It seems that we live in a parallel world in many aspects. We have seen how the Corona pandemic affected the world and our lives, and how the wheel of development accelerated in many ways depending on need and any need that comes with an emergency. We also witnessed the different reactions of countries in dealing with the pandemic along with the strength of those countries in a state of emergency.
As for our talk, it is focused on the Russian war on Ukraine because it forced the world to look at military technical concepts from a new perspective. Although there are many conflicts in regions of the world, especially the Middle East, they were not wars between two countries, but rather internal conflicts or disputes on borders. Most importantly, they were not conflicts between countries that manufacture weapons, as it is between the Russians, who are among the largest arms manufacturers in the world, and the Ukrainians, who are relative manufacturers of some weapons.
It is useful to look at the paradoxes taking place in Ukraine and how military maneuvering and plans adopted by the army have changed. Despite the strength in numbers and equipment of the Russian army, it showed a great delay in its progress to gain control of the capital, this was clear when the plan had completely failed and all units were withdrawn from the vicinity of the capital. The Russians were forced to do so, not because they wanted to, but because of the heavy losses they had gained from that attempt.
This is what draws attention to the technology that Ukraine used in this regard, as it focused on unmanned aircrafts, Javelin and Stinger missiles which were fed to the Russian army and collapsed some fronts, resulting in what we saw reflected as the state of psychological collapse of the army and the change of entire plans.
There is no doubt that the videos that the Ukrainian army began publishing at the beginning of the invasion of Ukrainian drones annihilating the Russian convoys had the greatest impact on raising the enthusiasm of the Ukrainian army and striking the psychology of the Russian army.
Some years ago, The United States presided over the use of this technology alone and used it in its foreign operations, but now there are many countries that manufacture this technology with very high quality.
There are many advantages to unmanned aircraft, the first of which is the safety of the commander, as it is controlled remotely and high maneuverability, as it does not need the same distance that a combat aircraft needs to rotate, prepare and launch, not to mention the cost, which is much cheaper than warplane programs, and also the cost that It is very low compared to other aircraft, as well as the difficulty of detecting it by radars and how to deal with it. Not to mention the other civil uses that you can have, such as exploration and monitoring. There are some countries that have started using them to extinguish fires, as well as discovering mines and many other civil uses.
One of the important paradoxes that this technology produces is the possibility of balancing a certain type of weapon. It also makes some militias that do not have the components to produce them to strike other countries with them, as we saw a few weeks ago on march when the Yemeni Houthi group attacked the oil refineries in Jizan in Saudi Arabia, and this was neither the first nor the last strike, and we also saw a few days later that Al-Houthi struck the oil refineries in Dubai. We have also seen its impact on the Armenian-Azerbaijani war and the civil war in Libya.
All of this, obligated most countries of the world to reconsider themselves in terms of military supremacy, especially with the presence of new war technology and cyber-security as another variable in the game., and there are many cyber breaches every day around the world .
It is important to look at what the French Defense Minister said in April in a media conference, that there is an urgent need for the EU to develop this technology and accelerate its manufacturing programs with Germany and Italy. And here we see the crucial importance of that small machine that seems to have begun to change the face of war, and that is the aviation field. So what about the countries that have been manufacturing drones for many years, They must have started manufacturing other unmanned war mechanisms, such as tanks and fighting vehicles, and even the entry of robots into battles is closer to the truth. What will make people more likely to avoid the risk of being killed in battles with an increase in the rate of influence in wars? It seems that the result is the same, which is the overall increase in the power and dominance of countries, but will this technology collectively change the balance of power in the world, or will it remain confined to limited use?.
