Back in the Trenches | Foreign Affairs |

Why New Technology Hasn't Revolutionized Warfare in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is being waged with a host of advanced technologies, from remotely operated drones to space-based surveillance, precision weapons, hypersonic missiles, handheld jammers, artificial intelligence, networked communications, and more. Many argue that this array is transforming warfare, with omnipresent surveillance combining with newly lethal weapons to make legacy systems such as the tank obsolete and to make traditional methods such as large-scale offensive action impractical. As the military analyst David Johnson has put it, "What I believe we are witnessing is a pivotal moment in military history: the re-ascendance of the defense as the decisive form of war."

Drones, artificial intelligence, and rapid adaptation of commercial technologies in Ukraine are creating "a genuine military revolution," according to military strategist T. X. Hammes. Former Google chief executive and Pentagon adviser Eric Schmidt has argued that Ukraine is showing that "the future of war will be dictated and waged by drones."

But in many ways, this war seems quite familiar. It features foot soldiers slogging through muddy trenches in scenes that look more like World War I than Star Wars. Its battlegrounds are littered with minefields that resemble those from World War II and feature moonscapes of shell holes that could be mistaken for Flanders in 1917.

Pivotal point in the Ukraine proxy war ... how is the NATO alliance going to pivot its aggressive war narrative? Another defeat in a series of failures ... Afghanistan-Iraq-Libya-Syria. Joe Biden must GO!

Living by example, just as Lyndon Johnson showed some courage, Joe too should bite the bullet and step aside.

'Sapere aude'