No. of Recommendations: 9
When considering weapon systems, it is more instructive to observe those without resources, rather than the US which has incorporated the military-industrial complex into the national economics and politics.
Every time Ukraine reports a successful strike against a piece of Russian military gadgetry, the replacement cost is also divulged. Without realizing it, they are telegraphing their concern about their own finances. The Ukrainians were willing to take whatever tanks they could lay their hands on. It was pretty quickly determined that the US Abrams tanks were the least favorite for a number of reasons. That said, the use of drones has pretty much made the tanks currently used nearly obsolete. The modern tank is generally designed with armor around its periphery, but the top - where drones tend to hit - is only lightly armored. Nowadays both sides in the war are retrofitting their armored vehicles with anti-drone cages and nets, designed to keep drones at arms length. Similar to the tactics used by Rommel in North Africa, missile systems designed to be used against aircraft are now regularly used as long-range artillery. The Russians use heavy bombers, outside of the range of Ukrainian anti-aircraft systems, to launch long-range missiles and glide-bombs.
NATO nations have recently been "besieged" by (presumably) Russian drones, yet it is not cost effective to use million dollar Patriot missiles against them. Again, the wrong weapon for the job. Russia has moved its entire Black Sea fleet away from Crimea as Ukraine was sinking major ships with cheap missiles and unmanned naval drones.
Warfare has changed back to looking more like the First World War than the Second - with success being to offset the attrition of a larger army with imaginative tactics used by the smaller one.
Back about 20 years ago, my firm was involved in assisting in the procurement of the major components of what Elbit turned into a leading edge tank fire-control system. From design/prototype to final product production was accomplished in a matter of months, using mostly off-the shelf items assembled with a great deal of imagination (and some cool custom software) at a final production cost (of the hardware, at least) of about 20-30 grand. If the US decided to build a similar system, it would take years, everything would be customized, each unit would cost millions and, if they ever got it to work, it would be obsolete by the time it was produced in quantity.
The Gaza war is an example of how difficult it is for a modern, well equipped army, to defeat an agile, well prepared, smaller force in urban warfare.
Something which few have mentioned, but which has to weigh on the Israeli government's bean counters, is the recovery from the vast cost of the recent series of wars - both in material spent and in disruption caused by continually pulling reservists from their jobs, not to mention the significant loss of tourism revenue. They also face a global change in attitude by former allies who were upset at the methods used during the war which may have long-term effects on their economy.
Jeff
