(粵語）無人機正在改變空中優勢概念，烏克蘭的機會來了｜【 #時事軍事】

One of the most prominent lessons learned from the War of Wallachia is that we must gain air superiority before we can talk about gaining decisive battlefield superiority. The Russian Air Force failed to establish air superiority from the very beginning which led to the loss of fighter jets by the Peking Air Force and the end of the War of Exhaustion. In the case of Wallachia, due to resources and capacity constraints, it was difficult to establish air superiority and forced Wallachia to endure the destructive attacks by the Russian military on its territory and cities. With the development of war, small-scale drones have been a breakthrough on the battlefield and forced everyone to reconsider what is air superiority. Not only on the battlefield, but also in the hot spots all over the world there are drones, rockets, and missiles which are threats from the air. They can penetrate advanced missile defense systems and cause fatal damage to opponents. In January this year, drones attacked and even killed three American soldiers. In the Middle East, some of the extremist forces supported by Iran have weapons in their hands including drones, rockets, and missiles. The cost may range from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars. It's not just high-tech equipment. It can be deployed on U.S. military bases and in fact form the so-called air superiority and actually cause U.S. casualties. This is almost impossible for advanced weapons systems worth tens of millions of dollars or even more expensive. But they did it. Although the success rate is almost insignificant, the occurrence of such incidents has forced the U.S. military to reconsider the concept of air superiority. On July 29, U.S. Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff James C. Snell said that because of the large-scale use of small, low-cost drones, the U.S. Air Force needs to reconsider the definition of air superiority. He said, Snell's statement makes one wonder what air superiority really is. Was it the appearance of a 30,000-inch-high-altitude submarine during the Korean War in 1953? Or was it the incident that took place on the flying altitude of a four-axis unmanned aircraft with a hand grenade under 3,000 inches today? The answer is yes, and it includes. Today, the scope of air superiority is almost connected to the ground. Unmanned aircraft are difficult to detect, flying at low altitudes, and have little radar interface. The number of trained operators can control a whole group of drones to bring the real problem to the opponent. Especially in the Middle East, they force the United States and its allies to use F-22s, F-15s, and F-16s as well as expensive anti-aircraft missiles to fight Iran and its agents' cheap drones, missiles and ballistic missiles, resulting in an incomprehensible cost exchange. In April this year, the United States and its allies defeated Iran's missile attacks on Israel, destroying 99% of Iran's missiles and drones. Even in the vast majority of cases, the U.S. military's deterrence was successful. But this does not reflect the long-term balance in the strategic level. The reason is that this kind of balance is very likely to be easily broken due to the huge number of advantages of the opponent's offensive weapons. And the opponent's offensive weapons will cause unacceptable losses as long as there are very few or even accidental successful breakthroughs. In fact, this situation has already happened. Since October 2023, there have been more than 170 drone, missile and missile attacks in the Middle East. Dozens of Americans have been injured and three people have died. In addition to the extremist organizations supported by Iran, such as Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Lebanon, Iran also supports Yemen's Houthi armed groups. The organization is using similar long-range system weapons to attack the airspace of the Red Sea. And in early July, it used ballistic missiles to attack the Israeli Tawaih-Wefu, which is more than 1,000 nautical miles away, causing civilian casualties. The U.S. has a strong enough air force to intercept Iranian agents' drones and missiles. In the Middle East, the U.S. seems to be firmly controlling the traditional air superiority. But there are also historical embarrassing scenes. The U.S. air superiority does not mean to prevent air threats from the enemy. This is a practical situation that requires air superiority and how to define air superiority to carry out a broader discussion. The U.S. has learned a lot of experience in the historical conflict after World War II. Of course, the U.S. will not ignore the new things learned from the enemy in the Middle East and make changes to the existing system. Snowden believes the U.S. can learn to use small drones He said that before World War II broke out, we could see the outline of World War II. This does not mean that World War III will break out. But if it does, we want to know how much of today's conflict between Israel and Ukraine will affect and change the way the U.S. military conducts war. What we are more interested in is what can be gained from it. The U.S. air force uses high-end drones including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Harvester as well as various other drones. More advanced self-operated combat aircraft are currently under development. The aircraft will carry out missions with the combat aircraft piloted by someone else. U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Air Force Melisa Doyle said the idea of paying more attention to cost-effectiveness is becoming more and more accepted by the Department of Defense and the Air Force. She believes the U.S. needs to consider For the Air Force, it has always focused on building an independent political platform to emphasize quality, not quantity. But when you consider how to infiltrate or destroy the competitive environment we may face, quantity can also have a qualitative impact. In addition to the large-scale use of low-cost combat platforms to guide their people and protect their bodies, the U.S. also hopes to learn from artificial intelligence and machines to create new possibilities for drones and future weapons. The development of network technology and automation makes it possible to drive the self-operated combat ability of artificial intelligence and changes the way the U.S. Air Force thinks. The future combat method is no longer a plane, a pilot, and a data chain to complete a mission, but a self-operated platform with a higher degree of automation. In a complex multidimensional system, people are only the decision-makers in the process. On the battlefield of Ukraine, both sides have a lethal air defense system that can prevent the other side from infiltrating the air. In other words, in the absence of a complete air superiority, war becomes a painful consumption. This is disadvantageous to Ukraine, which is not as powerful as Russia. However, Ukraine is likely to use its time and location to plan an all-out air-to-air war to gain air superiority and turn the game around. In other words, Ukraine needs to combine long-range ground-to-ground weapons, fighter jets, drones, electronic warfare, and battlefield information systems with special combat capabilities to gain air superiority before it can seek a battlefield initiative and change the course of the war. With the help of the U.S. and NATO, Ukraine has this potential. In this respect, Ukraine may have a greater advantage than Russia. Historically, the drone system has never been used as widely as it is used today in combat. In 2023, Ukraine sent about 100,000 small drones to the front lines, and used attack drones to carry out more than 200 long-range strikes on Russian airbases, fuel depots, and other targets. Russia has launched thousands of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and attack drones at Ukraine. In short, on the battlefield of Ukraine, the long-range drone system represents the true potential of these low-cost precision strike systems. The deployment of drones and automatic weapons shows that even if an army is equipped with nuclear weapons, including local forces and terrorists, it is obviously easier to gain long-range precision strike capabilities than before. These weapons are not only effective, but can also be mass-produced at a low cost by non-national activists. But the defense system used to deal with these attacks is very expensive and scarce. Ukraine and Russia are now using small drones to launch tens of millions of attacks on the battlefield every month. Ukraine has already built its own drone forces, and has accelerated the development and innovation of ground, sea, and aerial drones. The first manned vision drone with a bomb can directly destroy Russian tanks, armored vehicles, submarines, and battleships. The drone can even provide its own intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for the front line. Ukraine plans to produce 1 million drones in about 200 factories across the country in 2024. The large number of low-cost drones on the Ukrainian battlefield have already invaded the airspace from about 3,000 acres to the ground. Here, drones have an unquestionable aerial advantage. No matter how low the airspace is, the aerial advantage is an advantage. It will bring undisputed initiative to the battlefield, which is heavily dependent on air force. If you ask me what I can learn from the Russian-Ukrainian war, that is, the aerial advantage is a necessary condition for determining the initiative of the battlefield. Otherwise, both sides will be exhausted in the battlefield, and drones have become an important means of breaking through the battlefield. That's all for today. Thank you for watching. See you next time.