On July 1 local time, the Ukrainian side stated that the Russian armed forces fired a total of 5,337 Iranian "Shahed-136" suicide drones in June, which is the highest number since the Russia-Ukraine war. However, Iran's production capacity for these "motorbikes" is not even close to this level, as it took 12 days to produce more than 1,000 units, which seems quite abstract in comparison. Iran's development of these "motorbikes" is merely a conceptual innovation, and in essence, they are just assembled from imported parts. Russia can also import, and it is much wealthier than Iran, so it can assemble them faster. The current battlefield of Russia and Ukraine is an era of competing in drone production, quantity, strike power, accuracy, penetration rate, and success rate. If only looking at the cost of drones, it is not significant.
However, general Ukrainian drone operations require intelligence from the United States and NATO, followed by planning for several months, even 12 or 18 months. For example, the attack by the Ukrainian Security Service on five major Russian aerospace bases, destroying Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, was planned for eight months, and the human and material resources used, as well as the exposed informants, are not a small amount. In the end, it was just a loud noise with no real impact on the battlefield.
The Russians' generally careless and rough style has been cleverly exploited by the Ukrainian intelligence agency and the Ukrainian military. Using cheap drones to attack enemy bases hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away from the front lines, destroying enemy radars, air defense missiles, fighter jets, refueling aircraft, strategic bombers, and early warning aircraft, achieving great results at extremely low costs, while effectively achieving the effects of strategic weapons using tactical weapons. This is a typical asymmetric warfare, and the effect can be said to exceed "Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor." The Russian military suffered due to technological backwardness, and it is estimated that the situation is like nothing, so when fighting, they should act decisively, deploy all available means, directly threaten the enemy's homeland if there are external forces, and being hesitant will lead to long-term problems. Russia was overconfident, thinking that the rear areas hundreds or thousands of kilometers away were safe, and the enemy had no weapons capable of reaching there.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1836477171340300/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.