Modern sensor networks, electronic warfare, and precision strikes favor the defender by punishing forces that concentrate on the battlefield. Networked swarms of low-cost drones and launched effects can restore offensive capability by converging effects without massing troops, forcing adversaries to deplete interceptors and reveal hidden sensors. The report outlines a three-phase operational framework—set conditions, pulse, and consolidate and transition—demonstrated by Ukraine’s 2024 Kursk offensive.
Testing this doctrine across three hypothetical scenarios reveals that air-, ship-, and ground-launched effects provide a practical mechanism to scale swarms against integrated air defenses in Kaliningrad, contested waters in the South China Sea, and deep Russian positions on NATO's eastern flank. Procuring hardware alone remains insufficient without generating repeatable mass and sustaining successive pulses before adversaries recover. Consequently, the study delivers 14 specific recommendations for the Pentagon and Congress to establish joint swarming task forces, modular open systems, and allied interoperability architectures.
Penetrating an integrated air defense network like the S-400 system deployed in Kaliningrad requires saturating engagement channels rather than relying on stealth platforms alone. Launched effects fired from airborne platforms offer the requisite density to exhaust interceptor inventories before crewed assets approach release boundaries.
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