I see surprisingly little discussion from the MSM on when and how Putin will respond to the drone attack on Russian bombers this past weekend. Even less about the fact that Lindsey Graham was in Ukraine voicing Senate support as this was happening. The social media idiotverse is filled with praise for Zelenskyy combined with scorn for the Trump comment that Ukraine had no more cards to play. But, "I guess he did, huh" doesn't address whether he should have played this card.
No doubt due to growing up in the 50s and 60s, I have a deep aversion to excessively poking the Russian bear. I vividly remember thinking it was all over during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And I can't help but think that the provocation of taking out some of Russia's nuclear bombers while on the ground, is something America has war-gamed, but would not seriously consider doing. Not unless it was absolutely necessary.
So am I being alarmist? Will Putin feel he must respond not equivalently, but with overwhelming force? Or will he show restraint? Will he view NATO as complicit?
What do you think?
From what I heard on-line, they shuttled the drones inside trucks with false roofs which could be opened remotely. So they brought the drones very close to the Russian bases. I guess they just drove them on roads.
My wife's mom is from Latvia and she is very much on edge about Putin's expected response. I'm not sure I expect anything unusual from him. Before the attack he seemed determined to just grind on no matter how many men he loses so what changed really ?
With regards to drones, the WSJ had a piece about how western armies like to develop very complete but very expensive air/land drones (think Boston Dynamics) but Ukraine is also opting for cheap air/land drones. I can imagine a group like Hamas or the resurgent Al Qaida in central Africa adopting such drone swarm tactics. Part of the problem is the numbers, but also how cheap these drones can be. The IDF is trying to advance use of laser weapons as a means to combat this threat on the cheap side. But this only works for fair weather days.
OTOH I think for example the IDF could have used such cheap land drones right now for distributing food for hungry Gazans. Part of the problem is the friction in the actual distribution points. But if you could have land drones crossing some 300 yards en masse to make a delivery well that can make a huge difference.
