[Tee tiong huat]

Russians struck territory in Kupiansk district in Kharkiv for first time with modified FAB-1500 glide bombs, destroying an entire street. Source: Serhii Bolvinov, Head of Investigation Dept Main Directorate of Ukraine's National Police in Kharkiv Oblast, said on Facebook. "Everything around shook like earthquake with one strike, 1 entire street destroyed. 

Residents village of Monachynivka had a feel & see such devastation unleashed a tremendously powerful weapon – a high-explosive bomb weighing one & half tonnes.

For a long time, US Army assumed US Air Force can protect it from enemy aircraft. Which is why, in the 1990s, the Army shuttered many of its short-range air-defence, or SHORAD, units process only accelerated during counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq / Afghanistan, where Army fighting an enemy with no aircraft.

By the time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, the Army was down to just 300 or so aging Avenger air-defence vehicles, each firing infrared-guided Stinger missiles out to a distance of three miles. This to protect a million troops, if you count active and reserve forces.


The Army didn’t anticipate that 9 years into Russia-Ukraine war, both sides weaponise tiny, cheap first-person-view (FPV) drones – & fling them at each other at a rate of tens of thousands per month.

This 100,000 FPV drones the Ukrainians launch every mth account for a significant proportion of roughly 1,000 casualties the Russians suffer every 30 days, consider: Russian army never divested its SHORAD forces the way US Army did. It went to war in Ukraine with a thousand short-range air-defence vehicles and is still getting overwhelmed by FPV drones.

Imagine? what can happen to US Army on a battlefield buzzing with tiny drones. It should go without saying that US Air Force isn’t going to send a $100-million F-35 stealth fighter to try, & probably fail, to shoot down $500 FPV drone flying 10 feet above ground directly over front line.

Air-defence calculus has changed ,  the US Army now finds itself all but defenceless against one of its most serious threats. 

If Army leaders are beginning to internalize the scale of their air-defence problem. But are they doing it fast enough?.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05...r-defence/