Stephen Bryen
The Association of the US Army held its annual large scale show in Washington DC (October 13-15). A wide range of new products and solutions tailored to Army needs were featured at the show. Featured ground systems include the Oshkosh Striker with the new Medium Caliber Weapon System and the AM General MIMIC-V for special operations, while a major focus on drone and counter-drone capabilities was evident. Other key systems highlighted were General Dynamics’ PERCH and MUTT XM, which integrates loitering munitions and a Gatling gun for counter-UAS, and the General Dynamics NEXUS Stryker (a new version of a command and control vehicle).
The Ukraine war has changed land warfare significantly, rendering the use of armored platforms including tanks and infantry fighting vehicles difficult in a drone-heavy combat environment. One outcome has been resorting to small units, three to five soldiers to achieve certain combat objectives.
A swarm of drones test capabilities during a battle exercise at National Training Center on May 8, 2019, at Fort Irwin, Calif. (James Newsome/U.S. Army)
The Russians, for example, have been using motorcycles and even horses, a huge step back in time from a combat perspective. Both sides also increasingly feature standoff weapons, but find it difficult to capitalize even where they can knock out a command post or cluster of enemy soldiers.
Drones have also replaced, to some degree, long range aviation and missiles. Deep precision strikes by the Russians on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, and by Ukraine on Russian territory, illustrates the usefulness of attack drones on fixed targets. While both sides understand they will sacrifice many drones to knock out a target, and use some of them as decoys, overall the costs of operation are much lower than a conventional fighter jet or bomber-led attack, and the consequences far more acceptable when it comes to manpower, which survives operations and the cost of hardware which is lost.
The technologies that have appeared at AUSA mostly are intended to improve drone detection and methods to destroy them. So far, none of the technology promoted shows any great ability to seek out the operators and, inter alia, to destroy drone supply chains.
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