The problem with Area Denial weapons like these is, they're very expensive compared to the threat they are defending against, AND they have to be where the threat is. They look cool in promos, but they have a very short effective range...and they have to. You wouldn't want a device like this taking out your own devices at some distant location. There are longer range weapons, like lasers, but these are orders of magnitude more expensive and require gobs of power (thus fuel in some form). They're also a lot more fragile, so you can't go bouncing across rough terrain for days or weeks and keep them calibrated.
I almost chuckle a little bit when I think about how the defense industry seemingly just completely missed the drone threat. The MIC is geared toward big threats; they never anticipated a small disposable threat. And the hell of it is, we haven't even seen the "real" drone threat yet. People see drones being employed in Ukraine by both Russia and Ukraine and they think they're seeing the end-game for drones. Far from it. These are individual drones. The much bigger threat is drone "swarms". They don't even have to be offensive drones either (i.e. drones which drop an explosive or have guns). In the case of swarms, the drone itself becomes the weapon. They can sit and wait, then lift off when a threat shows up. Helicopter gunships?...denied. Ground Attack/Support aircraft?...denied. Medivac?...denied.
And now, with the new multi-device control technology, one operator can pilot hundreds, or even thousands, of drones from a single controller and control location. And people forget, the drones have to get from the manufacturer to places like Ukraine or Russia. But against an adversary like China, for example, an aggressor/defender would be up against the actual manufacturer of drone tech where this delivery and lead-time isn't an issue. They're cheap, you don't have to feed them, and they don't get lost. They don't have morale issues, they're ready 24x7, and they only take a minute or so to mobilize.
All of these factors contribute to a very serious and very real threat. And even beyond that, the mere "threat" of this type of warfare will demoralize any opponent's troops on the ground. You can find hundreds of videos where they ask the guys on the ground in Ukraine what they fear most. They'll say two things...artillery...and drones. And if you look at some of the videos of the lengths troops on both sides have gone to in order to defend against drones, it will quickly tell any interested party just how much of a threat these drones pose. You'll see entire columns of armor with makeshift wire fabric netting (chicken wire, etc.) draped all over the tops of them, and similar protections over fighting positions. At first glance, one might think...'okay, so what?'. Well, all these protective measures seriously impair much of the sophisticated electronic targeting radars, gun movements and/or personnel access. Plus, these drones are laser-beam accurate. With a fired weapon there is an element of luck hitting that key spot on a tank or vehicle. Not so with a drone. They can get right down on top of the vehicle and drop a munition on the exact spot to disable it. What this translates into is eliminating the need for much larger explosives. Now much smaller, more portable, explosives (something as simple as a single hand grenade) can completely take out a 30 ton piece of tracked armor such as a tank.
And, if you watch some of these drones in action, the operators are smart. They've learned they don't have to completely destroy something like a tank. All they have to do is 'de-track' the tank and it has been taken out of the fight. It's "DRT" (i.e. dead right there), a sitting lame duck which can't even move enough to get out of the way. Can these vehicles be repaired and returned to service? Sure, but it takes time, adequate spare parts, and the people performing these repairs are out in the open, sitting ducks for subsequent attacks.
I will freely admit, even I underestimated just how effective drones could be debilitating and demoralizing an opponent. At first, a few years ago, I just thought drones were a battlefield novelty. But, when seriously employed in large numbers, drones are actually changing the battle-scape and as it stands right now there's not really any effective defense against them (not without screwing up your own battle plan).
Very interesting subject! Thanks for posting, 727Sky!
I almost chuckle a little bit when I think about how the defense industry seemingly just completely missed the drone threat. The MIC is geared toward big threats; they never anticipated a small disposable threat. And the hell of it is, we haven't even seen the "real" drone threat yet. People see drones being employed in Ukraine by both Russia and Ukraine and they think they're seeing the end-game for drones. Far from it. These are individual drones. The much bigger threat is drone "swarms". They don't even have to be offensive drones either (i.e. drones which drop an explosive or have guns). In the case of swarms, the drone itself becomes the weapon. They can sit and wait, then lift off when a threat shows up. Helicopter gunships?...denied. Ground Attack/Support aircraft?...denied. Medivac?...denied.
And now, with the new multi-device control technology, one operator can pilot hundreds, or even thousands, of drones from a single controller and control location. And people forget, the drones have to get from the manufacturer to places like Ukraine or Russia. But against an adversary like China, for example, an aggressor/defender would be up against the actual manufacturer of drone tech where this delivery and lead-time isn't an issue. They're cheap, you don't have to feed them, and they don't get lost. They don't have morale issues, they're ready 24x7, and they only take a minute or so to mobilize.
All of these factors contribute to a very serious and very real threat. And even beyond that, the mere "threat" of this type of warfare will demoralize any opponent's troops on the ground. You can find hundreds of videos where they ask the guys on the ground in Ukraine what they fear most. They'll say two things...artillery...and drones. And if you look at some of the videos of the lengths troops on both sides have gone to in order to defend against drones, it will quickly tell any interested party just how much of a threat these drones pose. You'll see entire columns of armor with makeshift wire fabric netting (chicken wire, etc.) draped all over the tops of them, and similar protections over fighting positions. At first glance, one might think...'okay, so what?'. Well, all these protective measures seriously impair much of the sophisticated electronic targeting radars, gun movements and/or personnel access. Plus, these drones are laser-beam accurate. With a fired weapon there is an element of luck hitting that key spot on a tank or vehicle. Not so with a drone. They can get right down on top of the vehicle and drop a munition on the exact spot to disable it. What this translates into is eliminating the need for much larger explosives. Now much smaller, more portable, explosives (something as simple as a single hand grenade) can completely take out a 30 ton piece of tracked armor such as a tank.
And, if you watch some of these drones in action, the operators are smart. They've learned they don't have to completely destroy something like a tank. All they have to do is 'de-track' the tank and it has been taken out of the fight. It's "DRT" (i.e. dead right there), a sitting lame duck which can't even move enough to get out of the way. Can these vehicles be repaired and returned to service? Sure, but it takes time, adequate spare parts, and the people performing these repairs are out in the open, sitting ducks for subsequent attacks.
I will freely admit, even I underestimated just how effective drones could be debilitating and demoralizing an opponent. At first, a few years ago, I just thought drones were a battlefield novelty. But, when seriously employed in large numbers, drones are actually changing the battle-scape and as it stands right now there's not really any effective defense against them (not without screwing up your own battle plan).
Very interesting subject! Thanks for posting, 727Sky!