ASL Veteran

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/no-there-isnt-evidence-that-trump-owes-money-to-russia.html

Or the IDF doing anything at all. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The best part about the fact that fully autonomous drone swarms will be a standard part of every military in the world in 2025 is that we will finally get a challenging AI opponent in Combat Mission for the next release. Battlefront won't even need to make any tank models for the game either and that will be a huge savings in both time and money.

I believe the IDF currently uses some sort of tracking sight for their rifles. It's my understanding that it won't allow the trigger to be pulled unless the sight thinks you will score a hit although I think it still allows for non-accurate fire if the shooter prefers that. They say it's good for letting normal rifles hit drones out to about 100 meters, but after that it gets a little unreliable. A quick search didn't come up with anything though so I can't link to anything and I'm just going off memory.

I haven't been following the back and forth with all this stuff, but the idea that western militaries aren't adapting to shifts in warfare seems a bit of a stretch to me. At least in terms of the US military. I get that this is in your wheelhouse, and you apparently are very passionate about it - and that's a good thing. I hope I'm not misrepresenting your beliefs or arguments and I absolutely respect your opinion. However, one could make the argument that the US is at the leading edge of the changing face of warfare. I'm not sure when Canada first knew what a drone was, but the US has been using drones since the 1990s. The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Conceived in the early 1990s for aerial reconnaissance and forward observation roles, the Predator carries cameras and other sensors. It was modified and upgraded to carry and fire two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles or other munitions. The aircraft entered service in 1995, and saw combat in the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the NATO intervention in Bosnia, the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the Iraq War, Yemen, the 2011 Libyan civil war, the 2014 intervention in Syria, and Somalia. Granted these were recon drones, but the US came up with the FPS drone with a warhead in 2012 Designed by the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and developed by the United States Army,[7] The Switchblade was designed to assist US troops in responding to enemy ambushes in Afghanistan. Close air support takes time to arrive, is costly to operate, and risks collateral damage in urban areas. Troop-carried guided missiles, such as the FGM-148 Javelin, are also significantly larger, heavier, and more expensive, and only a few, if any, are carried on a typical patrol. Human-portable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) like the Raven or Puma can spot threats but lack weapons. The backpackable, relatively inexpensive Switchblade has sensors to help spot enemy fighters and an explosive warhead to attack them from above, which is especially helpful in dug-in positions like rooftops or ridge lines. On July 29, 2011, the U.S. Army awarded AeroVironment a $4.9 million contract for "rapid fielding" of an unspecified number of Switchblades to forces in Afghanistan.[8][9][10] On March 20, 2012, the Army added $5.1 million, totaling $10 million.[11] So yeah, the US is fully aware of drones and has been using them for decades. Now did the US Army anticipate the full impact that these drones are having on the current battlefield? I'm not sure - probably not, but I'm pretty confident that someone in the US Military had a stray thought of what might be possible so the idea that Western Military's are sitting back with mouth agape going 'wow, what the heck is going on in Ukraine? I've neither seen such a thing nor anticipated such a thing!' is just crazy to me. Maybe a review of the drones currently in use by the various branches of the US Military could be instructive (from Wikipedia). It's not like the US Military doesn't know what a drone is. Current MQ-1C Gray Eagle RQ-4 Global Hawk MQ-4C Triton RQ-7 Shadow MQ-8B Fire Scout/MQ-8C Fire Scout MQ-9 Reaper CQ-10 Snowgoose RQ-11 Raven RQ-12 Wasp MQ-19 Aerosonde RQ-20 Puma RQ-21 Blackjack RQ-170 Sentinel RQ-180 Altius-600 Black Hornet Nano Coyote Jump 20 VTOL Snipe NAV Switchblade Stalker ScanEagle Northrop Grumman Bat Phoenix Ghost Future MQ-25 Stingray One might make the argument that the US Army was already anticipating the current environment to some extent with the Future Combat System way back in 2003. I put some stuff in red below (from Wikipedia) Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009.[1] Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unprecedented fast and flexible battlefield network. The U.S. Army claimed it was their "most ambitious and far-reaching modernization" program since World War II.[2] Between 1995 and 2009, $32 billion was expended on programs such as this, "with little to show for it".[3] One of the programs that came out of the $32 billion expenditure was the concept of tracking friendly ("blue") forces on the field via a GPS-enabled computer system known as Blue Force Tracking (BFT). The concept of BFT was implemented by the US Army through the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) platform. The FBCB2 system in particular and the BFT system in general have won numerous awards and accolades, including: recognition in 2001 as one of the five best-managed software programs in the entire U.S. Government,[4] the 2003 Institute for Defense and Government Advancement's award for most innovative U.S. Government program,[5] the 2003 Federal Computer Week Monticello Award (given in recognition of an information system that has a direct, meaningful impact on human lives), and the Battlespace Information 2005 "Best Program in Support of Coalition Operations".[6] The proof-of-concept success of FBCB2, its extensive testing during Operation Foal Eagle (FE 99, FE 00), its certification at the Fort Irwin National Training Center, and its proven field usage in live combat operations spanning over a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to BFT adoption by many users including the United States Marine Corps, the United States Air Force, the United States Navy ground-based expeditionary forces (e.g., United States Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) and Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) units), the United Kingdom, and German Soldier System IdZ-ES+. In April and May 2009, Pentagon and army officials announced that the FCS vehicle-development effort would be canceled. The rest of the FCS effort would be swept into a new, pan-army program called the Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization Program.[7] Oh, and the end of the tank because of the use of Javelins on the battlefield? One would assume that since the US makes the Javelin, the US Army would be aware of its capabilities and how it impacts the battlefield. Whether or not the US Military anticipated how it might operate if on the receiving end of all these drones and Javelins is an open question. However, I'm not sure that you are giving enough credit to how powerful the US Military is - by itself without even adding in any allies. Could China cause some issues? Recent reports of missiles with fuel cells filled with water aside, on paper maybe China would be an issue, but that would doubtless primarily be a naval and air conflict. If Russia fought the US and NATO, Russia would be pounded into dust. There is no scenario where NATO fights Russia and it turns into Trench Warfare where nobody can advance and drones rule the battlefield to the detriment of NATO. That's not even accounting for the leadership advantage that NATO holds. If NATO holds air supremacy then guess what happens to all your logistics trains? Guess what happens to all your artillery batteries? Can FPV drones have an impact for Russia? Sure, but let's not get carried away and assume that NATO is going to get stuck in trench warfare. I can't sit here today and rule it out completely, but the odds are not in favor of that sort of an outcome. You dismiss Iraqi capabilities, but they were widely regarded as having some of the most numerous and capable air defenses in the world at the time and look how much good it did them. I am confident that the US Military can adapt appropriately to the shifts warfare.

Hawkeye Self-Propelled 105mm Howitzer The Army announced it has sent the prototype 105 mm Hawkeye Mobile Howitzer System to Ukraine for testing and evaluation. This move is the first of its kind and raises the unanswered questions of whether military or contractor personnel are with the equipment and, if not, how reliable the evaluation is.