On drone tactics to break positional deadlock

Breaking through the front with infantry and holding the front with infantry became prohibitively expensive and virtually impossible. But the British and French created new types of equipment - tanks and aircraft. Initially, tanks and aircraft played a supporting role and were commanded by infantry commanders who were given the equipment to reinforce them. The new equipment strengthened the troops, but did not allow them to break through the front and inflict many times greater losses on the enemy.

And after heavy defeats, the Allies realized that the new means of warfare should not be auxiliary, but independent. That is, tanks and aircraft should not be assigned to the infantry, but rather, for the best interaction and maximum use of equipment, the infantry's actions should be subordinated to the units that used the new equipment. And then the British and French decided to change the organization, management and tactics of using new combat vehicles. Special tank and aviation tactical formations were created and given independent tasks, and operations began to be planned based on tactics that were optimal for tanks and aircraft.

“As soon as the most favorable conditions were created for the massive use of combat vehicles, as soon as the commanders of infantry units began planning actions primarily for the use of equipment and precision strikes, rather than assaulting with infantry and artillery shelling at coordinates, the front was broken through.”

The positional strategy came to an end, as the massive use of tanks and aircraft restored tactical maneuver on the battlefield.

The independent tactics of the new military equipment made it possible to solve the key task of the war of attrition - reducing the losses of their infantry and sharply increasing the losses of the enemy's infantry. The breakthrough of the front by the equipment began to cause more losses to the defense forces than to the attacking forces.

“Drones have become the core of a new combat order on the modern battlefield. Planning the actions of drones, means of countering enemy drones, and communications is the basis of tactics.”

Drones should not follow people, but people should follow drones.

To implement drone tactics, it is necessary to create independent drone tactical groups that will build control and interaction with other combat components and allow the use of drones in mass.

“Drones, not people, should hold the front and break through the front. Controlling the frontline now means not sending people to landings, but the frontline of drones, anti-drone systems, sensors, and communications. And we have the resources and forces to do so.”

Over the past year and a half, I have repeatedly raised the issue of creating special tactical drone groups at the front. Because there are those who are already showing results.

Month after month, we have to talk about this with people in power about the creation of a tactical drone group. Valerii Zaluzhnyi has been hearing about it for a long time, and the new chief of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, knows about it, and the information has been passed on and presented repeatedly, and some members of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff have even traveled to the front to familiarize themselves with the tactics. The leaders are saying the right things, and they are attending drone exhibitions, and they have even started purchasing drones at the state level, and they have even created unmanned systems forces.

However, there is no massive use of drones on the frontline - and only because there is a serious underestimation of the role of drones in leadership. We are utilizing the capabilities of our drone units by 10%, because new tactics and equipment simply cannot be applied without organization, management, and planning.

The only way to continue the war and achieve victory is to create a front of drones, anti-drone systems, sensors, and high-precision weapons. Not sometime in the future, but right now, while we still have people capable of repelling all assaults with their heroism and character. Drone tactics should not be invented, but created on the basis of successful actions and examples of massive use of drones and anti-drones. And we have those who can set such an example right now. We need solutions.

Source

About the author: Yuriy Butusov, journalist, Ukrainian soldier.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.