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The U.S. Army Looks Lost in the Drone Age
National Security Journal ^ | 7/31/2025 | David Hambling

Posted on 07/31/2025 6:56:14 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111

The U.S. Army recently sparked widespread mockery after a social media post breathlessly announced its “first live-grenade drop from an unmanned aircraft system”—a tactic that has been a staple in Ukraine for years and was used by ISIS in 2017. The incident highlighted what many experts see as a dangerous, “pre-drone age mindset” within the U.S. military.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: army; blogkaren; blogpimp; blogwhiner; drones; military; multiplenicks; randpaulsucks; russiantrollfarm; ukraine; usarmy

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Great, we will lose the next war. And we spend a Trillion on defense.
1 posted on 07/31/2025 6:56:14 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
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To: whyilovetexas111

I’m confident American arms makers are closely studying Ukrainian, Iranian and Chinese drones and working diligently to find a way to replicate their performance for 100x the cost.


2 posted on 07/31/2025 7:00:08 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: whyilovetexas111
we will lose the next war

Are you a service member or veteran? or armchair general?


3 posted on 07/31/2025 7:02:53 AM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: whyilovetexas111

Drones are overrated. People need to realize that the WWI reenactment by the two low skilled armies is NOT the be all, end all template for future war.
The drone attackers would get annihilated on a battlefield where the USAF had air supremacy/dominance.
Same for the pronouncements about the end of tanks. Uke retards sending out random tanks piecemeal in platoon sized groups with no support is a very different thing than the 1st Armored division and it’s supporting formations attacking you under USAF cover.

Drones have uses, but it’s amateur to pretend these DGI toys are the future of war.


4 posted on 07/31/2025 7:08:17 AM PDT by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: whyilovetexas111

It’s a social media post. By a gigantic hide-bound entity that is ever-increasing it’s levels of approval for such publications. I’m surprised they get anything posted in less than three years.

Those are always easily mocked. And should be.

“We’re going to lose the next war” because we can’t drop a grenade from a kids toy? We invented ‘droning’, including such fun-named weapons as a ‘Ginsu’ Hellfire missile —> YEARS ago...

Y’all need to back off the coffee pot earlier in the morning.


5 posted on 07/31/2025 7:10:32 AM PDT by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: whyilovetexas111

Palmer Luckey is catching them up ...


6 posted on 07/31/2025 7:10:49 AM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: whyilovetexas111

With drones, tanks are obsolete. Ships are next.


7 posted on 07/31/2025 7:10:52 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: whyilovetexas111

China and especially Russia ( with Ukrainian war experience) are clearly winning the drone war.
The largest manufacturing base in the world, China, is producing millions of drone types. Just pull up some video of Chinese massive drone swarm attacks.

The most frightening tactic is their building entry drones. Mother drones carry hundreds of smaller drones, when on target, specialized “ entry” drones blow holes in windows, walls, ceilings…the hundreds of other small drones enter en masse.

As China is now overtaking AI development, it is stated these fifty to hundred mini drones can be programmed to hunt down individuals, facilities brain centers, power supply, etc.

Sounds like a sci- fi scenario, and China leads the way.


8 posted on 07/31/2025 7:13:06 AM PDT by delta7
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To: whyilovetexas111

BlahblahblahAmericaSucksBlahBlahBlah ...


9 posted on 07/31/2025 7:14:20 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: whyilovetexas111

They were in pretty sad shape in 1939, but we ramped up quickly.


10 posted on 07/31/2025 7:15:49 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: catnipman

First thimg to go when WWIII starts are all the satellites.


11 posted on 07/31/2025 7:16:57 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: whyilovetexas111

While Ukraine/Russia has seen increase usage the first real usage of drones was during the Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan skirmish (2020 I think?)

I’m sure they’ve been looking into both offensive and defensive applications since then.

Now who came up with posting this and okayed it thinking it would be a good thing is a whole other issue.


12 posted on 07/31/2025 7:17:51 AM PDT by reed13k
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To: whyilovetexas111
Great, we will lose the next war.

That depends very much on the nature of that war - which we do have some control over. Iran has been a major drone supplier to Russia, so Iran certainly has had plenty of drones, and yet Iran's drones have barely dented Israel. This is due more to Israel's pro-active and extremely effective (if mostly rather conventional) "shoot the archer and the arrow maker" offense than it's actual drone defense. Neither Ukraine nor Russia has this advantage: For example, you don't see Russian fighter aircraft often over Ukrainian held ground, nor Ukrainian fighter aircraft over Russian held ground.

That said, and in agreement with your 2nd point, drones in the right situations CAN be very cost effective, and we have lessons to learn and APPLY, from the Ukies and the Russians. When appropriate, add tech of our own they don't yet have. AI-Smart, stealthy drones, IMO, have quite a future, and quite a scary future indeed if we don't keep up on all fronts.

13 posted on 07/31/2025 7:26:42 AM PDT by Paul R. (Old Viking saying: "Never be more than 3 steps away from your weapon ... or a Uriah Heep song!" ;-))
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To: DesertRhino

Kinda surprised that Russia hasn’t tried a different approach.

In my view, with these combatants, drones are an effective defensive tool to protect contested ground.

If I was Russia and if I wanted to steer away from the traditional Russian offensive approach (attrition), maybe try something different.

If you think of this conflict as feudal, and Ukraine is the castle, what do you do? Siege.

Do things that make the castle uninhabitable (taking the nuclear option off the table). Destroy their dams, water treatment and storage facilities, power generation and distribution, roads, bridges, railways, etc. Move Ukraine back to 1825 and let the people inside the castle turn on each other in order to survive. Wait a year or so, then just walk in.

Conserve your military and dig in to protect against the drones and whatever counterattack Ukraine could attempt. All offensive action at this stage should only be focused on moving Ukraine back to 1825, not further ground advances.

When it is obvious what your strategy is, then start the propaganda communication to tell Ukraine that as soon as Zelensky is gone and Ukraine starts dealing in good faith to end the conflict on reasonable terms, the “1825 strategy” will stop.


14 posted on 07/31/2025 7:26:43 AM PDT by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: whyilovetexas111

There are always costs to killing.

There will always be Unintended Consequences.

Building cheap machines to kill people sounds easy.

But, you are killing people and that is never cheap or easy.


15 posted on 07/31/2025 7:26:53 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer” )
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To: DesertRhino

As well, the army is deploying anti-drone systems and developing better ones as well. This will probably result in a technology war. Drones get hardened, anti-drones get better and the cycle will continue. The anti-drone systems are
OK for now. As the drones get hardened against EMP-type attacks, they also get much more expensive. If your GPS and SATNAV are jammed and your video feed is scrambled, you have to fall back on inertial guidance. And then accuracy suffers.


16 posted on 07/31/2025 7:27:14 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: whyilovetexas111
Great, we will lose the next war.

This hysteria is derived from an opinion piece in some publication called “National Security Journal?”

C’mon.

17 posted on 07/31/2025 7:29:30 AM PDT by Allegra (Thank you for your attention to this matter. )
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To: 17th Miss Regt

The only way to win a war, and this is going to be a very unpopular statement, is to kill your enemy. All of them. The last time this was done was in Japan. It’s had a lasting uncouth effect.


18 posted on 07/31/2025 7:39:59 AM PDT by Michigan Bowhunter
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To: Michigan Bowhunter

Kill people and break their things.


19 posted on 07/31/2025 7:40:17 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: whyilovetexas111

Looks like to me EMPs could do a lot to disable drone armies and even human armies unless both are design to resist them. It only takes one well placed EMP to destroy most unprotected electronics.


20 posted on 07/31/2025 7:57:41 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (In a way ge is right as)
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