Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the first major conflict between two technologically comparable military forces in decades.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provides a lot of food for thought for military researchers. The battle in Ukraine is now being studied by military analysts from all countries. The BBC has compiled five aspects of modern warfare that preceded the battle.
Dominance in the air
Since World War II and even before, air supremacy has been an important aspect in combat operations. To achieve this is the main goal of starting any war. To gain this dominance, it is necessary to destroy enemy aircraft and suppress its ground-based air defense system.
The Russian Air Force was initially both quantitatively and qualitatively superior to the Ukrainians. In addition, the air defense forces, which in Ukraine are part of the Air Force, are armed with less powerful systems than the Russians.
But Russia has failed to suppress Ukraine’s air defense. This leads to the fact that Russian aviation operates mainly in the frontline zone, and attack aircraft often fly at low altitudes to avoid being hit by medium and long-range systems.
The Internet is the leader of everything
In recent years, authorities around the world have turned off the Internet during wars, mass protests and civil conflicts – this happened, for example, in Azerbaijan during the second Karabakh war in 2020 and in Belarus during protests in 2021. In the states of Jammu and Kashmir in India, after the unrest, the Internet was turned off for a year and a half.
However, this did not happen in the case of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – both sides used the Internet, and none of them were able to disable it for others using electronic warfare (EW).
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has provided hundreds of terminals for Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine. These terminals communicate via satellite with ground stations connected to the Internet.
Starlink terminals are widely used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, even the Azovstal defenders had them, allowing them to transfer videos, photos and other information over the Internet.
Artillery is one of the most effective means of destruction in the Russia-Ukrainian conflict. And the accuracy and speed of identifying targets are key factors in the anti-battery battle. The role of the Internet in supporting and supporting this struggle has become overwhelming, and this fact is likely to have a major impact on the development of information networks on the battlefield, as well as on the improvement of electronic warfare, that is , weapons to oppose these networks.
The Importance of Drones
The Russian army has invested in electronic warfare more actively than many European countries. These funds should have been intercepted by drones, including the Turkish strike UAV Bayraktar TB-2.
The success of these drones played a big role during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and everyone expects Russia to draw conclusions from it.
However, this is not happening to the extent expected by experts – and Ukrainian forces regularly release videos of drone strikes and artillery fire adjustments from conventional, commercially available drones.
The conclusion the world’s military has drawn from this is the need to develop methods of combating drones. Moreover, we are talking not only about air defense and electronic warfare equipment, but also the scenarios for the air battle between the drones.
transparent world
The current military conflict in Ukraine has become the first major clash of the armed forces in decades, which includes a large arsenal of intelligence assets.
Satellite imagery, drone data, reconnaissance aircraft and other sources of information that the military has become familiar with are now complemented by data obtained from social networks.
The world has become transparent. With satellite images taken primarily by commercial rather than government satellites, as well as through social networks and other open data, in late 2021 – early 2022, everyone will see the accumulation of Russia’s military on the borders of Ukraine.
The list of military supplies to Ukraine, released by the Pentagon in May, includes the services of commercial satellite images of the world. Significant funds are allocated for these purposes. This is one of the new aspects of modern warfare – the basic information decisive on the battlefield is provided commercially by major galaxy companies such as Planet and Maxar. In total, U.S. authorities receive information from 200 commercial satellites, and the images go directly to the U.S. and Ukraine military commands.
Tanks – weapons of the past?
The burnt Russian tanks on the sidewalks of roads in Ukraine have become one of the symbols of this battle. Many videos were published on social networks and in the press, in which heavy armored vehicles were destroyed by various light anti-tank weapons.
The Ukrainian army began receiving such weapons from the West even before the Russian invasion. These are the American Javelin anti-tank system, the British NLAW, and many others from different countries. Among the videos, there are many such, featuring the Ukrainian anti-tank complex Stugna.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.