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The US Army could not survive for long in a Ukraine level drone war
The Telegraph ^ | 14 May 2024 | David Axe

Posted on 05/14/2024 9:03:59 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

For a long time, the US Army assumed the US Air Force would protect it from enemy aircraft. Which is why, in the 1990s, the Army shuttered many of its short-range air-defence, or SHORAD, units.

This process only accelerated during the counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Army was fighting an enemy with no aircraft.

By the time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, the Army was down to just 300 or so aging Avenger air-defence vehicles, each firing infrared-guided Stinger missiles out to a distance of three miles. This to protect a million troops, if you count active and reserve forces.

The Army didn’t anticipate that nine years into the Russia-Ukraine war, both sides would weaponise tiny, cheap first-person-view (FPV) drones – and fling them at each other at a rate of tens of thousands per month.

The 100,000 FPV drones the Ukrainians launch every month account for a significant proportion of the roughly 1,000 casualties the Russians suffer every 30 days. Now consider: the Russian army never divested its SHORAD forces the way the US Army did. It went to war in Ukraine with a thousand short-range air-defence vehicles and is still getting overwhelmed by FPV drones.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Ukraine
KEYWORDS: davidaxe; drone; mic; war
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1 posted on 05/14/2024 9:03:59 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican
Check out the big brain on David Axe!


2 posted on 05/14/2024 9:06:36 PM PDT by kiryandil (FR Democrat Party operatives! Rally in defense of your Colombian cartel stooge Merchan!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

David Axe needs to stop taking LSD before he writes articles. He’s no Aldous Huxley.


3 posted on 05/14/2024 9:15:42 PM PDT by Allegra (Toss a zeeper in the Dnieper)
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To: MinorityRepublican

The retarded thing is analyzing how a direct conventional US/Russo war would play out. It always carries two suppositions. That the war would be contained to the theater of our choosing.
And two, that facing conventional defeat in their homeland, that Russians will meekly submit and accept our terms.

Neither of those is true. If we are in a conventional war with Russia, China, Iran and god knows who else will get busy while we are fully occupied. And facing defeat at home, yes, they would use nukes. We would in that position.

But DC has been spoiling for war with Russia for 15-20 years. The goal is global supremacy, and installing a leader that will rubber stamp our control of their resources and money. They think it would certainly be conventional because nobody would ever dare use their biggest advantage over us. Why, because they wouldn’t DARE!

But they prattle on with their checkers strategy, against a chess nation that increasingly feels backed up against the wall.


4 posted on 05/14/2024 9:31:33 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2024... RETURN OF THE JEDI. )
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: kiryandil
Check out the big brain on David Axe!

I thought David Axe wrote comedy:

Fresh Ukrainian troops are ready to smash Putin
David Axe
26 April 2003
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/26/ukraine-offensive-troops-ready-need-ammo-missiles/

Ukraine Is Winning The Artillery War
David Axe
11 July 2023
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/07/11/ukraine-is-winning-the-artillery-war-by-destroying-four-russian-howitzers-for-every-howitzer-it-loses/?sh=77962a7fcc00

As Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Gains Momentum, Russia Is Deploying Some Of Its Last Good Reserves
David Axe
27 August 2023
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/08/27/as-ukraines-counteroffensive-gains-momentum-russia-is-deploying-some-of-its-last-good-reserves/?sh=7ae8021672bf


6 posted on 05/14/2024 9:38:22 PM PDT by Right_Wing_Madman
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To: MinorityRepublican

He’s a WRITER not a WARRIOR. And his understanding of war is severely lacking. In my humble, but experienced, opinion of course.


7 posted on 05/14/2024 9:44:37 PM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA-PRO-MAX)
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To: Right_Wing_Madman
LOLOL!!!

David is a real Axehole.

8 posted on 05/14/2024 9:50:47 PM PDT by kiryandil (FR Democrat Party operatives! Rally in defense of your Colombian cartel stooge Merchan!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

We have stupid sh!ts in the flag level military offices.

“Faggot DIE” and “Climate Change Is The Biggest National Security Threat” are their “contributions” to our national well-being.

They deserve to be court marshaled and hung by the dozen.


9 posted on 05/14/2024 9:53:17 PM PDT by Nervous Tick ("First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people...": ISLAM is the problem!)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Drones truly have become a game changer. Now military’s have to scramble to neutralize their effect.


10 posted on 05/14/2024 10:16:43 PM PDT by McGruff (Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f*** things up - Barack Obama)
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To: McGruff

In the meantime, we’re still building aircraft carriers...


11 posted on 05/14/2024 10:18:03 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

I watched “Terminator” again. Prescient.


12 posted on 05/14/2024 10:38:54 PM PDT by combat_boots
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To: All

They could throw their purses at the drones.

Snark aside, they HAVE to have developed some sort of directed EMP type device that could take them out completely, and/or some sort of RF blocker that could stop the remotely controlled ones.


13 posted on 05/14/2024 10:48:06 PM PDT by LegendHasIt
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To: LegendHasIt

A dove hunter in each squad armed with a Benelli 12 gauge loaded with 3 1/2” Skynet shells.
The Russians are taking potshots at the drones with their spray-and-pray AKs. Dove are harder to hit than drones.
USAUSAUSA!


14 posted on 05/14/2024 11:12:53 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: MinorityRepublican

” Which is why, in the 1990s, the Army shuttered many of its short-range air-defence, or SHORAD, units.”

Yet another BRILLIANT move by our TOTALLY WOKE military.

...and people claim that we actually could stand a chance against a superpower like China or Russia.


15 posted on 05/15/2024 1:07:01 AM PDT by BobL
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To: MinorityRepublican

“...1,000 casualties the Russians suffer every 30 days.”

Good to see a bit of HONEST REPORTING leaking through the Western Media, for once. And to think, we have CLOWNS (really Operatives) here claiming that Russia loses close to 1000 people EVERY DAY...and they’re, somehow, still here.


16 posted on 05/15/2024 1:09:59 AM PDT by BobL
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To: MinorityRepublican

“Now consider: the Russian army never divested its SHORAD forces the way the US Army did.”

This is the difference when REAL MEN run a military, rather than Cross-Dressers we have.


17 posted on 05/15/2024 1:11:26 AM PDT by BobL
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To: MinorityRepublican

bkmk


18 posted on 05/15/2024 2:10:08 AM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: McGruff

At some point somebody on either side is going to field a Drone Defeat localized jammer that basically saturates the front end of local drones and makes them uncontrollable.


19 posted on 05/15/2024 2:16:16 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: MinorityRepublican

There’s a of of research being done.

https://youtu.be/SrGENEXocJU?si=jL3s-8INoAqI43IO


20 posted on 05/15/2024 6:01:25 AM PDT by jdege
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