Drones or tanks? How to spend rising defense budgets

There is a revolution in military affairs going on. Drones and unmanned systems have transformed the battlefield in Ukraine and are changing the fundamentals of how wars are fought — and that has consequences for doctrine, procurement, and strategy alike.

Defense budgets are rising across Europe, which forces a difficult question: what should the money be spent on? The old assumptions no longer hold, and Western militaries need to start thinking differently — or we will be ill-prepared if there is a war with Russia. In this video I go through a few points that I think are important to keep in mind as these decisions are made.


0:00 Intro
0:40 An unmanned revolution
1:26 Drones changing warfare
2:46 Attrition vs. maneuver
3:52 The quality of quantity
5:34 Production during a long war
6:43 Long-range weapons
8:03 Old platforms are still needed
8:52 Warships vs. maritime drones
10:15 Finding the balance