are under remote control. When this comes about, jamming them will become a serious no-no for informed commanders.