Land operations


Right: Many drones are small and stealthy enough to evade the human eye and radar, particularly in complex battlefield scenarios.


Opening page: The first M-SHORAD Strykers were deployed in 2021.


that is most remarkable, in my view, is the fact that it doesn’t have to be the US Air Force, or the Royal Air Force, or the German Luftwaffe that does it. Any knucklehead can weaponise these things.” Indeed, particularly since the 2016–17 Battle of Mosul in Iraq, insurgents have used high street and handmade drones to remotely deliver explosives to otherwise protected targets, with one attack in 2017 – recorded and published online – killing the commander of an Iraqi Abrams tank. Knuckleheadedness notwithstanding, these militants had a sound tactical idea. Up to that point, the increase in the 21st century US military’s drone stocks had been mirrored by drastic cuts to the short-range air defence capacity it needed to shoot down enemy equivalents. That trend began with the fall of the Soviet Union, but as late as 2004, there were still 26 short-range air defence (SHORAD) battalions in the US Army. By the time of the Battle of Mosul, there were just nine – and seven of those were in the National Guard.


In a few short years, the executors of the war on terror had gone from relying on their unique drone capabilities to conduct new kinds of low- risk operations to sheltering from lethal Christmas presents. “We were even at the point of putting soldiers up in the turret of a vehicle with a shotgun if one of these little quadcopters was around, to be able to knock it down,” recalls Hodges. “You don’t want to waste a Stinger missile on a cheap drone, so you’re looking for kinetic solutions.” And that’s when the drones have been spotted. Many are small and stealthy enough to evade human eyes and traditional radar, particularly in complex battlefield scenarios. In fact, drones are now so ubiquitous, and so difficult to deal with, that this year marine corps general Frank McKenzie, head of US Central Command, warned the House Armed Services Committee that, “for the first time since the Korean War, we are operating without complete air superiority”. The battlefield has turned upside-down.


War always changes


Before the Battle of Mosul was done, and with developing Russian and Chinese capabilities front of mind, the US Army fast-tracked a plan to address its SHORAD shortfall, publishing requirements for new ‘Manoeuvre SHORAD’ (M-SHORAD) equipment and announcing plans to quadruple its total SHORAD force. The first of 144 8x8 M-SHORAD Strykers, which are fitted with a 30mm autocannon, a 7.62mm machine gun and a launcher capable of firing either Hellfire or Stinger missiles, as well as on-board sensors for tracking aerial threats, were deployed in September 2021. In the meantime, startling video dispatches from ‘the first true drone war’ had begun appearing online.


“We were even at the point of putting soldiers up in the turret of the vehicle with a shotgun if one of these little quadcopters was around.”


Lieutenant General Ben Hodges


While two decades of drone strikes couldn’t defeat the Taliban, six weeks of them was all Azerbaijan needed to win a decisive victory over Armenia in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. According to Dutch warfare research group Oryx, which records visually confirmed losses, Armenia lost 222 tanks; 58 armoured fighting vehicles; and 540 trucks, vehicles, and jeeps. Azerbaijan, meanwhile, lost just 36 tanks; 14 armoured fighting vehicles; and 31 other land vehicles. That’s despite the fact that Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, believes the Armenian Army “had better officers, more motivated soldiers, and a more agile leadership”. If only they were fighting a different war. Every previous conflict had gone Armenia’s way, but this time Azerbaijan had fully integrated Turkish


Defence & Security Systems International / www.defence-and-security.com


144 Breaking Defense 9


The number of 8x8 M-SHORAD Strykers that were deployed by the US Army in 2021.


Everything I Do / Shutterstock.com


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