Warfare has changed forever!

Modern drone warfare, as seen in the Russian-Ukrainian war, has made all the conventional armour of warfare obsolete: great M1 Abrams Battle tanks, Leopard II Battle tanks and Challenger-2 Battle tanks, the pride of NATO, all stand in ruins, scattered across the landscape of Ukraine not to mention several Russian prize specimens of hardware, e.g., the computerised, deadly accurate T90М, rusting in quiet locations awaiting collection by scrap merchants. It seems no machinery is safe from these drones on either side.

- BY PRIYANTHA HETTIGE

Russian Underestimation of Drone Warfare

Ukraine saw the potential in these drones during the early years of this new millennium, but the Russian hierarchy was a very late entrant to this new game. The Russian Army thought that just a few well directed shells would be sufficient to win the day. This was right up to 2022 and after the start of active hostilities. Ukrainians forcibly demonstrated the facts of the matter and Russia had to quickly adjust. Small private Russian developers came forward to fill the gap. These developers are more flexible and more motivated than establishment industries. They started to build drones and were a very valuable assistance to the Russian war machine.

Russia Turns to Iran for Help

At the same time Russia turned to Iran for its Shaheed triangular drones. As soon as these were delivered Russian engineers looked at ways to improve them. Changes made have been so extensive that the Russians have renamed them Geraint-2 drones. Ukrainians can source drone parts and electronics from the west and the USA but Russia has to largely stand on its own manufacturing base. Both Ukraine and Russia source their electronics parts from China. Russia uses Chinese chips which are nearly as good as western ones but are 20 times cheaper. Russia is happy with that. The secret of success is how intelligently these parts are used and incorporated into the drone electronics.

Drones are used to deliver explosive charge to the exact point of weakness of the enemies' equipment, for the purpose of disabling it or otherwise rendering it useless. For example, the Abrams tank can be immobilised by a single charge delivered to its turbine. And further drones can be used to set off the munitions stored at the rear of the tank. The cost of a tank is several million dollars but a drone can cost as little as 2.000 dollars. This is a big financial imbalance in favour of the use of drones.