Msn.com echoes an article from The Atlantic concerning the nitty-gritty of warfare, Ukraine style. Drones seem to be the controlling factor, for offense, defense, logistics, and intel gathering. The US military had better be taking careful notes. Some key thoughts:
For more than a year, the Ukrainian and Russian militaries have avoided using heavily fortified trenches, because they are too visible from the sky. To defend themselves from drone strikes, both armies seek to jam the signals that link drones to their operators, often using portable electronic-warfare systems.
[It is] a battlefield surveilled constantly from the air. When infantrymen arrive at their positions, they have less than an hour to dig foxholes that can accommodate two or three men for a period of days.
What they can't carry on their backs is delivered by drones. Exiting the foxhole for any reason is dangerous. On the worst days, soldiers relieve themselves into plastic bags.
The brigade rotates its infantry only on days when fog, rain, snow, or heavy wind limit the enemy's visibility. On some occasions infantrymen have been stuck in their positions for weeks or even months.
In the past, medics could hope to evacuate wounded soldiers in time to save their lives. That's rarely practical now.
The medics have taught soldiers how to treat themselves and one another. Infantrymen and women carry medicine with them on their missions, and their medics often guide them remotely.
That doesn't sound like Vietnam, or even Iraq. Unmanned systems impose new limits, create new opportunities. GIs have to adapt.
We first saw some of these new techniques defeating old standbys in the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Azeris being the more skillful users of drone tech were thus the winner.
