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Time of India
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Ukraine's drone swarm attack was a warning for Russia and the US may be next
No shelter at home Live Events Drone warfare, democratized Homeland incursions and sleeper threats China's fortress, America's exposure 'We're not even close' The budget tug-of-war (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Ukraine's surprise drone strike on Russian airbases has shaken US defence leaders into acknowledging a grave risk — America's own airfields could be hit just as easily.'It's an eyebrow-raising moment,' said Gen. David Allvin, US Air Force Chief of Staff , at a Washington defence conference this week. 'Right now, I don't think it's where we need to be.'Ukraine's attack damaged or destroyed at least 12 Russian warplanes on June 1, including strategic bombers. Ukrainian officials claimed 41 aircraft were targeted in total. Their method was both simple and alarming: commercial-style drones were hidden inside wooden mobile houses mounted on trucks. These were driven near four Russian bases, and the drones were launched by remote once in position. The Russian bombers, unprotected on open tarmacs, never saw them neither, experts warn, would US planes in similar Shugart of the Center for a New American Security didn't mince words: 'There is no sanctuary even in the US homeland – particularly given that our bases back home are essentially completely unhardened.''Hardened,' in military terms, means aircraft are parked in reinforced shelters. But at most US facilities, including key sites like Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri or Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, multibillion-dollar bombers sit in the open, not far from public highways. It's a vulnerability mirrored in Russia — and just as easily exploitable.'We are pretty vulnerable,' retired US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CNN. 'We've got a lot of high-value assets that are extraordinarily expensive.' The B-2 bomber, for example, costs $2 billion apiece. The US has only officials estimated the strike cost Russia $7 billion. And it cost Ukraine mere tens of thousands of isn't science fiction. A first-person view (FPV) drone, like the ones used in Ukraine's strike, can be bought online for under $700. Controlled by a headset, the operator can steer the drone with precision. These cheap tools are now deadly weapons.'Ukraine inflicted billions in damage,' Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Congress this week. 'The world saw in near-real time how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics.'Ukraine has honed its drone tactics with urgency. Each week, engineers adapt to Russian countermeasures, staying a step threats are not confined to foreign battlefields. According to US Northern Command, there were 350 drone incursions into domestic military bases last year. Some were hobbyists, but others could have been surveillance missions by foreign adversaries — or worse.'Think of all the containers and illegal entrants inside our borders,' warned Carl Schuster, a former Pacific Command intelligence director. Every cargo truck could conceal a drone. Every base near a highway — and many are — becomes a potential target.'It's a logistical nightmare,' wrote David Kirichenko on the Atlantic Council's Ukraine Watch. Russia's vast geography, once a strength, is now a weakness. The same applies to the US debates budgets, China has built more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters within range of Taiwan, according to a Hudson Institute report co-authored by Shugart. The report warned that, in a US-China conflict, most American aircraft losses would occur on the ground — not in Guam's Andersen Air Force Base, home to B-2 and B-52 bombers, lacks hardened shelters.'The F-47 is an amazing aircraft, but it's going to die on the ground if we don't protect it,' Allvin said, referring to a proposed $300 million stealth jet touted by former President Donald contrast, Shugart estimates that a hardened aircraft shelter would cost about $30 Pentagon is scrambling. After a deadly drone strike killed three US soldiers in Jordan earlier this year, efforts to counter drones intensified. Strategies include jammers to sever control signals, intercepting missiles, even nets to snare drones mid-air. Still, none are foolproof.'There's no simple solution,' a US defence official told reporters. 'We're not even close.'That same official, speaking anonymously, warned that cheap drone swarms could soon trigger a 'mass-casualty event.' High-profile civilian targets like sports arenas and infrastructure remain dangerously root problem is money — and priorities.'If all we are doing is playing defence and can't shoot back, then that's not a good use of our money,' Allvin said. The Pentagon, with an annual budget nearing $1 trillion, must decide whether to fund new offensive systems or protect the ones it already are listening. On Capitol Hill, Senator Roger Wicker, head of the Armed Services Committee, promised billions in funding to address the drone gap. But officials remain sceptical that the urgency will match the rhetoric.'We are not doing enough,' Army Secretary Driscoll testified. 'The current status quo is not sufficient.'Ukraine's innovation with FPV drones shows how war is changing. Technology has levelled the field. The next war — or attack — could arrive in the back of a truck, not a fighter now, America's billion-dollar bombers remain on open runways. And the clock is ticking.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How the US could be vulnerable to the same kind of drone swarm attack Ukraine unleashed on Russia's bomber fleet
Ukraine's shock drone strike on Russia's strategic bomber fleet this week has generals and analysts taking a new look at threats to high-value United States aircraft at bases in the homeland and abroad – and the situation is worrisome. 'It's an eyebrow-raising moment,' Gen. David Allvin, the US Air Force chief of staff, said at a defense conference in Washington on Tuesday, adding that the US is vulnerable to similar attacks. 'There is no sanctuary even in the US homeland – particularly given that our bases back home are essentially completely unhardened,' Thomas Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), told CNN. By 'unhardened,' Shugart means there aren't enough shelters in which US warplanes can be parked that are tough enough to protect them from airstrikes, be it from drones or missiles. Ukrainian military officials said 41 Russian aircraft were hit in last Sunday's attacks, including strategic bombers and surveillance planes, with some destroyed and others damaged. Later analysis shows at least 12 planes destroyed or damaged, and reviews of satellite imagery were continuing. The Ukrainian operation used drones smuggled into Russian territory, hidden in wooden mobile houses atop trucks and driven close to four Russian air bases, according to Ukrainian sources. Once near the bases, the roofs of the mobile houses were remotely opened, and the drones deployed to launch their strikes. The Russian planes were sitting uncovered on the tarmac at the bases, much as US warplanes are at facilities at home and abroad. 'We are pretty vulnerable,' retired US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday. 'We've got a lot of high-value assets that are extraordinarily expensive,' McChrystal said. The Ukrainians said their attacks destroyed $7 billion worth of Russian aircraft. By comparison, a single US Air Force B-2 bomber costs $2 billion. And the US has only 20 of them. Shugart co-authored a report for the Hudson Institute in January highlighting the threat to US military installations from China in the event of any conflict between the superpowers. 'People's Liberation Army (PLA) strike forces of aircraft, ground-based missile launchers, surface and subsurface vessels, and special forces can attack US aircraft and their supporting systems at airfields globally, including in the continental United States,' Shugart and fellow author Timothy Walton wrote. War game simulations and analyses show 'the overwhelming majority of US aircraft losses would likely occur on the ground at airfields (and that the losses could be ruinous),' Shugart and Walton wrote. A report from Air and Space Forces magazine last year pointed out that Anderson Air Force Base on the Pacific island of Guam – perhaps the US' most important air facility in the Pacific – which has hosted rotations of those $2 billion B-2 bombers, as well as B-1 and B-52 bombers, has no hardened shelters. Allvin, the USAF chief of staff, admitted the problem on Tuesday. 'Right now, I don't think it's where we need to be,' Allvin told a conference of the CNAS. McChrystal said the US must look at how to protect its bases and the aircraft on them but also how it monitors the areas around those facilities. 'It widens the spectrum of the threats you've got to deal with,' McChrystal said. But all that costs money, and Allvin said that presents the US with a budget dilemma. Does it spend defense dollars on hardened shelters and ways to stop drones and missiles from attacking US bases, or does it use more resources on offensive weapons that take the fight to the enemy? 'If all we are doing is playing defense and can't shoot back, then that's not a good use of our money,' Allvin told the CNAS conference. 'We've always known that hardening our bases is something we needed to do,' Allvin said, but other items have been given budget priority. Hardened aircraft shelters aren't flashy and are unlikely to generate the headlines of other defense projects, including planes like the new B-21 bombers, each of which is expected to cost around $700 million. And US President Donald Trump said recently the Air Force will build a new stealth fighter, the F-47, with an initial cost of $300 million per aircraft. 'The F-47 is an amazing aircraft, but it's going to die on the ground if we don't protect it,' Allvin said. Meanwhile, a hardened shelter costs around $30 million, according to Shugart and Walton. Last month Trump revealed another form of air defense for the US mainland, the Golden Dome missile shield, expected to cost at least $175 billion. Despite the huge price tag, it's designed to counter long-range threats, like intercontinental ballistic missiles fired from a different hemisphere. In Russia's case, the vastness of its territory was seen as a strength in its war with Ukraine. One of the air bases hit in Ukraine's Operation 'Spiderweb' was closer to Tokyo than Kyiv. But now Russia's size is a weakness, writes David Kirichenko on the Ukraine Watch blog of the Atlantic Council. Every border crossing may be an infiltration point; every cargo container on every highway or rail line must be treated with suspicion. 'This is a logistical nightmare,' Kirichenko said. And there is a direct analogy to the United States. US Air Force bomber bases are usually well inland, but accessible to vehicles large and small. For instance, all 20 B-2 bombers are stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. It's about 600 miles from the nearest coastline, the Gulf of Mexico, but only about 25 miles south of Interstate 70, one of the main east-west traffic arteries in the US, with thousands of commercial vehicles passing by daily. Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, one of the homes of US B-1 bombers, sits just south of another major east-west commercial artery, Interstate 20. 'Think of all the containers and illegal entrants inside our borders,' said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center. 'That connection will trigger alarm in some US circles,' he said. Meanwhile, in the Pacific, even better US offensive firepower, like Gen. Allvin would like to have, might not be enough in the event of a conflict with China. That's because the PLA has made a concerted effort to protect its aircraft during its massive military buildup under leader Xi Jinping, according to the Hudson Institute report. China has more than 650 hardened aircraft shelters at airfields within 1,150 miles of the Taiwan Strait, the report says. But Shugart and Walton argue the best move Washington could make would be to make Beijing build more – by improving US strike capabilities in Asia. 'In response the… PLA would likely continue to spend funds on additional costly passive and active defense measures and in turn would have less to devote to alternative investments, including strike and other power projection capabilities,' they said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
The US's most advanced Apache attack helicopter is losing its battlefield edge
A US Army official said the Apache helicopter faces threats that may reduce its battlefield prowess. Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan said the older Apache AH-64D is no longer a "war-winning capability." Efforts are focused on upgrading the latest Echo model to integrate it with drone technology. The US's formidable Apache attack helicopter is increasingly under threat on future battlefields, a top US Army official said this week. Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan, the US Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training, described how and why the Army is phasing out older versions of the Apache, and modernizing the most recent variant. The older AH-64D, which is now into its third decade of service, "is not a war-winning capability that we can fight with and win today," Ryan said at a conference at the Center for a New American Security. The Delta model has also become prohibitively expensive to fly and operate, he added. Even the most recent upgrades to the AH-64E — the most advanced Apache helicopter — "are also on the cusp of being capabilities where we don't necessarily see them contributing to the fight the way they have done perhaps in the past," Ryan said. Apache attack helicopters have the speed and firepower to destroy an enemy's fortified positions or to rout an ambush on friendly positions, but they are increasingly threatened by the proliferation of accurate air defenses. First introduced into Army service in 1986, the Apache has long been one of the most — or even the most — feared multi-role attack helicopters. Armed with a 30mm chain gun and Hellfire anti-tank missiles, Apaches dominated the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, upgraded air defenses and cyber tactics capable of interfering with the Apache's complex digital systems may end its reign as an apex predator that can support ground forces. Meanwhile, although the Apache's Hellfire missiles have successfully taken down drones in exercises, drones have also been known to return the compliment. Either way, the shift towards uncrewed systems has prompted a rethink of the helicopter's dominance overall. At the CNAS conference, Ryan alluded to a recent classified call between top military brass that gave a bleak picture of how comparable Ukrainian and Russian helicopters had fared in Ukraine. "I'll leave it to your imagination about the effectiveness of those platforms on the battlefield over there today," he said, but added, "Extremely limited. Extremely limited." This would include the Russian Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator" — long considered a close rival to the Apache — which, despite its advancements, has been repeatedly shot down. Both sides are armed with modern air defenses that have limited the operations of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, turning the war into a slug-it-out ground fight that plays to Russia's numerical advantages in soldiers and artillery. Open-source intelligence site Oryx has identified 64 Ka-52s damaged or destroyed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Ryan's statements came amid an efficiency drive at the Pentagon aimed at building what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called "a leaner, more lethal force." In April, Hegseth directed Pentagon leadership to take on a wide-ranging transformation of the armed forces, including moving to "reduce and restructure manned attack helicopter formations and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries." At the CNAS conference, Ryan said that "we just simply spread ourselves too thin, and now we're making a bold correction again." As part of this, the retirement of Delta-model Apaches is being accelerated, with only the latest Echo model being focused on for modernization. Personnel tasked with maintaining and flying the older aircraft are to be transferred to the newer formations, in what will be a welcome staffing boost, Ryan said. The AH-64E features more powerful engines as well as flares designed to fool heat-seeking missiles. Nonetheless, according to manufacturer Boeing, demand for the latest Apache variant remains strong worldwide, and efforts to make it work more closely with drones, known as Manned-Unmanned Teaming, or MUM-T, have been underway for a decade. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business Insider
The US's most advanced Apache attack helicopter is losing its battlefield edge
A US Army official said the Apache helicopter faces threats that may reduce its battlefield prowess. Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan said the older Apache AH-64D is no longer a "war-winning capability." Efforts are focused on upgrading the latest Echo model to integrate it with drone technology. The US's formidable Apache attack helicopter is increasingly under threat on future battlefields, a top US Army official said this week. Lt. Gen. Joseph Ryan, the US Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training, described how and why the Army is phasing out older versions of the Apache, and modernizing the most recent variant. The older AH-64D, which is now into its third decade of service, "is not a war-winning capability that we can fight with and win today," Ryan said at a conference at the Center for a New American Security. The Delta model has also become prohibitively expensive to fly and operate, he added. Even the most recent upgrades to the AH-64E — the most advanced Apache helicopter — "are also on the cusp of being capabilities where we don't necessarily see them contributing to the fight the way they have done perhaps in the past," Ryan said. Apache attack helicopters have the speed and firepower to destroy an enemy's fortified positions or to rout an ambush on friendly positions, but they are increasingly threatened by the proliferation of accurate air defenses. Ukraine battlefield issues First introduced into Army service in 1986, the Apache has long been one of the most — or even the most — feared multi-role attack helicopters. Armed with a 30mm chain gun and Hellfire anti-tank missiles, Apaches dominated the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, upgraded air defenses and cyber tactics capable of interfering with the Apache's complex digital systems may end its reign as an apex predator that can support ground forces. Meanwhile, although the Apache's Hellfire missiles have successfully taken down drones in exercises, drones have also been known to return the compliment. Either way, the shift towards uncrewed systems has prompted a rethink of the helicopter's dominance overall. At the CNAS conference, Ryan alluded to a recent classified call between top military brass that gave a bleak picture of how comparable Ukrainian and Russian helicopters had fared in Ukraine. "I'll leave it to your imagination about the effectiveness of those platforms on the battlefield over there today," he said, but added, "Extremely limited. Extremely limited." This would include the Russian Kamov Ka-52 "Alligator" — long considered a close rival to the Apache — which, despite its advancements, has been repeatedly shot down. Both sides are armed with modern air defenses that have limited the operations of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, turning the war into a slug-it-out ground fight that plays to Russia's numerical advantages in soldiers and artillery. Open-source intelligence site Oryx has identified 64 Ka-52s damaged or destroyed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Upgrading the Apache Ryan's statements came amid an efficiency drive at the Pentagon aimed at building what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called "a leaner, more lethal force." In April, Hegseth directed Pentagon leadership to take on a wide-ranging transformation of the armed forces, including moving to "reduce and restructure manned attack helicopter formations and augment with inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries." At the CNAS conference, Ryan said that "we just simply spread ourselves too thin, and now we're making a bold correction again." As part of this, the retirement of Delta-model Apaches is being accelerated, with only the latest Echo model being focused on for modernization. Personnel tasked with maintaining and flying the older aircraft are to be transferred to the newer formations, in what will be a welcome staffing boost, Ryan said. The AH-64E features more powerful engines as well as flares designed to fool heat-seeking missiles. Nonetheless, according to manufacturer Boeing, demand for the latest Apache variant remains strong worldwide, and efforts to make it work more closely with drones, known as Manned-Unmanned Teaming, or MUM-T, have been underway for a decade.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ukraine's game-changing drone attack is a wake-up call for vulnerable US airbases, particularly in the Pacific
Ukraine launched a devastating drone attack on Russian aircraft across multiple airbases. The operation highlights how US airbases, especially in the Pacific, could be vulnerable without more defenses. China has made significant investments in fortifying its airbases, especially compared to the US. Ukraine's shocking drone attack on the Russian bomber fleet and other strategic aircraft shows just how vulnerable US bases and planes, especially those in the Pacific, could be to a similar kind of attack by an adversary. The need to harden American airbases to protect US airpower assets has been an important topic of discussion for years now, particularly amid China's military rise and the significant expansion of its ballistic missile arsenal, but Ukraine's attack on Russia has reignited this discussion and fueled others. Operation Spiderweb saw Ukraine sneak more than one hundred drones into Russian territory and launch them near key airbases. The Ukrainians say they struck 41 Russian aircraft, including an unspecified number of strategic bombers. Ukraine says the damage it inflicted could exceed $7 billion. The operation was very unusual, raising key questions. US military leaders took note. For instance, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George observed this week that the attack indicated the need to adapt to the quickening speed of warfare. Spiderweb, Phelan said at an artificial intelligence defense conference this week, "was pretty prolific." The operation, George noted at the same event, showed that the US needed to be more agile and think further about acquiring more counter-drone systems. George also said the attack was another example of Ukraine's asymmetric advantage that's been demonstrated throughout the war, using relatively cheap drones to destroy expensive, exquisite Russian air power. It's something the US needs to be thinking about, too, he said. Military leaders and defense experts have long recognized the growing threats to US airbases and American airpower, particularly in the western Pacific, and the need to harden defenses there to prevent a strike from an adversary like China from taking out bombers and fighters before they get off the ground. But Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, Tom Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow with the defense program at the Center for a New American Security, told Business Insider, "should be a wake-up call at the senior policymaker level and congressional level to pay attention. There is no sanctuary anymore." US airfield expansion and fortification efforts have been limited in recent years, troublingly so in the Pacific. Facilities are seriously lacking in passive defenses, like hardened aircraft shelters and sufficiently dispersed forces. The issue is especially glaring compared to China's consistent work over the past decade on building shelters to hide aircraft, adding runways, and increasing ramp areas. In a Hudson Institute report earlier this year, Shugart and Tim Walton, a senior fellow at Hudson's Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, said that this has created an imbalance. Should the US and China go to war, the latter would need fewer shots to suppress or destroy airfields used by the US and its allies and partners. China would have more capacity for sustaining its air operations. Shugart and Walton also said the rise of foreign drones flying over military bases demonstrated a need for the Pentagon to harden its airfields, especially key ones that house bombers. Ukraine's attack on Russia is expected to ignite important conversations about anti-drone defenses at bases, Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told BI. The focus has been on missiles, but drones come with a different set of problems. To protect against drones, it isn't enough to fortify shelters. "You have to be careful about any openings," Cancian said, explaining that "you can't have a roof and then an open front because they'll just fly in." One solution he said may start to appear is a mesh structure or curtain for those openings. Ukraine's recent strike on Russian airpower could be just a glimpse of what such a future attack could look like, experts said. Sunday's attack, Walton told BI, "was in the form of quadcopters; in the future, it could be similar drones but with even greater autonomy, small, low-cost cruise missiles, or other weapons." The list of potential targets could grow, too. Spiderweb demonstrated something that military experts and planners have long understood: aircraft are vulnerable on the ground, and striking them before they can take off can severely limit a military's air power capabilities. But future strikes could be on ships in the accessible littorals, ground stations, air and missile defense sites, and so on. The lessons from this strike for the US Department of Defense, experts said, include understanding how an adversary could pull off a similar attack. Tim Robinson, a military aviation specialist at the UK'S Royal Aeronautical Society, said that in light of the attack, the West will have not only need to consider hardening their bases but also potentially build "more of them than you have aircraft" to either confuse the enemy or fill with decoys. As Congress meets with military leaders this week, and service budgets are determined, "members should ask how are US bases and other critical facilities defended against these threats today; how much funding is required to appropriate passive and active defenses; and how much of that funding is included in the fiscal year 2026 president's budget proposal," Walton said. There are also questions around whether Golden Dome, the Trump administration's plan to fulfill a Reagan-era vision for a major missile and air defense network, will incorporate any lessons from this attack. Some industry figures have said that the project, while it is primarily about missiles, can't overlook the drone threat. US military leaders are saying the same. Robinson said that "if you're an air force chief and you are not lying awake at night thinking about how to protect" yourself, then "you're going to lose the next war." Read the original article on Business Insider
