Ukraine’s defences are thin - so why is Russia not winning? | Defence in Depth

[Music] pop quiz which of the following is the old one out annoyingly Superior cartoon Hound Snoopy Elizabeth an Explorer and totally uncontroversial English swashbuckler s Francis Drake a Russian T14 armar tank or 1984's franchise topping Bill Murray Fest Ghostbusters the answer the tank snoopies Drakes and Ghostbusters are all names for US military teams successfully combating drones where the T14 armata tank is apparently so vulnerable to Airborne attack that Kremlin won't let it do anything more risky than trundle up and down Red Square making it the most expensive parade float the world has ever known I wonder why look at Ukraine right now and kei's forces appear to be on the back foot they haven't yet completed IND depth defensive fortifications on anything like the scale of moscow's Surin line that proved so effective at blunting Ukraine's counter offensive Russia's troops are advancing across the front albeit in salami slices often literally and despite ke's crossborder raids and oil refinery strikes Putin generally has momentum so why isn't he capitalizing on this by sending the armata into action I'll come to the answer shortly but first a brief segue into what the tank [Music] [Applause] [Music] is at its most basic a tank is still the optimum blend of Firepower mobility and protection on the battlefield prioritize just two of those three and you'll come a Cropper sure you can have a massive gun and cover the vehicle in so much armor it's as well protected as Francis Donley's wallet on a night out but the thing won't move an inch like Francis Donley's wallet on a night out or you could go for a battlefield racing car with a bit of decent Firepower but you'll have to surrender most of the armor to buy that zip finally you could build something that's heavily armored and still able to move around over smash terrain but that's called an armored personnel carrier known by troops as a battle taxi just there to deliver you safely into the fight there won't be any room or power in the engine for a big gun on top as well so in a proper punch up a tank is still the best combination of what the Royal armored Corp calls the Holy Trinity tanks are heavy beasts though so heavy in fact that the majority of the armor is located on the front of the hull and the turret the bits that on battlefields gone by are the only Parts likely to face the enemy the war in Ukraine however has consigned Notions of the traditional Battlefield to history these days drone drones especially so-called firstperson view drones that are flown directly to a Target by soldiers wearing remote headsets can pick out which part of a tank to attack why go for the heavily armored front of the turret when you can just as easily scoot around the back to hit the thin metal at the rear or blast the tracks if it can't go anywhere it's easy prey or why not fly or drop a grenade right through an open hatch causing all the ammunition to explode and watch a new tree in the Russian tank turret tossing competition so tanks other armored vehicles and pretty much every military platform including individual soldiers now need some form of Defense Against drones and that's why the US has developed clunkily titled electronic warfare systems such as the Drone restricted access using NW the Drake system and when at Sea have teams of sailors looking looking out for surface and air contacts heading towards them delightfully if cringingly named ship nautical or otherwise photographic interpretation and exploitation teams or snoopies teams using the Drake system and other short range electronic warfare kits often carry the Techno gear in a backpack so they've become known as Ghostbusters after the hit 1980s movie which is the best in the franchise don't even bother emailing so Snoopy Drake and Ghostbusters don't blame me I didn't make them up Russia has also been rapidly developing electronic warfare kit to counter drones one system known as vules which means break water was first seen last year fitted to a t80 tank at a Russian arms exhibition the majority of drones in Ukraine are cheap and barely more sophisticated than those you'd find being used by civilian hobbyists they can be countered with various techniques and Technologies from physical Nets to electronic warfare Jammers these work by cutting the radio signal which has to be over an uninterrupted line of sight from the controller to the Drone we've all seen the footage when a drone approaches a tank and is either jammed or loses the signal as the aircraft dips behind trees or buildings the screen goes all fuzzy that's the signal being lost the controller hopes the Drone will hit the target and not Veer off at the last second snap that radio link far enough away and the Drone will either hover until the battery runs out return to base or head off to a predetermined Point well away from your own location that last is the most likely outcome as the last thing a controller wants is for their own drone to head merrily back like an excited labador with it tongue hanging out leading a swarm of enemy drones artillery or other heavy metal right to their location so in an area where there's jamming or a lot of ground clutter the controller has to just hope that sheer inertia carries the Drone onto the target if the signal is lost right well perhaps not for much longer advances in artificial intelligence and the inevitable miniaturization of technology means we're on the cusp of having automatic Target recognition capability on the smallest drones operating today this capability isn't that new infrared sensors on Tomahawk crew missiles have been staring at the ground and matching what it sees to a pre-programmed libr of images for years so it navigates to the right place the thing is though tomahawks are Big Lots of room on board for the Computing technology tactical drones not so much but as the space needed for all that clever technology keeps reducing just as the capability of machine learning AI systems keeps increasing there will soon be a Tipping Point when tactical drones can pick their own targets lose the signal back to the controller no problem says the drone I know the difference between a tank and an artillery piece or a Transit van or a building I even know where best to hit the tank I'll take it from here it raises the prospect of soldiers launching drones into pre-designated killboxes where they hunt for their own targets tanks armored personnel carriers humans this evolution of warfare is surrounded by ethical considerations which perhaps most alarmingly are some way behind the technology [Music] all of which means we're not going to be seeing any T14 armatas in Ukraine anytime soon they're prestigious bits of Kit Moscow doesn't want to put them In Harm's Way and risk images of smoking T14 hulls doing the rounds on social media that wouldn't be good for Putin's fragile ego or for that matter the retirement prospects of the local Commander sure the Armata's fully automated turret is a clever idea keeping the three-man crew in the better protect Hull but it's thought to be a bit temperamental plus the engine is a bit dodgy and prone to sudden Hissy Fits followed by a truculent refusal to produce enough power for the tank to move anywhere exactly not what's required when there are drones hunting for you with or without the vulner gear even so Russia currently has the initiative in the Tactical Land Battle in Ukraine ke has been criticized for not building a zi or zalinsky line or whatever you want to call call a defensive undertaking on the same scale as Russia's Surin line of course investment in a multi-layered defensive line Takes Time Manpower probably civilian as well as military and money which could otherwise be spent elsewhere so can we blame them yes is my answer after 2 years of fighting the defense lines that some ukrainians claim to be good and started a long time ago simply do not exist in any militarily meaningful form most of what has been constructed are bulst standard ditches with a few concrete features history has proven these to be ineffective Dragon's Teeth for example can be forced into soft ground or have Earth pushed onto them to create a bridge many defensive trench positions are little more than muddy ditches properly constructed fighting positions with strengthened walls and appropriate over overhead protection are extremely rare the troops in Frontline units are simply too tired poorly trained or ill equipped to create what is needed there's one more impediment to the construction of a good defensive line one that is proving stubborn for senior Ukrainian commanders to shake the old Soviet mindset that sees defensive investment as the admission of defeat a tacit belief that one is only going backwards from now on Western armies see it very differently they see a properly constructed defensive line as the springboard from which to deliver extreme violence upon the enemy it is not a passive act a well-designed defensive line can be the base of an incredibly aggressive and effective strategy provided it has mutually supporting positions reserves ready to tackle the unexpected a deception plan that is more than just camouflage and defense in depth so if necessary you can fall back in good order to strike again rather than collapse in the face of the enemy our podcast team visited Ukraine in February some senior military and policy officials there were reluctant to accept there were shortfalls in Ukraine's defensive line however former Special Forces Commander Colonel Roman kosenko now an MP orbe it back in uniform since the start of the fullscale invasion said he believed it was Ukraine's fault there was no line he wished there had started earlier Russia's approach towards is better he told me Ukrainian forces counted on more maneuvered actions and the defense was just underestimated he said you can catch up on all our interviews from Ukraine by searching recent podcast episodes Colonel costeno knows what he's talking about and his level of honesty and reflection is needed now across the whole of Ukraine's Armed Forces drones and a Herculean fighting spirit in the men and women on the Zero line the line of contact is for now holding back the Russian army the armatas aren't coming a bit like the money and ammunition pledged by those in the west who promise to stand by Ukraine whatever it takes but what's left of the rest of the Russian tank force could be on the way soon and with a constipated supply line from Western supporters Ukraine is in a jam it's time to get underground defense in depth is a regular video output by the telegraph of the big defense stories if You' like like a daily fix of content about the war in Ukraine I suggest Ukraine the latest the telegraph's podcast for more defense stories we've left links in the description below and if you have a topic you'd like us to cover let us know in the comments please do visit our 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Channel: The Telegraph

Views: 543,417

Keywords: Telegraph, News

Id: KTtiPNYNqjw

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2024