Perhaps nothing epitomized the radical changes impacting modern warfare than 26 idled Abrams M1A1 battle tanks. The U.S. sent Ukraine 31 of the coveted tanks in late 2023. By April 2024, five had been destroyed and the others banned from the front lines. Russia’s shift to constant surveillance and plentiful cheap bomb-carrying drones, many supplied by Iran, had dramatically shortened the time it took to spot, strike, and destroy targets.
In response, Ukraine developed its own superior drones and revolutionized their usage, fixating this fundamental shift in how modern militaries must plan, move and fight.
Recently, Ukrainian drone operators embarrassed U.S. Army troops when they faced off in military exercises. “The drubbing in Germany conveyed lessons from Ukraine focused on short-range battlefield drones,” according to an excerpt published in Jackson Jambalaya. “The exercise, held in April and May, tested visiting troops’ ability to operate and defend against the proliferation of smaller, front-line drones.”(KF note: Actually, the quote is from the Wall Street Journal and republished in JJ with proper attribution.)
Another Ukraine innovation revolutionized drone battlefield management. Called “Delta,” the software “pulls streams of battlefield intelligence, including drone video feeds, radio intercepts and satellite images, into a single platform that helps detect targets in real time,” the New York Times reported.
Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, called the software “absolutely incredible,” noting U.S. forces were having to play catchup. He wanted to transform his service into a modern, tech-oriented force.
But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made that almost impossible, reported Politico. As a result, late last month Driscoll resigned suddenly. In so doing, he warned President Trump that Hegseth was undermining the Army’s readiness for modern war.
A month earlier Hegseth had forced Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, the Army’s expert on Ukrainian drone warfare, to retire early. Donahue had set up the 600-man Unmanned Assault Battalion specialized unit in Europe to train U.S. troops on Ukraine’s systems. Hegseth is disbanding the unit.
Senators and congressmen from both parties have expressed grave concerns over Hegseth’s actions, including House Armed Services chair Mike Rogers, Senate Armed Services ranking member Jack Reed, and Senate Appropriations chair Susan Collins.
The drone fiasco fits in with other “changes” Hegseth has made. At least 20 top military and civilian leaders have been fired or forced out, including the highest-ranking, Senate-confirmed officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Retired Army Major-General Paul Eaton compared the removals to Stalin’s bloody purge of Red Army generals before WWII. Retired Major Gen. Randy Manner (USNG) said, “The Secretary of Defense is a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States and the world.”
You have to wonder why Senate Armed Services chair Roger Wicker has been quiet on all this.
"Do what is just and right" – Jeremiah 22:3
Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from Jackson.
19 comments:
Hegseth turned out to be a prima donna and a photo-op queen. I bet he has a makeup artist standing by.
Perhaps Roger is waiting for confirmation of which way the political wind blows in order for his self-preservation?
FIRST - It ain't none of Wicker's damned business.
SECOND - Wicker is not real bright and has never had an original thought.
Of course Roger Wicker is going to have nothing to say. He is a small bore senator for life whose only interest is bringing federal money to Mississippi, primarily to the shipyard in Pascagoula.
TDS scripture quoting Bill Crawford, manages yet again, to avoid major stories like the compete moral decline of our country, now so incredibly evil that a woman should be able to murder her children, admit it, but be found not guilty. But instead Crawford stays focused on his Republican bashing addiction.
Carry on Bill.
The exercises were not a "drone fiasco," although I'm not surprised Bill Crawford characterized it in this way. Military exercises are always to confirm tactical methods of combat while also revealing weaknesses, lapses, needs, and other things you need to know about as you maintain your own readiness. The exercise in question did just that. The US knows all too well how combat is employing the drone technology and it needed the exercise to further adapt its own capabilities. Ukraine is a leader because they are literally fighting for their very lives, and the drone technology was something they could do within their means and found it be to quite effective. The US is learning from this and we are able to do so through exercises, not the blood of soldiers. Bill Crawford might consider it in that light.
Wicker is the most powerful memeber of the Congress when it comes to the military. It's baffling to me why he won't try to stop Kegsbreath's insanity.
Wicker is the most powerful member of Congress when it comes to the military.
She wasn't found not guilty. There was no verdict - hung jury.
True dat.
Well, it is his business, as he chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
How is that (End CELL) signal act working out Senator?
Senator Wicker’s past, “common sense” legislation to prevent cell phone use by inmates in prison. How much did that cost taxpayers, and how effective was it?
The real truth. The U.S. Defense Department is loaded with old school theory leadership. The days of these huge Billion Dollar Aircraft Carriers is over and sooner Mississippi becomes less dependent on big military contracts the better off it will be.
The country needs to develop drone technology land, sea, space and air. The Military industrial base is fat, lazy and way over rated. They need to use smaller ships, planes, satellites and land based military that is armed to the teeth with technology..
You ever wondered why the U.S. has more aircraft carriers and planes than most of the world combined? Because the builders of these carriers and planes have no incentive to be efficient. They just think the dumb politicians and tax payers will pay for them..
Our biggest asset and liability is the Military Industrial Complex. I would send half this bunch to the house so fast we would airmail their belongings in the morning.. Would clean house at Pentagon in short order!!! PS the Military needs to change. Ole Pete trying to do that but Washington bureaucrats fighting him tooth and nail…. Cut Aircraft carriers completely going forward. To big, to expensive, sitting duck in the water (Iran gonna sink one if we not careful) and hard to man with people. Land based Military should be more balanced. Need land based drone technology and less of these multi million dollar tanks with people in them. You need some but not that many.
Planes the same way. Less planes and ones designed to support drones.
Ships same way. Less ships and ones designed to support drones.
Grow space technology ASAP!!!.
The real threat to our country is the deteriorating morality of our young people and the drive to work hard.
We paying players to play high school and college football that could care less about getting an education when that is what an athletic scholarship was designed for. To add to this we got children more worried about what sorority or fraternity they will get in. The teachers in some cases don’t even show up to teach..
This country needs a good ole fashion house cleaning. Send 50% of the people in Washington DC home…. All the lobbyists first.
Close about half these colleges and stress trade schools. Also if teachers miss class without a reasonable excuse fire them tenure or not. All this stuff ties together if you want strong country.
Hogsbreath is too busy checking troops' testosterone levels to do much anything useful to end or win the Middle East folly. Trump is golfing in Ireland, not that he'd have a clue. Roger Wicker needs to get off his lazy ass and raise the alarm about how badly Trump's war is really going.
1:00 PM, fully aware of the verdict, have you been keeping up with the news since?
It’s to imagine the media could be more evil and go any lower, but they’ve sure done so.
@1154 - it wasn't Crawford who described the fiasco disaster of the war games, it was the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and the Secretary of the Army -- I realize you and many others here who have the actual TDS, the ones that are so deranged that you believe anything and everything Trump no matter what the facts put in front of you might say, and therefore you immediately jump on folks like Crawford who point it out. Guess you aren't big enough to jump on the NYT, or SecArmy Driscoll for their statements about the disaster.
Same applies to you 11:09, for you evidently suffer from the TDFS even more, thinking that the safety of the United States and our men in uniform is equivalent to the trial of a woman who murdered her kids and was almost found to be nothing but insane (insane she was, true, but who's counting). The focus on the current standing of our military, and the mess that the current newscaster now turned back into his childhood of wanting to play with all his army toys and see what he can blow-up is much more of an issue than this trial - one that in reality actually affects none of us.
You people who think Wicker is powerful are getting schooled in the reality of irrelevance. Wicker is a (much) lesser version of Cheney whose only role was profiting from the military industrial complex. Barbour's worst mistake was appointing this goober to the senatorial position.
Crawford doesn't have much of a future writing about national issues. That's painfully obvious.
I have been a Trump supporter but this time has turned out to be a shit show. Hegseth is a clown that is helping to destroy our military. He’s enabled Trump to put the military into a war that they cannot win.
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