I have nothing better to do so I shall provide here a small lecture on satellite recon.
1) This is the first war in history where both sides have excellent satellite recon.
2) Drones are not too important. They require a bidirectional data link for piloting and in the other direction, imagery. Both links can be jammed or spoofed.
3) Satellites have many categories. There is imagery, and usually multispectral, meaning infrared or even ultraviolet. There is signal intelligence gathering. There is in orbit radar. Which is imagery of a sort.
4) It is a very cloudy planet.
5) There is too often talk of geosynchronous orbits. These are 23,000 miles high. And these orbits are strictly and only over the equator. That is how orbital ballistics and Keplerian element sets work. You cannot park a satellite over Ukraine and have it stay there. It is not the equator. These altitudes are usually reserved for signal gathering, communications transponding and some synthetic aperature radar work.
6) Imaging is usually done at a much lower altitude. When you lower the altitude of a vehicle’s orbit, it no longer hangs over one spot. It traverses the sky. A typical recon orbit would be 600 miles high. There is a 1000 mile limit — the Van Allen high energy proton region. It east electronics, so imaging stays below it.
7) Because it traverses the sky, there are only a few minutes of visibility per day. These orbits are usually mostly polar. The earth rotates under them. So maybe 8 minutes obliquely overhead, then 90 mins later 15 minutes direcly overhead, then 90 minutes later and another 8 minute pass. Then nothing for hours and hours. These pass times can be known to troops on the ground.
8) Overall conclusion to be drawn — there are no surprises. Both sides can see everything that is being prepared. Nothing happens unexpected.
9) Ignore everything but satellite imagery, and you likely can’t interpret it. So ignore everything.
The End
And yet the Ukrainians managed to completely snooker the Russians with a local offensive in the South, so that they missed a major offensive buildup up in the North. The Russians now have a huge hole in their front, a large Ukrainian force rampaging in their rear, and as of now, do not appear to have any reserves in the area to counterattack with.
Satellite intel is only good if you look at the photos…
The very points you make testify to the usefulness of drones. Satellites can only sometimes provide real time intelligence just after a pass?). For artillery spotting for instance satellites are only good for static targets.
Drones can observe real time. For moving or at least mobile targets they are invaluable, for counterbattery and other tactical purposes.