I don’t get the impression that we’re learning much. The Ukrainians and the Russians and even the chinese seem to be years ahead of us on drones.
Every war is a weapons test lab for the next one.
The current media buzz about drones and how the Ukraine and Russia have advanced way past the US is a lot of BS media buzz.
The US is light years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to drones, we just don't publicize our developments.
The current implementation of drones in Ukraine is a low tech solution to a war fought by adversaries who have run out of high tech weapons and high value targets.
The drones both sides are using would not have near the success against the US military.
What both the Ukrainians and the Russians have come up with are some innovative uses for marginally capable, low payload $2000-$10, 000 drones to stand in for weapons like the Javelin while still having an individual soldier real time ISR capability.
In fact, a lot of the ordnance that the Ukraine is using is bomblets and anti armor shaped charges pulled from US supplied ATACM cluster munition warheads that they have run out of US supplied missiles to deliver and either adapted to be dropped from drone or reverse engineered Ukraine produced knock offs. .
That said, the Ukraine and Russia have pioneered a new type of warfare capability that the US needs to evaluate, refine and implement.
Don’t kid yourself; our military activity at Nellis in Nevada and Alamogordo in New Mexico have been devoted to this for years.
If you think drones are scary don’t start contemplating what you flying things terrorists can make out of cardboard, a glue gun couple of servos hooked up to a rasberry pi/arduino and small lithium battery.
Maybe this is part of the reason for investing in intel chips. Our drone production and counter-drone technology needs to maintain many steps ahead for this coming new type of engagement. It is coming and already employed elsewhere. The chips which are necessary, better be made in the US, rather relying on other nations for them.
Our enemies are already planning on how to use drones to attacks us.
REMEMBER the stealth attack on Russian bombers? Then the same type attack happened elsewhere a few weeks later. Then, a few days later, all of our bombers abandoned a ME airbase. Intel was on the learning curve, or probably had knowledge of a credible threat.
The threat of drone warfare is not limited to nation on nation warfare. Terrorists are already scheming and some potential scenarios are ugly.
Recall holiday drone “shows” all controlled to preplanned, choreographed positions from one computer? Wisdom asks; “What other ways could this technology be used?”
Yes, we had better be many many steps ahead in the technology, because it’s coming.
It’s said; “knowledge is power”
This is a half-truth
Knowledge is mere facts.
On the other hand, wisdom is the application of knowledge, history, experience, tact and timing. Wisdom is power.
When I think of drones, I’m eerily reminded about swarms of unusual looking locusts spoken about roughly 1900 years ago. To that man anyway, they ~looked~ like locusts.