Armies are re-learning how to fight in cities | Hacker News Reader

Armies are re-learning how to fight in cities

economist.com

41 pointsanonymfus79 comments

If there's anything I've learned from the conflict in Ukraine, as well as 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, it is that small-explosives drone usage has become a first-class citizen weaponry / tactic against ground troops. There's a daily stream of footage from Ukraine, where you see Russian ground troops getting bombed by DIY drones dropping grenades / mortar rounds / etc.

Drones are also becoming invaluable tools as forward observers for artillery and mortar fire.

I'm in the National Guard, and I feel that in any modern combat - we'd just be sitting ducks.

I wonder how effective these drone attacks have actually been beyond being great for propaganda. For example compared to the more conventional indirect fire weapons.

not to mention Russians has great mastery of EMF warfare pretty well. Pretty sure it won't take much to hack or disable these drones. Won't trust any of these kind of tech for war fare too much.

Civilian drones can be jammed. Jammers are used to counter remotely detonated IEDs already.

Yes, but jammers can be expensive - and AFAIK, they are directional. At least the ones I've seen in action, so you'd have to know at least the direction of the drone.

The big challenge is that the drones are quite small, and quite the distance above. In many cases the soldiers are completely oblivious of the drones, and will frankly not know until somethings detonated right beside them.

Jammer is a massive radio beacon screaming into a void your position. So nice on paper but will work against you.

Only if it's at your position. If you have a few that aren't at your position, but somewhat close, you might be able to have effective jamming covering your position without having anything actually at your position.

So EM radiation guided loitering ammunition when?

Lots of counter drone tech incoming:

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2016/webt...

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/04/06/raytheon-laser-cou...

https://www.military.com/equipment/weapons/beam-wide-range-c...

Also- If you try to launch a COTS drone near troops with sophisticated air on station you are about to have a very bad day.

Yes, but now you need to have jammers everywhere you have troops.

The IED jammers were man-portable backpacks.

If heavy defenses are placed in cities, those cities will be destroyed by artillery fire. That's just how war works. In WW2, when the French were overwhelmed, their government admitted defeat, rather than take up positions in civilian areas (for the most part).

Citizens should be re-learning how to survive sieges.

The end of abundance is here is many more ways than I could have ever imagined. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/24/macron-warns-o...

> Indiscriminate Russian barrages have destroyed not only Mariupol, Severodonetsk and many smaller towns in Ukraine, but also Grozny in Chechnya and Aleppo in Syria.

> The city doesn’t exist any more,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, in April.

Non-paywalled link: https://archive.ph/thWQz

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