The Military Technology That Shapes the Ukraine War | Augusto Aldeghi

The Military Technology That Shapes the Ukraine War | Augusto Aldeghi

the other element that I think is even more important of which drone Warfare is part is the fact that the battlefield has become transparent meaning that both sides by drones but also by number of other satellites Ukrainian through Western uh Western assets um space based assets Like Satellites but also groundbased assets um and the Russian as well have a such a clear picture of what the opponent is doing that basically you can do nothing you can’t surprise your opponent anymore hello everybody this is Pascal from neutrality studies and today I got a quite unconventional talk for you because I got with me a fellow YouTube host who doesn’t talk much about politics but is expert or a geek in his own words on military hardware I’m talking to austo Ali who is the host of the Millennium sevenstar YouTube channel that keeps producing highquality videos about military technology especially in the realm of Aerospace austo got his Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the poly Technic institution of Milan uh he did his military service in the Italian Air Force and then worked for a short while in the Aerospace industry after which he his professional career took him into it and management consulting but nonetheless he is a self-described massive Aerospace nerd which is why he does his channel and you know me I’m more of a pacifist at heart so I don’t like military gear very much but for the sake of analysis it is important to know what exists what is being produced and what the pitfalls are since those technical aspects um are some of the factors that determine the development of military and security policies so uh austo uh thank you very much for coming online today thank you very much for the invite that’s flattering introduction you deserve it you really create wonderful content and I Rec recommend everybody check it checking it out because you talk about uh about airplanes very much and that’s my first question already because I never actually really understood the the the the Aerospace aspect especially of the current war in Ukraine that we are seeing and um you know in a recent video one of the things that I found fascinating was that you said that the F16 that is being talked so much about and you know the f-16s that are supposed to go to Ukraine and being flown by Ukrainian pilots and I think they just finished the training of a couple of Pilots um but you said the f-16s would be quite useless to Ukraine can you explain to us why that is so it wasn’t actually me it was an high Ukrainian official an officer of the Ukrainian Air Force who said that the f-16s at this point were not so useful as they would have been if they had arrived for the summer offensive and the rational behind that was that with the F16 they could uh have exerted at least some limited forms of air power which they can do now so the air war in Ukraine has been characterized by a lacking the ground of a certain degree of paralysis because the uh surface base there defenses had demonstrated to be so effective that pretty much deny each other airspace to the two contendant the Ukrainian are at disadvantage because their Air Force was smaller than the Russian and technologically at least 20 years backwards but it and the Russian also had a very a number of very long range weapons like cruise missiles and ballistic missiles that could be used to hit these key Targets in in in in the in the western Ukraine but nonetheless the Ukrainian um groundbased air defenses and the particularly with the use of some particularly clava tactics have been s very effective and the Russians H rarely Venture beyond the area that they actually occupy on the ground which is again for the Russian is not particularly a problem because the range of the weapons that they have is such that they can sort of sanitize an area about 100 kilometers deep inside Ukraine behind Ukrainian lines where is almost impossible of very very difficult for the ukrainians to fly what the F-16 would have done was a well add an interesting uh a bit more numbers uh B being slightly more modern than the than what Ukrainian do have they would have been slightly less sensitive than the Ukrainian present inventur to the Russian weapons they may have had a better chances of surviving and they could uh be used for example to gather uh local Air superiority above the area of the offensive which in the NATO Doctrine is the basically the prerequisite for doing anything the one of the key problems of the offensive in in in the summer of 2023 was the fact that the ukrainians at the beginning tried to operate like NATO forces um do using movement rather than attrition but this actually implies that the defendant is already being um has been the defendant needs to be uh uh attra attracted by the air Power bya air power and uh so air power is the key component of the NATO Doctrine the American Doctrine basically if you don’t don’t have a superiority at least look at their superiority nothing moves Ukrainian tried to tried to do the same and they failed in few days they reverted back to Classic more reasonable tactics uh considered situation on the ground and then managed to do some progress very little progress to be honest but uh they managed to do some progress but still they didn’t have any form of our superiority the F-16 may have might have given them uh this kind of uh uh local superiority that could have improve that now in the while the Russians are are have the initiatives and um the f-16s are probably not as useful because technologically speaking the these aircraft are quite old and the Russians still have a technological superiority margin there still a b a worse customer for the Russians than what the ukrainians already have they’re definitely more Danger dangerous for the for the Russians but not as much to compromise the capability of the Russian Air Force to create this sanitized area and for the also to use the the ground attack component to hit the um Ukrainian forces on on the battle line so that’s the reason why they are not they’re not considered that useful now there’s still a political statement to be honest because probably more ground based air defenses would have been better for them but uh the military Effectiveness is uh probably not at the top how and the reason why they did they didn’t get the the the that Air Force in that force in in this new NATO style Air Force in 2023 is because it it is extremely difficult to create uh an Air Force from scratch for example the Polish that actually adopted the F16 many years ago it took six years from the beginning of the program to have the first limited capabilities and about 10 years to have the full capabil capabilities of course in the in in war you can cut some corners but if you cut some Corners is yeah you also R compromising the the effectiveness of of the systems there are um we speak a lot about the pilots but there is the there are a billion of of of of of elements needs to be considered for example do the Ukrainian reserves and consumables oil Hydraulic fuels and these kind of things compatible with Western aircraft or see these are American aircraft all the tools which with the tools that they are used to maintain them are imperial the Ukrainian have metric tools so there’s a myriad of situations like this that need to be over needs to be considered and need to be resolved before you get to the few full um to the full capability of the weapon that’s the reason why it’s taking so long so details over details um but still at the same time if I if I got it right one of the one of the talking points is that uh the f-16s could be equipped with tactical nuclear weapons um and the Russians actually acknowledged that and said that they would treat f-16s like a nuclear threat um so we see that the Russians take at least in what they say they take the f-16s very serious um can you do you have any more ideas of why that is or is this on both Sid it’s more of a political talking point rather than an actual operational issue at least on the Russian side I mean they apparently they wouldn’t be that shouldn’t be that afraid of their 60s right um I believe that they’re not particularly afraid they cons they take them seriously obviously but they don’t think that they are particularly afraid um yes is true the the f16s are certified to drop gravity nuclear weapons but obviously to drop one you need to have one and sorry sorry gravity means just go and drop not yeah a conventional a conventional weapon that just falls out of the aircraft by gravity and flies in Free Flight is not guided and hit the target a dumb nuclear bomb a dumb nuclear bomb exactly in um um obviously Ukraine has none of those so they’re not in immediate iMed manace and again if you want to employ them you need to train the pilots train the ground Personnel train and so on uh which nuclear weapons is not simple uh the so I think is more political posturing from this point of view and probably gives them gives the Russian a justification to eventually to hit the F-16 wherever they see them uh I still don’t think that they will try to hit them when they were outside the borders of Ukraine but this maybe is leaving a door open for such an operation for one thing that I actually concerned is the fact that the f-16s will need to fly in and out of Ukraine for maintenance and um so this is this is something Ukrainian already do with a lot of equipment they don’t have the time to set up a full logistic chain within Ukraine so basically all the maintenance all the big maintenance is done either in Poland or in Romania uh if they do the same for the F-16 with the aircraft flying from Poland Landing in Ukraine being armed and doing a a uh War Mission a full a full mission then it becomes quite difficult to justify the fact that there no direct military action for example from the Polish territory because the aircraft flew from Poland made a stop and then and then made the mission I am really afraid that at some point to keep the aircraft operational they will resort to doing that um because they can do everything in Ukraine and uh this could be potentially very escalatory in my point of view because at that point the Russians will have an incentive to hit the facilities in Poland that maintain the aircraft but is it there was I remember there was also the idea that these aircrafts could actually be fully like could start from Poland and fly over Ukraine and then fly missions in like combat missions and then go back and be landed actually in Poland again is something like that thinkable or would it like would the the starting Landing to go for and two missions always happen from Ukrainian territory I believe that that would give the Russians the perfect excuse to hit the the bases in Poland or in Romania or in wherever these aircraft are flying from which I believe is very very escalatory from what I’ve heard what they’re trying to do is to have a self-contained operation in Ukraine uh but as I said it’s very difficult takes a long time I don’t see how they could do that at least without civilian contractors which are actually normally used by all the Western Air Forces the have 16 is a very right common aircraft thousands have been built lot of air forces us use this aircraft so there are plenty of civilian contractors specializing in maintenance for this aircraft and they’re used by all pretty much all the air forces the in the west it’s it’s a normal practice I don’t see how the Ukrainian could do that at least without those and the worst case could be and there have been proposals to bring in for example retired American Personnel to to do the maintenance in uh directly in Ukraine or retired American Pilots to fly the aircraft the aircraft in in Ukraine again this is quite escalatory yeah it is escalatory it’s it’s very very dangerous um do you have any idea why it is I mean because you said like I’m bringing military equipment back to Poland and Romania for repair and then back into Ukraine for use it has been quite normal with ground also ground offensive equipment I suppose tanks and so on why is it that the Russians have never systematically destroyed all the railway lines and all the major roads uh leading to Romania and Poland does that make any um they actually did they did they could in the in the sense the bridges and the roads um going into uh Romania because they were more vulnerable to an attack because they uh because there there the mountains the carpatian in part of the border so there there’s a limiting number of roads and there a number of narrow passages and valleys so there are bridges viaducts and so on those have been systematically attacked for a time um in the the border with Poland is is is probably not worth it because the roads and the railroads are actually targets that are easy to repair if they’re hit so you’re launching a cruise missile that is worth various Millions to make a hole on on the ground in on a road or a railway that can be repaired in a day or two so it’s probably not worth it so that’s the reason why they’re not attacking and they don’t have the intelligence capability of actually tracking the individual convoys that move the move the move the the hardware back and forth so so they they sort of didn’t it’s the same reason why the bridges on the nepper are still on because they most of them are not really Bridges most of them are actually dams uh so uh again it’s a Target that is very very difficult to to hit from the air from the air with from long distance and if it’s a dam it would come with down stream literally Downstream uh damage that probably yeah exactly but for getting to that point you will need a lot yeah of a lot of hits okay the dam the daming no kovka was different because apparently it was mined still not sure who actually blew blew it blew it up because the the the the the dam that then you know the water that then uh uh created much more problems for the Russians than the ukrainians but the narrative still is the Russians blew it up because they always they love blowing up their own like the power plant right the power plant both sides apparently attack even though Russians inside like that kind of thing okay um let me ask you another another question that has been on my mind I I think if I if I if I remember correctly Switzerland decided to buy f-35s from the US they did right um why would you give f-16s to Ukraine if f-35s are around what’s the the difference between these aircrafts and what happened with f17 to F34 what why what’s the naming there I I I always wondered so the that start from the second so F something means fighter and the number which is the American system to classify platforms so the the actually every number from 16 they started with F1 to be honest in the 60s some point I don’t remember the exact date because they got to F100 and something so they started from the beginning um in in the 60s so all the all the numbers have been occupied but some of them were just projects that never BR never came to life some of them are actually aircraft after the F-16 the the f17 was a prototype the F-18 is an aircraft of the US Navy the F9 I don’t know the F20 was a light fighter that never was was not successful was never sold um there is an F22 which is which is a fight which is um which is a stealth fighter air superiority fighter and so it keep keeps going the F35 the F35 um is the most modern in the western us and NATO but also other let’s say Western align countries are um inventory and uh it is being produced right now is probably the combat aircraft that is being produced in larger numbers today uh probably the J the Chinese j20 gets close but the F35 is currently being produced amidst a billion of problems is a very controversial uh program but the aircraft in itself is excellent the program was really badly managed the F35 you mean yeah the F3 so it happens that Norway Denmark Belgium and the Netherlands are actually all replacing their f-16s with f with f35s so the f-16s were actually available for uh to to be donated to to Ukraine so they are all all the aircraft I mean the F16 first flew 50 years ago the the the the European aircraft are young obviously but they’re not young they are all they’re all Air frames with they’re quite old their frames they still have some plenty of hours left flight hours left in them but they uh they obvious not modern and the technology in the aircraft is not that um is not up to scratch if compared with a with the F35 actually 35 is technology-wise pretty much most advanced aircraft today probably the j20 and the Russian Su 57 gets close but probably F35 still has a hedge I mean that sounds to me as if the you know sending f16s to Ukraine is a way to kind of end of life down Downstream recycling of an aircraft that almost sounds like an insult to me I mean if I was Ukrainian uh I mean was there ever a talk of f35s to Ukraine or like Ukraine getting getting the most modern one well you you would well first you will you will have even a worse problem than the one I explained before of actually getting to the point of being capable of using them effectively because they’re more complex than the f16s and they are a less established platform but the main problem is that you would put something which is considered to be the Apex predator in the NATO Arsenal in plain view of the Russians they may end up being more effective in I mean having 60 40 to 60 f35s in Ukraine fully operational those could probably achieve uh the air superiority on the whole of the operational theater um if they were obviously fully operational with all the assets that need to come with them to allow them to be fully operational uh problem is you would show to the Russians the your um your your everything showing the cards I mean in I mean you have you may have heard that many Western guided weapons starting being very effective and then Pro progressively they their effectiveness decreased it happened the high Mar it happened with the storm Shadows it happened with the Excalibur guided artillery round the reason why is pretty simple the Russian see how these weapons operate and they and then they react a lot of the performance of groundbased air defenses and electronic warfare is actually driven by software so you don’t need many times to react to a new weapon you don’t need to build something completely new you may just update the software and the Russian have demonstrated to be very very good at this um it’s not something that is not considered in the west uh but the the Russians demonstrated to be capable of doing this very very well this one of their strong points to be honest uh so if you bring the F-35 in theater uh the Russian will be capable of recording their radar emissions recording their flight profiles recording uh the emissions of the weapons that they have according to Communications and then the the weapon will become less effective in case it should be used uh in a different situation and more or less you may be certain if the Russians do this the Chinese will not either so in the light of uh what seems to be a coming conflict in the Western Pacific that’s this is particularly important that’s the reason why you will never see the latest weapons in Ukraine so it’s not just it’s not just that NATO that kind of okay there’s this convenient down cycling but there’s also you you still don’t want to show give up all of your cards NATO wants to keep couple of Technologies uh that all the members are trained in but that you do not yet share even in the in a a proxy war like Ukraine so that you can keep that Ace for later that’s your analysis that’s correct yeah that’s that’s what they’re doing um the the so what is the Russian response like what are the the the Russian R Russia’s uh airplanes that they are using how many of them do they use against Ukraine and do they also have an equivalent to the F35 that they’re not not using yet in order to to keep keep some Secrets um so uh the Russian Air Force um was in good shape before the war but not in great shape it combat about terms of combat aircraft had a little above a thousand but the modern aircraft were about 400 okay and the they have used some older aircraft with some success as well but um um definitely the uh the number of aircraft was not that big okay if you consider the Italian Air Forces for example little above 100 combat aircraft so that gives you the balance the same is France is about 200 something like this so that that gives you the the the dimension so they Russians had superiority they have some technological superiority because they have some excellent pieces of um of equipment for example the an a missile which is the r37 m uh which is um extremely very very long range weapon that outranges pretty much everything in the western Arsenal um or they or they they were partic they have a particularly efficient uh bomber Force capable of launching cruise missiles and um which are despite what you read in some early reports they tend to be very very accurate and very very effective and also quite difficult to to to intercept and shut down obviously the same element that you see the same phenomenon that you see at work from the Ukrainian side is working from the Russian side the Russians are holding back way less than the NATO for obvious reasons so they have given the NATO a very good look of their technology still there are there is there are at least there couple of systems that are that they’re holding back one is the Su 57 which is their latest fifth generation aircraft stealth aircraft a heavy fighter actually better heavy multi roller aircraft uh is not being produced in large numbers because they had still uses on Old engine they’re waiting for a newer engine to be completely operational to start the full scale production so they don’t have many but they don’t use it too much they just use it as a missile launcher from safe distance while inside in the the Russian territory so that has not been seen the other thing the other component that not been seen uh is the S500 which is a successor of the S400 um that well is entering service now the first test happened just uh probably in 20121 2022 just before the invasion and um but still hasn’t been seen in in Ukraine this is this is for the operation Ukraine on the naval side there is much more terms of submarines um anti-ship weapons and so on that has never been seen and and they are supposed to be very effective but we don’t know much about that um and about the the produ production of these of these weapons I suppose that the Russians are able to do everything within within their own economy um now for the F3 and especially the the airplanes is are those things purely produced inside the USA or is parts of those also sourced from other NATO countries is this a joint collaboration well a friend of mine used to say that the F35 is not an aircraft is a way of exerting influencing governments because because the um the production of the F35 is a western uh is a is a is a western it is a Western World project a lot of components are built here in UK not far from where I live in um in but they supplies all around Europe and in many other countries in um however the American have a very strict control on the aircraft uh the the key technology has are actually just Americans and they have not been released to the to the other to the other to the other um air forces that are actually using it in fact it was one of the problem problem that actually caus some attrition with the Japanese for example and they procuring the F35 as well which they wanted some technology transfer and the Americans did not agree the um when it comes to the Russians uh the Russians have demonstrated to be much more autonomous than it was believed at the beginning no we all know that the sanctions did not um have the one was was expecting and one of the reason is because the the Russians um well since 2014 had been planning for something like this uh they still they are still missing some key components and the key components are the is the electronic components with within the in the weapons chips okay electronic chips which are an essential component of everything even your mixer or your oven actually has chips in there and uh um in many Russian weapons the the Western components have been found um however this seems to be not a decisive problem a crippling problem because some of these components are of Civilian derivation midlevel sophistication components that can be bought on the open market and the sanction can be sort of uh circumvented through other other countries and middleman that can purchase those and the Chinese are can actually Supply a sort of lesser quality but still effective Replacements of these components which is see that they’re actually doing we have some witnesses in the helicopter industry for example they say that they that with Western component they use to discard one every 15 now the Chinese they’re discard they’re discarding one every four but still they can build helicopters is not a blocking problem no and um the other the and the Russians have started to uh like always happen when Imports seiz you start having substitutions so the russes have launched some programs to use their own capabilities their own factories in the country to try replacing some of these components and in fact recently we started seeing that components that Western components are now being replaced from by Russian made components particularly guidance unit in drones have me the most some of the most recent drones that have been found crashed in Ukraine had these high slightly higher percentage of Russian components uh than than than years before the they also started to work at strategic level in the sense they are going all in and building and trying to get to I mean they microcircuits factories on the on noes which is the terms for the level of Technology uh on noes that are relatively modern um then okay the techn the the the let’s say the level of Technology of microchips is is determined by a a number which is the it’s called the node and is node and it is a number that sort of isxy for the size of the components inside the chip most advanced components the one that you find in the MacBook that I’m using to speak uh with you are about three or five nanometers uh the Russians are doing uh I have a pro program to set up a a manufacturing change for 28 nanometers which is quite old probably 10 15 years old but is still good enough for most military applications so they are overcoming this problem as well yeah I mean big surprise if you if you block a country then the country will try to find other ways way of of achieving the same thing I mean it’s not as if though the sanction on Iran had led to Iran stopping any all and every military activity they just do them differently um maybe another question to me on my mind is like talking to somebody who who understands the technical aspects of this war is like was there anything that surprised you in the in the war in Ukraine you know in terms of uh technical as technical uh uh um devices used let’s say that drone Warfare became so huge and that the Russians seem to have to have to not have had a lot of drones in the beginning but then catching up very quickly and and the way that that this new technology seems to be impacting Warfare on the ground so well nobody was expecting that drone technology would have had this such impact such an impact it it is huge I mean and way way more than everyone everyone was expecting okay and there was also this idea that drones were not survivable in a large scale confrontation because there were a lot of systems around so they were not going to survive so they were not really usable in that context it turned out that they are so cheap that you can actually lose them and don’t worry too much about that don’t worry too much about it so even though they are actually not survival little their survivability is not that great they are still very effective in whatever they do but the the other element that I think is even more important of which drone Warfare is part is the fact that the battlefield has become transparent meaning that both sides by drones but also by number of other satellites Ukrainian through Western uh Western assets um space-based assets Like Satellites but also ground based assets um and the Russian as well have a such a clear picture of what the opponent is doing that basically you can do nothing you can surprise your opponent anymore uh the reason if you look at the if you follow the the the videos that are coming from from the war you will often notice that all the actions involve uh small teams maximum company level maximum 100 200 soldiers or a doen Vehicles something like that and [Music] um this is actually not not in line with the pre-or doctrine that they had where they the idea was to amass heavy particular the Russian heavy um heavy armored formations to over make punch a hold through the opponent’s line and and then operate in in the rear and and and operating in depth uh this is not possible because every time anymore because every time you try to uh aggregate these forces to to to create this this fist armored fist to punch through the lines you just become a Target you are seen from very from a very long distance while you’re trying to do that your opponent gets prepared and in the moment your forces are concentrated they also become a better Target easier to easier to hit and uh uh so you every every attempt in this direction mostly failed the the in for example in the recent U this happened throughout all the war happened already at the beginning of the war but a recent example is for example of divka the Russians lost Russian tried to do this kind of M attack no uh on on the on the town of abka um and despite it was probably better managed than others they managed to be to hide their preparation better than in other cases they were absolutely pounded by the Ukrainian they lost the equivalent of a tank division in uh to to conquer of divka I’m talking probably between two and 300 Vehicles ground vehicles um just to conquer a divka and basically because they amass them and the same happen when they try to inul and same the same happened during the beginning of the uh summer offensive in 2023 Ukrainian summer offensive 20 23 when they tried to use NATO doctrines and to the ukrainians yeah Ukrainian in this case uh to to try to punch through the Russian defenses the must there forces and every time they must their forces they were pounded pounded to to Oblivion that’s the reason why the only thing you can do is move these small teams small groups of people that attack one position and then wait a little bit attack another then wait a little bit attack another so they slowly grinding uh they slowly grind through these all this position but it’s clear that you will never break through in this way will you will hardly inflict um an operational defeat you can you can you can win a lot of small tactical battles but it’s almost impossible to get an operational success even more even more strategic success because basically don’t have the force all your forces are dispersed to avoid creating targets for the opponent systems so that’s the that’s that’s the element that is is probably uh the the key element that is changing the the character of this war and mind this is different from first world war in the first world war was artillery and the Machine Gun and and barber wire okay in this case is information the availability of um the availability of intelligence uh on on the about the the opponent’s moves that makes Sur is almost impossible because both sides constantly are able to surveil itself I always thought you use Like Satellites to survey to to surveil the other guy but so drones are just way closer therefore you understand much more what’s going on and you fly them over you know and even if the Drone is gone you don’t care exactly there are several types of intelligence assets some are groundbased for example some uh units that actually listen to the electromagnetic emission of the opponent that is an important giveaway of what is going on obviously because Communications happens radar work and so on radar work try there are Radar groundbased Radar but also aircraft based Rader Ukrainian don’t use them too much because what we were saying before but they also exist NATO aircraft keep flying on the on the Black Sea and along the borders of Ukraine and Belarus trying to gather intelligence of what is happening is still a bit far the range is not still a bit far but they still gather useful intelligence and then there is obviously there the drones obviously and then there is the space based assets of which obviously there’s no lack no both sides don’t lack the this capability the Russians are not as developed as the Americans uh obviously but um it’s enough to to to have this kind of of intelligence is there another piece of technology that we haven’t really seen in other Wars used that or in general another piece of technology that you’re are looking out or that that you keep looking at in order to understand how the war and warfare in the 21st century is developing if you want the big unknown is the effectiveness of electronic warfare and cyber and cyber warfare which is to a limited extent connected with that in uh this because the u a it is the most secret aspect of every military operations they are very little information available so we really don’t know exactly what is going on and uh the the second element is that we are so r on Modern armies modern Armed Forces in general are so reliant on the electromagnetic spectrum for uh anything pretty much communication yeah the the electromagnetic spectrum becomes a battlefield in itself okay so there is a constant war going on there and by the way this is the situation in which you really don’t want to show all your cards because it’s probably the area where it is the easiest to react okay so it’s um so we we see the Russians that actually have invested a lot in electronic warfare this is an area where they’re not inferior in they’re probably slightly Superior of what the West could actually deploy um they have invested a lot but still from what we know seem to use relatively simple and stupid Brute Force tactics to to to fighting the electromagnetic spectrum and ukrainians don’t have much to to reply with to be honest so so that’s that so that’s the that’s the that’s the problem that’s the problem and that’s the area where some yeah some battles can be won completely invisible battles can be won or lost and have a important influence on the events of the war and maybe a last question the West seems to have put a lot of at least narrative hope and a lot of Nar a lot of a lot of trust Capital into ever new Wonder Weapons so the F-16 being one and you know we need to deliver uh this and that especially also missiles the German Taurus missiles the British ones and so on and whenever they were delivered they the Russians found a way to deal with them basically uh do you think that this war in the end will be decided by technology or by um military strategy which one do you think is more decisive I mean because like one thing is the second world war at the end of the second world war we’ve seen the introduction of something we’ve never seen before which is an atomic bomb a nuclear bomb and although in my view Russia’s entry into the second world war was more decisive for the Japanese to give up the N the the atomic bombings of Hoshi managaki were very important for the for the emperor to actually justify giving up toward its own people um so the the the sheer fact that you have a new technology can matter also politically um do we is there anything that that that you know that that is being developed at the moment in in terms of very new technology in so let’s split between the the general situation in the view of a future conflict with China possibly and war in Ukraine so in terms of General situation there’s a lot of this being developed today hypersonics um a new generations of combat aircraft uh drones um uavs so UNM com UNM command uh vehicles uh unman combat vehicle sorry that that is system that can actually drones that can actually use weapons while not being Guided by a human to a limited extent plenty of problems there but not there yet but that’s the direction where they’re going and one that is hardly talked about is integration communication and intelligence integration so every system on the battlefield can share its information with every other system and every system every or every Soldier or or every a or every or every sailor in the theater has a picture of the situation that is uh composed by the uh by the the sing the individual views of every of every system uh this is exactly what is happening in Ukraine when I was mentioning before which is and it is still probably to a relatively primitive level there are studies to push this to the Max and capable doing of for example controlling a an air battle from the other side of the world and even commanding directly the the weapons involved so there’s a lot been doing that and this is on General on a general from the general point of view uh on about the war in Ukraine because nobody wants to give away all the cards I don’t think that we are likely to see uh real military Solutions in the sense we may get to the point that as it seems now can always over turn because of political decision but as we see now seems that the Russians may get to the point of almost breaking the Ukrainian forces and then I believe that at that stage rather than accepting the rather than that rather than accepting breakage and losing for example the entire country as of the Neer they will start treat they will they sit down and negotiate uh so I don’t expect a full military solution in in Ukraine but due to any particular technology but I but plenty of Technologies been developed today that that I mean the the next War War we always hoped it would be n but yeah the next War uh will still be different from from this one won’t be won’t be similar okay I’ve learned from you today that obviously even though this war in Ukraine is being the most horrible one in Europe for you know at least since the Yugoslav wars uh apparently still not everything is being used there and um technology is being developed uh which means I have to talk to you again uh I hope I hope not too soon I hope not too soon I really would wish these these instruments not being used just we are too dumb not to use them that’s what frustrates me so much as a 8 billion planet and we are not smart enough not not to use this instrument of Slaughter on each other but well um unfortunately what happens the fact that I follow this doesn’t mean that I am yeah a mongerer obviously no I know I know you’re you’re you’re a very uh reasonable person and on your channel by the way everybody uh Gus keeps talking about these systems and about the technical intricacies that uh I I believe um that people on the ground will be studying and and that that that are impactful so we also in the policy space we should we should at least know bits of it so um G thank you very much for sharing your knowledge today my pleasure was uh really interesting all the links will be again in the description and also to your your channel and all the best thank you very much see you soon

Ever wondered why Ukraine is getting promises for F16s but not F35s? What’s the difference anyhow? Today, we’ll answer those questions with Augusto Aldeghi, who is the host of the “Millenium Seven Star” Youtube channel, and produces high quality videos about military technology, especially in the realm of aerospace.

Agosto’s Channel: ​⁠@Millennium7HistoryTech

Augusto got a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Milan, did military service in the Italian Air Force, and then worked for a short while in the aerospace industry, after which his professional career took him into IT and management consulting. Nonetheless, he is a self-described “massive aerospace nerd”, which is why he does his channel.

And you know me, I’m a pacifist at heart, so I don’t like military gear, but for the sake of analysis it is important to know what exists, what is being produced, and what the pitfalls are since those technical aspects are some of the factors that determine the development of military and security policies.