Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
The wars between Russia and Ukraine, on the one hand, and Israel’s war against the irregular armies of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, all commanded by Iran, mark a new era in the ways of waging war in the world.
These wars set the standard for the new technologies needed to win battles. All wars fought by humankind have unleashed the creation of new fighting systems and, therefore, have required new technologies.
Armies that did not develop new tactics, strategies, and technologies suffered catastrophic losses. The fall of Troy by the trickery of a horse, the Romans defeated by Hannibal at Canas, the defeat of the Mexica empire by Hernan Cortes, the Charge of the British Light Brigade shattered in the Crimea, the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War are just a few examples of armies defeated by the lack of real-time information on enemy movements, technical failures or the lack of armaments capable of dealing with a better informed and/or better-equipped enemy.
The key to new technologies is knowing how and when to use them. The war between Ukraine and Russia is of countries with similar technological advances. They have created a new art in warfare: the use of drones. Both countries use drones as a system to attack the enemy without putting their soldiers at risk. They use drones to spy on the enemy and learn about their movements, forces, weapons, and plans. But they also serve to attack enemies on the move when they attack opposing soldiers. They also serve to destroy enemy tanks, artillery positions, bunkers, and trenches. Drones can lay mines on roads to obstruct the passage of enemy equipment, vehicles, and soldiers. Some drones fly, perform their assigned tasks, and return to base. Other drones are suicidal: they attack enemy people and equipment by exploding on direct contact.
Ukraine managed to change the correlation of forces in the Black Sea with Russia by using marine drones to attack Russian naval facilities in Crimea, sinking its large cruisers, historically the pride of Russia. It achieved its exit to the Mediterranean because Russia could no longer prevent it. The Ukrainians supported Syrian rebels with drones against Assad to defeat Russian settlements in that country.
Both Russians and Ukrainians have ordered the manufacture and purchase of millions of drones. They represent a dramatic new way of waging war. It is cheaper; you don’t expose your fighters and manage to kill enemy soldiers, destroy their supply systems, and capture strategic military information to deduce the enemy’s next moves.
These technological innovations are transforming the way future wars will be fought around the world. Countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, the Scandinavian countries, and others are waking up to the fact that their technology of large aircraft, missiles, tanks, and artillery, while helpful, is highly vulnerable to the “small” drone technology operated by the new breed of pilots: drone-flyers.
In the case of Israel against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, it is the technological imbalance that is leading the irregular armies to historic defeat. Iran is the most defeated, having assumed that by using traditional missile technology, it would destroy the Israeli state. They did not realize that the new wars are fought with new, deadly weapons guided by sophisticated electronic internet systems managed by satellite information.
Today, we see that the Mexican cartels are beginning to use these sophisticated defense and attack systems in our territory. It would be a mistake not to recognize that they are taking the confrontation with security forces to a new level of violence and danger. The new war has landed in Mexico.
@rpascoep
Further Reading: