Latest news with #OperationSpider'sWeb
Indian Express
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
India should focus on UAVs, satellites — not fighters and tanks
I am not a defence expert, even though I was a keen member of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Defence. But, can anyone call themselves a defence expert after Operation Spider's Web? Carried out by Ukraine, it saw 117 drones, each reportedly costing less than Rs 50,000, apparently destroying or damaging 41 Russian aircraft — most of them strategic cruise missile carriers — including at a location 4,000 km from the Ukrainian border. In another instance, several US B-2 stealth bombers flew thousands of kilometres, passed over enemy territory, bombed Iranian nuclear facilities and returned safely, all undetected. Experts will propose dramatic changes in defence strategy, just as the art of war changed with the invention of gunpowder, machine guns, fighter planes, rockets, nuclear bombs, missiles etc. In light of recent developments, I have the following observations on future planning. First, fighter planes are flying ducks, and horribly expensive, too. Earlier, fighters were lost in dogfights; now, they can be shot down in one's own air space from enemy territory. It is foolish to use them when a Rs 50,000 drone can do the job much better at a fraction of the cost. It could be argued that a fighter plane can carry much bigger payloads, but with precision munitions, this is no longer so critical. In any case, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can be designed to carry payloads of any size. Besides, for precision delivery of large payloads, missiles are the best. Our Agni missiles can hit almost anywhere in the world accurately. They are our pride and the best demonstration of atmanirbharta; we owe a lot to former president A P J Abdul Kalam and Tessy Thomas — the DRDO's former director general of aeronautical systems and project director for Agni-IV — for them. Even stealth fighters have no place in future warfare — sooner rather than later, better radar technology or satellite-based observation techniques will be developed to detect them. The DRDO and HAL should stop wasting resources on fighters. Only transport planes and transport choppers will be relevant in the future. Even reconnaissance planes will be obsolete, with satellites doing a much better job. Second, aircraft carriers are sitting ducks for UAVs. A torpedo can also sink even the most protected carrier. And protecting one requires a lot of paraphernalia — it's like an emperor who needs to be closely guarded. They are also enormously expensive: The USS Gerald R Ford cost $13.3 billion to build. India has two aircraft carriers: INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant. Vikramaditya has a displacement of 44,500 tonnes and Vikrant around 43,000. Both cost a fortune. China has three and is building one more. Their only purpose is to carry fighter planes and helicopters. They are good for national pride and not much else — don't build more. The money can be used to develop equipment that is far more critical. Third, tanks are expensive. They can be immobilised with drones, and there are a variety of shells that can destroy any battle tank. They can easily be replaced with more effective and less expensive equipment — don't waste money on them. Fourth, future wars will be satellite/UAV-driven conflicts. Not only will these track everything, they will deliver the munitions as well, including nuclear warheads. Spend lots of money on these. All over the world, the best defence equipment is manufactured by the private sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has focused on the development and production of defence equipment locally. He knows what he wants. It has produced some good results like the Akashteer air defence control and reporting system, designed and produced by BEL, which was very effective during Operation Sindoor. The DRDO's wings should be clipped drastically and it should stick to its areas of core competence, such as missile technology. Let the private sector do the rest, without any supervision by the DRDO. They will produce world-class products. Give them a free hand and have a large PLI for the sector. Our armed forces are incredibly competent and we need to give them the best for future warfare. Alphons is a former Union minister and author of The Winning Formula
Miami Herald
10-07-2025
- Miami Herald
As Drone Warfare Evolves, Pentagon Sees Its Own Vulnerabilities
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has been working to beef up drone defenses at overseas bases in the past 18 months, after three Army reservists were killed in an attack by an Iran-backed militia on an outpost in Jordan early last year. But in recent months, the U.S. military has seen a potentially broader vulnerability, as both Israel and Ukraine attacked adversaries with drones smuggled deep behind enemy lines. The audacious and creative use of drones by an Israeli intelligence agency to mount strikes from inside Iran, and Ukraine's so-called Operation Spider's Web, which knocked out Russian strategic bombers with drones launched from inside Russia, has made clear that the threat to the U.S. military is not just overseas, but also at home. American defense companies are pushing new technologies that they say can more effectively intercept drones. The companies are hoping that the billions of dollars the Pentagon is planning to invest in missile defense -- the so-called Golden Dome program -- will also be used to build up new drone defenses. Some new technologies aim not to shoot down drones one by one, but use what is known as directed energy, including high-powered microwaves, to take down large swarms of drones at once. The military has conducted at least two tests of the new microwave system, including one in the Middle East and one in the Pacific, setting the stage for a bigger Pentagon investment. The leaders of Epirus, the company that developed the microwave defense, have warned that the rise of new kinds drones means the U.S. military faces a 'guerrilla war of machines,' a style of fighting that is alien to the Pentagon's traditional way of thinking. Andy Lowery, chief executive of Epirus, said drone warfare between Russia and Ukraine had evolved with breathtaking speed. 'What we saw in Russia will play out here,' he said. 'Operation Spider's Web should be a real wake-up call to us, to the whole world, that this is very, very serious.' Ukraine, with U.S. help, has invested in drone technology and has developed new kinds of drones that can be used against ships, planes and tanks. American officials estimate that in recent months, Ukrainian drones have caused some 70% of Russian casualties. During Operation Spider's Web, Ukraine's intelligence agency smuggled drones across Russia to strike multiple air bases at once, destroying a large number of Russian strategic bombers. The attack highlighted how effective relatively cheap, concealable drones can be against traditional militaries. 'We're watching with our jaws dropped down on how fast the Ukrainians adapt to new technologies,' Lowery said. Russia has used its own drones and ones built by Iran to terrorize Ukrainian troops and the country's civilian population. Iranian drones have been used by Tehran-backed militias, not just in the attack in Jordan that killed the U.S. Army reservists, but in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. And Israel's use of drones smuggled into Iran in its initial attack on the country's nuclear program last month showed how quickly new technologies were spreading around the world. Shifting its strategy to counter drones, experts said, has challenged the Pentagon. 'This is a Sept. 11-style problem, and we are still operating in a Sept. 10 mindset,' said Christian Brose, chief strategy officer at Anduril, a defense company that makes equipment for the U.S. military to detect and destroy adversarial drones. 'On the day after a catastrophic attack, there is going to be a string of evidence that we should have seen this coming.' Pentagon officials insist they are taking the threat seriously and making investments to improve defenses. American commanders, especially in the Middle East, have taken steps over the past several years to build what the military calls a layered network of defenses, including jamming devices, missiles and other systems, to ward off hostile drone, rocket and missile attacks. Those efforts accelerated after the three Army reservists were killed in January 2024 at a remote logistics outpost in northeast Jordan called Tower 22. The drones were fired at the base by Iran-backed militias. Since then, the military has made 'considerable improvements across the board,' Adm. Charles B. Cooper II, President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next head of the Pentagon's Central Command, told senators last month. 'We really are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were before' the attack in Jordan, Cooper said. 'Having said that, I would never be satisfied that we have the maximum readiness.' But Brose and others said the threat is not just at overseas bases. In December 2023, surveillance drones flew over an Air Force base in Virginia where F-22 planes were stationed. 'Does anyone believe if a country wanted to try to do to us what the Ukrainians did to Russia that they wouldn't have a decent ability to be successful?' Brose asked. 'Do we think it's impossible that a willing adversary couldn't sneak nefarious drones into the country?' Lowery, the Epirus chief executive, noted that the Pentagon had spared counter-drone defenses from its across-the-board cuts announced earlier this year. In hearings on Capitol Hill last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked repeatedly by Republican and Democratic lawmakers about America's vulnerability to drone attacks. Hegseth said that 'cheaper, one-way commercially available drones with small explosives represent a new threat.' Hegseth said that he met with Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and top aides soon after the Ukrainian attacks to ensure that military forces based in the United States and overseas were adequately protected. The secretary recently approved the creation of a new organization, led by the Army, to address drone warfare and counter-drone measures, Gen. James Mingus, the Army's vice chief of staff, said at a conference in Washington last week. The organization is modeled after an agency the Pentagon formed two decades ago to counter roadside bombs that insurgents used against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army oversees drone defense for the military. But critics of the Army's past approaches have said its counter-drone defenses are built on older technology and are not adaptable enough, given how quickly the drone threat has evolved on the battlefield in Ukraine. New technologies can detect and identify incoming drones, then take them out more efficiently. Older technology, critics say, is poor at identifying drones, including which ones pose the most acute and immediate threat. Robust drone defense requires multiple ways to take out a drone, some defense experts said. Anduril, which has contracts with Special Operations Command and the Marine Corps, has a counter-drone system that combines methods for detecting a drone, including cameras and radar, with various ways to take it down, including shooting down the drone and jamming it. Supporters of those technologies say the innovations show that the government does not have to invent counter-drone systems, but simply adopt new technologies more quickly. Corporations making new anti-drone technologies have complained that government regulations hinder development. Lowery compared the emerging drone threat to a famous scene from Star Wars. 'We aren't thinking about the fact that an X-Wing pilot dropped a little bomb in the middle of the Death Star and blew the whole thing to smithereens,' Lowery said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Business Recorder
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Ukraine's drone attacks damage grain warehouse, school in Rostov, Russia says
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight damaged a grain facility, a school, residential houses and a sport complex in Russia's southern region of Rostov on the Ukrainian border, Russian authorities said on Wednesday. The Russian defence ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app that its units destroyed a total of 40 Ukrainian drones overnight over several Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula. Seven drones were downed over the Rostov region. Rostov Governor Yuri Slyusar said on Telegram that there were no injuries in result of the strikes, but the attack sparked a fire at a sports complex and damaged a high school and two apartment buildings in the city of Taganrog. Ukrainian drone triggers fire in apartment building west of Moscow, official says In the town of Azov, situated on the Don River about 16 km (10 miles) from the Sea of Azov, the attack damaged a grain storage warehouse and an industrial facility, Slyusar said, without elaborating. According to several unofficial Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels, there were reports of a possible drone strike on the Russian Atlant-Aero drone facility in Taganrog. Reuters could not independently verify the reports of the possible attack on the drone factory. Russia's Voronezh regional Governor Alexander Gusev, writing on Telegram, said more than 40 drones were destroyed over urban areas and near the border with Ukraine on Tuesday, but there were no injuries. Ukraine has beefed up its capacity of drone construction and strikes since the start of the 40-month-old war against Russia. In an attack earlier this month, dubbed 'Operation Spider's Web', it targeted Russian long-range bombers at air bases. Russia has intensified its drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent months. A missile attack on Tuesday in southeastern Ukraine killed at least 17 people.
The Star
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Russian air defences destroy dozens of Ukrainian drones, officials say
(Reuters) -Russian air defence units destroyed dozens of Ukrainian drones over widely separated regions of Russia on Tuesday, including more than 40 over Voronezh region on the Ukrainian border, officials said. Voronezh regional Governor Alexander Gusev, writing on Telegram, said there were no injuries and more than 40 drones were destroyed over urban areas and near the border. The governor of Ulyanovsk region on the Volga River said eight drones had been repelled without any casualties. Russia's Defence Ministry said 22 drones had been destroyed over nearly four hours. It noted 13 drones downed over Voronezh and others over Saratov and Samara regions and Tatarstan, all along the Volga, as well as in Belgorod Region on the Ukrainian border. Reuters could not independently verify the attacks. Ukraine has beefed up its capacity of drone construction and strikes since the start of the 40-month-old war against Russia. In an attack earlier this month, dubbed "Operation Spider's Web", it targeted Russian long-range bombers at air bases. Russia has intensified its drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent months. A missile attack on Tuesday in southeastern Ukraine killed at least 17 people. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Straits Times
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Russian air defences destroy dozens of Ukrainian drones, officials say
Russian air defence units destroyed dozens of Ukrainian drones over widely separated regions of Russia on Tuesday, including more than 40 over Voronezh region on the Ukrainian border, officials said. Voronezh regional Governor Alexander Gusev, writing on Telegram, said there were no injuries and more than 40 drones were destroyed over urban areas and near the border. The governor of Ulyanovsk region on the Volga River said eight drones had been repelled without any casualties. Russia's Defence Ministry said 22 drones had been destroyed over nearly four hours. It noted 13 drones downed over Voronezh and others over Saratov and Samara regions and Tatarstan, all along the Volga, as well as in Belgorod Region on the Ukrainian border. Reuters could not independently verify the attacks. Ukraine has beefed up its capacity of drone construction and strikes since the start of the 40-month-old war against Russia. In an attack earlier this month, dubbed "Operation Spider's Web", it targeted Russian long-range bombers at air bases. Russia has intensified its drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent months. A missile attack on Tuesday in southeastern Ukraine killed at least 17 people. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
