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Ukrainian drones wipe out entire US tank brigade in live war game (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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Ukrainian drone teams demolished a brigade of US Army tanks and armored vehicles during a live war game held this year—but the US soldiers were lucky enough to get “respawn” attempts while learning from the experience.

The semiannual military exercise, called Combined Resolve, gave the US military a firsthand taste of how modern drone warfare has evolved on the battlefields of Ukraine. The Ukrainian drone operators participating in the exercise were easily able to spot and destroy US armored vehicles by mimicking the actions of dropping bombs from above or moving close enough to simulate a kamikaze strike, according to US officials and a participant who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.

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[–] 19 points 1 month ago (9 children)

you learn a lot from losing.

What do you really think the Hegseth military is going to learn from this?

It should be noted that the U.S. military loses effectively on purpose

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    Like Trump demanding steam launch systems be retrofitted replacing the new electromagnetic stuff, because he is a toddler that understand nothing.

    But assuming we survive Trump… maybe these lessons will make it under the next administration.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    It's been a long time since I read into M02 exercise but IIRC Van Riper only won by using "motorcycle messengers" that traveled at the speed of light. IIRC the game's "DM"s basically ruled against him that their forces were not operating within realistic constraints which is why it was reset and restarted.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago

    Van Riper only won by using “motorcycle messengers” that traveled at the speed of light

    Van Riper used units designated as civilian material/personal to fill a gap in communications, in a war game that substituted certain functions of the combat as turn-based for expediency. They weren't moving at the speed of light. They simply existed in the scenario, were used in a clever manner, and were able to function freely because the attacking US forces ignored them.

    Van Riper used a few other tricks - toggling mobile radar stations so they won't be easy to target by enemy artillery and using speedboats to harry American Navy - which the US leadership considered "cheating".

    But then... 24 years later... all of these tricks (and more) were used by the IRGC to devestating effect.

    Americans learned absolutely nothing.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Is your generation incapable of developing a thought or imagining something?

    You really can't figure out how an institution as large and complex as the US military might have a way to learn things, even when shitheads are in charge?

    Can't imagine how it might be done? Can't think through and solve that one? C'mon. I refuse to believe anyone is that dense.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 month ago

    You really can’t figure out how an institution as large and complex as the US military might have a way to learn things

    It's a matter of thinking of them. You're got to actually employ them, too.

    Is the US actually doing this? Or is institutional memory getting shredded by DOGE, et al?

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