David T. Cloft
For decades, armored warfare was built on a simple, brutal equation: armor protects, firepower kills, mobility wins. Tanks and infantry fighting vehicles like the M2 Bradley were designed for a world where the biggest threat came from another armored formation across the tree line. You found the enemy, you engaged, and whoever shot first—accurately—usually won. That world is gone. Ukraine didn’t just tweak the formula; it detonated it. The battlefield now sees everything, all the time, from above, and the kill chain has compressed from minutes to seconds.
The romantic image of armored columns rolling forward under cover of smoke and artillery has been replaced by something far less cinematic: vehicles hiding, dispersing, and moving like hunted animals under constant aerial surveillance. Cheap drones—$500 quadcopters and $20,000 FPV kamikazes—are hunting million-dollar platforms with ruthless efficiency. The lesson is not subtle. If you can be seen, you can be targeted. If you can be targeted, you can be killed.
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