Drones Everywhere: How the Tech Revolution on UKRaine Battlefields is Reshaping Modern Warfare; UKR Forces Repel RUssian Attacks in 4 Directions; UKR Downs 30+ RU Drones; UKR Military Digs In Near Verbove After Seizing Back Territory from RUs, LIVE UPDATES and MORE
WSJ: Drones Everywhere: How the Technological Revolution on Ukraine Battlefields Is Reshaping Modern Warfare
Wearing video goggles, a Ukrainian trooper crouched on the top floor of a gutted high-rise and piloted a small drone into the nearby Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut.
With a swoosh, the first-person-view drone—which cost roughly $300 to assemble—sped after a target of opportunity, blowing up a pickup truck full of Russian troops.
“Before we started flying here, the Russians had so much movement that there were traffic jams in Bakhmut,” said the pilot, a member of the Special Operations Center “A” of the Security Service of Ukraine. “Now, all the roads in Bakhmut are empty.”
With thousands of Ukrainian and Russian drones in the air along the front line at a given time, from cheap quadrocopters to long-range winged aircraft that can fly hundreds of miles and stay on target for hours, the very nature of war has transformed.
The drones are just one element of change. New integrated battle-management systems that provide imaging and locations in real time all the way down to the platoon and squad levels—in Ukraine’s case, via the Starlink satellite network—have made targeting near instantaneous.
“Today, a column of tanks or a column of advancing troops can be discovered in three to five minutes and hit in another three minutes. The survivability on the move is no more than 10 minutes,” said Maj. Gen. Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy commander of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service. “Surprises have become very difficult to achieve.”
The technological revolution triggered by the Ukraine war, Europe’s biggest conflict in nearly eight decades, is calling into question the feasibility of some of the basic concepts of American military doctrine.
Combined-arms maneuvers using large groups of armored vehicles and tanks to make rapid breakthroughs—something that Washington and its allies had expected the Ukrainian offensive this summer to achieve—may no longer be possible in principle, some soldiers here say. The inevitable implication, according to Ukrainian commanders, is that the conflict won’t end soon.
“The days of massed armored assaults, taking many kilometers of ground at a time, like we did in 2003 in Iraq—that stuff is gone because the drones have become so effective now,” said retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Bradley Crawford, an Iraq war veteran who is now training Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut in a private capacity.
And, in a potential conflict with a lesser power, America’s overall military edge may also not be as decisive as previously thought. “It’s a question of cost,” said Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “If you can destroy an expensive, heavy system for something that costs much much less, then actually the power differential between the two countries doesn’t matter as much.” —>READ MORE HERE
Defense forces successfully repel Russian attacks in four directions:
Defense Forces of Ukraine repelled Russian attacks in Lyman, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, and Shakhtarske directions.
This is stated in the report by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as of 18:00 on Thursday, September 28, published on Facebook.
As noted, a total of 19 combat engagements took place at the front during the day. The operational situation in the east and south of Ukraine remains difficult.
The offensive operation of the defense forces continues in Melitopol direction. Ukrainian defenders continue to conduct offensive (assault) actions in Bakhmut direction.
According to the General Staff data, the defenders inflict manpower and equipment losses on the Russian troops, exhaust the enemy along the entire front line.
During the day, Ukrainian aviation launched a total of 16 strikes on the Russian invaders: one – on an enemy anti-aircraft missile system, two – on electronic warfare stations, and the rest – on personnel, weapons and military equipment clusters.
The defenders also destroyed two enemy reconnaissance drones of operational-tactical level.
Missile units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine hit a Russian anti-aircraft missile system, 11 artillery systems and an ammunition depot.
In total, Russian troops launched 76 airstrikes and more than 40 MLRS attacks on the positions of the Ukrainian troops and populated settlements during the day. In particular, the Russians attacked Ukraine with Shahed-136/131 kamikaze drones at night. —>READ MORE HERE
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