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.
it’s good that the war games happen. you learn a lot from losing.
it should be noted that the U.S. military loses effectively on purpose. ( I’m not saying they purposely lose, they just create situations where they basically have a very high probability of losing. ) for example the F-22 will open it’s bay doors so they are easier to spot on radar (and that’s just one example). That’s just a matter of public record. (and yes i know this battle was about tanks and drones)
But it’s always interesting to see the results of the war games.
What do you really think the Hegseth military is going to learn from this?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
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.
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.
No idea what The Hegseth military will learn
No idea what the military will learn.
And my guess is we will never know . Probably new techniques. That’s just a guess.
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.
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.
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?
I must have missed the part of their post where they mentioned their generation and the declaration they speak for all members of that generation.
No, it is not good that “war games” happens and that public money are spent do develop weapons to murder other people.
In a world where criminals like Putin, Netanjahu, Xi, Kim Jong Un and Trump hold power, it’s essential that the rest of us have weapons against them.
Arming these criminals even more is not a weapon against them. One weapon against them is to resist their bullshit and defund their armies.
If you live in the land of fantasy cupcakes, and unicorns, then yes, you get to simply go “we’ll just disarm them”.
Otherwise, no you pretty much have to keep your military trained and you have to keep learning how to do stuff. Life sucks but that’s the reality. Go back as far as you want. Go back hundreds of years ago go back thousands of years ago if you want to. It’s the same thing , if you do not protect your country with a military, shit gets really bad. And like it or not. This is the reality of the world.