Ukraine’s Attack Exposed America’s Achilles’ Heel

10 comments

1. W.J. Hennigan, a journalist who focuses on national security and foreign policy, writes for Times Opinion:

   >It turns out Volodymyr Zelensky did have another card to play.

   >Ukraine’s astonishing drone attack on military airfields and critical assets deep inside Russia on Sunday blindsided the Kremlin, destroyed at least a dozen strategic bombers and marked a seismic shift in modern warfare.

   >The mission, dubbed Operation Spider’s Web, was a fresh reminder to leaders of the world’s most advanced militaries that the toughest threats they face today are not limited to their regular rivals with expensive gear. Instead, swarms of small, off-the-shelf drones that can evade ground defenses can also knock out billions of dollars of military hardware in an instant.

   >What happened in Russia can happen in the United States — or anywhere else. The risk facing military bases, ports and command headquarters peppered across the globe is now undeniably clear.

   Read the full piece [here, for free](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/opinion/ukraine-attack-russia-us.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MU8.eoum.unVnkVV56KhS&smid=re-nytopinion), even without a Times subscription.

2. I mean this has been exposed pretty much as long as drone technology has come out. It’s a huge threat by groups that could harm americans.

3. Very scary indeed. Since this is a type of attack that literally could be carried out by anyone anywhere. I mean imagine a “fishing” ship sitting off the coast a strategic military installation unleashing hundreds of drones and hitting ships, oil tankers, buildings, radars – I mean it could be Pearl Harbor all over again, with absolutely no warning.

   Now that they fly drones with fiber optic wires attached, jamming becomes even more difficult. Drone warfare will be inevitable, and scary. There’s to many possibilities and not enough ways to defend against them.

4. This is a great time to be a defence contractor at the innovative end of the curve. Money is going to be pouring in as entire continents scramble to join the 21st century.

5. The US pioneered the Centurian C-Ram, a weapon system that can defend against rockets and mortars autonomously. This weapon system has an 80% knock down rate on these threats

   Those threats travel at 15x the speed of any drone, which would make drones highly susceptible to such a defensive weapon system

   With a simple software update, this Centurian C-RAM can be tuned to specifically search for small drones. You would need a swarm to rival the starling swarms above Paris to overcome just one Centurion C-RAM

6. **TL;DR:**

   • Ukraine smuggled more than 100 quadcopter drones across the border in cargo trucks. The operators could watch live video and hover the aircraft above their targets before steering them into a nosedive.

   • The extent of the attack opens a new chapter in how drones are used in modern warfare. The widespread availability of technology has empowered Ukraine to have mostly free rein in the skies above its larger, wealthier enemy, despite having a limited traditional air force.

   • The U.S. military has globe-spanning technology to detect, track and shoot down ballistic missiles, but — so far — its multimillion-dollar systems remain helpless against the drone threat.

   • The Pentagon has tried to develop technologies and defensive tactics, but results have been spotty at best. So-called hard-kill tactics to blast the drones out of the sky, or soft-kill methods to electronically disable them, haven’t proved to be silver bullets.

   • The unmanned aircraft typically fly low to the ground and don’t always transmit their positions.

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7. Not just military installations but pretty much any sensitive or soft target is at risk

   Power stations, crowds, refineries, etc…

   They used off the shelf drones and software with a 4g modem… I’ve played with all of these technologies and understand how to pull this off and I’m not particularly smart

   Scary times

8. This war has opened our eyes to a new way of war. It’s like we have to have a couple millions drones ready to counter any attack. But how do you cover a whole country? This shows how easy it is to infuriate and get close enough to unleash hell on earth. Imagine drones like this with thousands of small nuclear bombs.

9. G

10. Now countries need to develop some anti drone protection technology. Something along this: a radar identifies a drone flock and then a magnetic field or an EMP bomb is deployed to down them?

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