In Reply to: The campaign in Maine isn't east to explain, but ... posted by mh on August 14, 2026 at 11:14:40
The US and Ukraine have two different approaches to drones. The US slowly builds relatively few, incredibly expensive ones. The Ukrainians pump out thousands of bargain-basement machines in short order. The difference in numbers is staggering. Ukraine, which already makes 10 million drones a year, reportedly plans to double production. The US has a total of 16,000 active unmanned flying vehicles.
Of course, more is not necessarily better. One way of ascertaining which is the more advantageous approach is to have them go head-to-head. Fortunately for the sake of analysis, that happened. It was a tough lesson for the Pentagon. The Independent reported the confrontation thus:
American forces were overwhelmed by Ukrainian drones during a training exercise that exposed U.S. military vulnerabilities — which have also been exploited to deadly effect by Iran, according to a new report.
Ukraine’s drone operators easily spotted and defeated U.S. troops and armored vehicles so quickly that they had to be “re-spawned” and sent back into the field to keep the exercise going, The Wall Street Journal said, citing an unidentified U.S. official who was briefed on the matter.
This ‘conflict’ was an exercise, so the ‘casualties’ were theoretical. However, the US has also performed poorly in a real shooting war. On Thursday, the Washington Post published an article titled: “U.S. military has lost roughly 25% of its Reaper drones as Iran war depletes arsenal“. WaPO adds: “The aircraft, which cost up to $50 million each, have seen heavy use around the Strait of Hormuz — but they are relatively easy targets for Iran and its proxies.”
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But our soldiers can do more pushups and have higher testosterone.