After three years of war, artillery fighting and breakthrough attempts have given way to drone confrontation. The massive use of air drones now upsets classic military doctrines and makes a war of movement difficult.
Ukraine produces 10,000 air drones per day, and it consumes almost as much … The volume is dizzying. On the front line, drones swarm, with the consequence of making the battlefield and illusory transparent the concentration of men and materials. The Russians who, in recent months, have resumed the initiative, have had to adapt, analyzes Jean-Christophe Noël, associate researcher at IFRI, French Institute of International Relations: “What they will favor are assaults with a very small number of soldiers. With perhaps three to four soldiers, preferably motorized to go a little faster and try to escape all these drones. They will infiltrate, take a stand and try to hold while waiting for reinforcements. And so they will thus succeed in modifying, by small jumps, the lines head on and gradually to snack, nibble, nibble. »»
Drones “First personal viewer”
At the start of the conflict, the Russian army was surprised by the massive influx of drones, it has since filled its delay, but two different approaches have initially emerged. “The Russians have developed drones that were worth much more expensivecontinues Jean-Christophe Noël, Russian drones were sophisticated drones that are worth 30,000 dollars, while Ukrainians now use FPV – the first personal viewers – these are drones that cost less than $ 1,000, but are very consumable. If they lose one, it’s not very serious, there is always one that will do the work.
We can see that gradually the Russians also come a little bit to decentralize these productions to try to copy what is best among Ukrainians. And the Ukrainians, conversely, noticed all the Russian drone attacks with the Iranian Shahed. They too are starting to Develop drones that allow them to attack inside Russia. Everyone is therefore trying to react, but again with two different models, a model among the Russians which at the start is very centralized, see too centralized, and among the Ukrainians, something which is very decentralized, even too decentralized. »»
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A mirror effect
In a system where innovation is queen, the main pitfall is the production of drones. How to scale in the manufacture of ever more complex air drones?
“Young Ukrainians manage to find solutions to compensate for certain weaknesses. And that’s why we saw a multitude of drones appear, which fulfill very diverse functions. Obviously, it is to see, obviously it is to destroy; But sometimes it is also to serve as a relay. It is also to try to detect different sensors or even attempts to try to shoot other drones, etc. So, we are really in a very decentralized process, where we have trouble getting to the scale. That is to say, that ultimately local initiatives find it difficult to be generalized. Among the Russians, it is the opposite, the porosity with the army is more complicated, and therefore often they react after one or two months to certain innovations. It forces Ukrainians to constantly think of this innovation. And we see on both sides, a mirror effect, when there is a solution that works well, the opposing camp will immediately adopt it. »»
Producing en masse, the subject has become burning in European staffs, soldiers plead for the emergence of champions, defense companies capable of producing ultra-native drones, in industrial quantity.
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