Has the Russia-Ukraine war signaled the end of the era of traditional air superiority? For all of Russia's fighters and bombers, they can't seem to stop Ukraine's drone offense. Will future wars be drone vs drone battles of attrition?
The Drone Superiority Era
Not really, you should see the development in the anti-drone and EW systems, supplemented by the US strategy of spreading out logistics, using AI for logistics etc.
IT IS A NEW ERA, but with new era, come new developments. These are not THAT far from what we already know.
Overall it is scary though - US has tube-launched drones for infantry, vehicles, tanks, choppers etc. for detection and attack. The detection part is supported by new missile and artillery tech, making it very hard to fight the US.
>anti-drone and EW systems
And these systems have limited range and portability, and a significant cost. What's the smallest military organization unit that will receive an anti-drone system? Very few countries can afford to outfit every US squad or platoon equivalent with an anti-drone system, so their maneuverability becomes constrained as they can't leave the parent unit's anti-drone umbrella. On the other hand drones are relatively cheap and plentiful.
And drones have limited range and when increasing their capabilities will affect their cost too.
Not really. A TB2 is 5% the cost of an attack helicopter, 5% the maintenance effort, and over 20x the loiter/observation time.
No, drones have more range capabilities. They can be produced in extreme numbers. Without an experienced pilot bottleneck. They can be produced in various sizes/dimensions/capabilities to meet all needs.
>The Switchblade 300 is designed as an expendable UAV to increase precision firepower for platoon-sized infantry units.
If the US is deploying drones at the platoon level, can we assume platoons will also receive an anti-drone system?
>Switchblade 300
A platoon has a mortar section, which is cheaper and more effective, assuming accurate targeting. Better to use a platoon loitering drone to spot for the mortar section.
>assume
A switchblade provides its own accurate targeting and you can carry 9 of them for the weight of a mortar before counting the mortar ammunition.
>Just replace the platoon mortar section with a Switchblade section
Sorry dude, the Switchblade 300 is so unreliable compared to a mortar you'll probably be able to deploy 1 of your 9. Not nearly as environmentally robust as a mortar.
Every round is sealed. It's as reliable as an AT4 and you'll actually hit what you aim at instead of popping off bombs and trying to walk them in.
>squad is 2km from platoon hq/mortar section
>"Need mortar strike now!'
>"Switchblade will be there in 15 minutes!"
is 2km from platoon hq/mortar section
Platoons aren't deployed that way you fricking moron.
Let me know when the enemy can jam mortars.
Short answer: No.
Long answer: No.
Drones aren't doing much in Ukraine though besides reconissance.
There hasn't been any TB-2 footage in ages, probably because Russians have stepped up their AA game.
>For all of Russia's fighters and bombers, they can't seem to stop Ukraine's drone offense
If russia failing at something is indicative of the end of something, we'd have to give up on society and humanity itself.
The russians are just utter and complete trash and garbage at everything they undertake. Don't read too much into their failures.
A new era will come when drones finally wont need a confirmation to hit the target. And when batteries or fuel cells get to an eficiency at least 50% that of a fuel powered combustion engine, electric engines are cheap, fuel cells too.
Image dropping 200 of switchblade 600 like frickers that can network and blow up anything in the open, and then launching 400 more quadcopter like frickers to hit the trenches in the woods, and then just arty whatever building is in your way because the drones already destroyed the enemies artillery
The only way to shoot them down would be some light AA with birdshot, but good luck detecting those frickers, drone swarms that dont need a datalink are the future
>For all of Russia's fighters and bombers, they can't seem to stop Ukraine's drone offense.
At the beginning of the war, we had plenty of videos of TB2 killing vatniks, today the number of those killcams is close to 0 (zero)
Due to their shitty doctrines, russians didn't bother implementing basic AA protection for their columns transiting into Ukraine, and so the latter (rightfully so) benefited from this moronness. But at the end of the day, vatniks figured out that basic anti missiles would be enough to btfo TB2
So, to answer your subject : no. MALE drone is pretty good when you are fighting dumb morons with no money. It's cheap enough to not cry like a b***h when one is taken down, it can be pretty effective, but against a more or less potent you soon begin to be limited.
Russian AAs are getting destroyed. Thats why Ukraine's airforce is still active and bombing live targets.
The Armenians had plenty of Russian AA and I can find videos with hundreds of soldiers getting deleted by drones
Define "drone" like what class of UAS are you talking about?
Group 3+ have proven to be superior ISR platforms and offer limited strike capability.
The problem with this assumption OP is that neither country involved in this war has an air force worthy of being called air-superiority capable. France, Britain and Germany maintain air forces capable of localized defense, as do some other nations in the Western Sphere like Sweden, Japan and (arguably, though with older tech) Turkey. Only the US is capable of air superiority in any capacity. They have the airbases, the logistics, the pilots and the crafts to set a thousand aircraft over an operational zone anywhere in the world and run them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with enough bombs, bullets and fuel to make that happen.
Its a new era, and drones are likely to see an increasing role, but no amount of drones is going to save a nation from the US when they decide to shut down your quality of life.
Russia's air force simply isn't up to the task, that should not be taken as evidence that the age of air power is over. Only as evidence that Russia can't fight a war.
>does this war that looks like it happened during WW1 between two second world countries in 2021 mean the end of the era of traditional air superiority
lmao
hard to draw any conclusions from the current war when both sides (but especially vatniks) are so incompetent. Neither side has a functioning air force and neither side can coordinate attacks using combined arms. Air defense has been questionable
only Ukraine has actual precision weapons but only in a very limited quantity
In competent hands, those drones could probably be stopped by old fighters. However Russia isn't known for its competency and many of its conscripts have little training.
Nope. Both sides have similar AA.
Drones have way smaller RCS than shitty non stealth planes. This is why both air forces are completely useless at the moment while we get plenty of drone footage.