Modern War Institute

If you're looking for fundamentals, Sun Tzu's Art of War is a popularly-memed classic on strategy, and its modern equivalent MDCP 1 Warfighting echoes a lot of the same sentiments, but with modern clarity.

But these are very general strategy books, not tactics, and the reason for that is tactics are always evolving and must be adapted differently depending on the situation, the technology, the threat model. This is probably the most important takeaway: you must always be adapting and learning and changing your tactics in response to new information and events. In addition to understanding risk (not in an academically fragile mathematical sense), this is probably one of the most important fundamentals to understand.

I think war is ultimately just too simple to bother theorizing much about, not to mention a waste of time. It's not easy, of course, but it's simple to understand. It's in our bones. It's a part of primate nature. The only things that change are the technology and the scale, which inform the tactics.

Here's something closer to a more tactical fundamental, something that hasn't changed since Roman times:

Here are modern soldiers erecting fortifications to help hold a location of interest: https://mwi.usma.edu/effective-weapon-modern-battlefield-concrete/. From the HESCO barriers of today to the wooden palisades of two-thousand years ago, they accomplish the same fundamental goal. Protect a location of interest, keep your supply lines safe, etc.

Infantry-wise,…

Here's the original non-paywalled one.
https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/sensors-electronic-warfare/us-army-flickr-page-inadvertently-reveals-new-hypersonic

This twitter thread has most of the relevant new info that was added after the first article: https://twitter.com/TheDEWLine/status/1270068190224232450

OSD budget entries: https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2021/budget_justification/pdfs/03_RDT_and_E/RDTE_Vol3_OSD_RDTE_PB21_Justification_Book.pdf (feb 2020) & https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2019/budget_justification/pdfs/03_RDT_and_E/RDTE_DAs_Vol_3A_of_5_OSD_FY19PB-RDTE_Exhibits_BA1-3.pdf (first public appearance feb 2018)

It could be a tactical ballistic missile (MLRS/HIMARS launched) payload because the slide's 100k-200k target can't include the launch missile (ATACMS missile 800k each, cruise missiles too expensive as well). Not necessarily just a kinetic one since ISR is mentioned. Surveillance platform that's sometimes a bomb, under an unclear amount of human control? Quite a terrifying idea.

At least one similar looking drone delivery project from the 2000s with an ICBM was terminated because it couldn't be guaranteed that it wouldn't look like a nuclear launch.

This article from May 28 is also worth a glance. "SWARMS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: THE CASE FOR DECLARING ARMED AND FULLY AUTONOMOUS DRONE SWARMS AS WMD" …

Also, do not forget about the Ukrainian meme forces[0] & North Atlantic Fellas Organization[1] on Twitter, Reddit, etc.[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]

[0] https://war.ukraine.ua/country-and-society/ukrainian-meme-forces-what-makes-us-laugh-in-the-times-of-russia-s-invasion/

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFO_(group)

[2] https://www.cyberscoop.com/nafo-fellas-and-their-memes-ukraine/

[3] https://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-ukrainian-meme-war-defeated-russia-204588

[4] https://www.coffeeordie.com/ukraine-war-memes

[5] https://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-ukrainian-meme-war-defeated-russia-204588

[6] https://www.boredpanda.com/ukraine-support-memes/

[7] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/9/6/ukraine-latest-weapon-in-the-war-jokes

[8] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/18/ukraine-war-meme-fundraising/

[9] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/world/middleeast/ukraine-memes-russia-fundraising.html

[10] http://www.zhu.edu.ua/journal_cpu/index.php/der_sc/article/view/903

[11] https://mwi.usma.edu/on-trolls-and-nuclear-signaling-strategic-stability-in-the-age-of-memes/

[12] https://www.politico.eu/article/nafo-doge-shiba-russia-putin-ukraine-twitter-trolling-social-media-meme/

It had little to do with fear, look to the makeup of the coalition of the not exactly willing.

Australia had the sycophantic Howard Government at the time, declassified documents [0] reveal the decision to go to war was taken primarily with a view to enhancing its alliance with the United States.

Other Australian Governments (eg: Keating or Whitlam, etc.) would, I hope, have told the US to bugger the hell right off .. or they would have grudgingly gone along on the basis of having mutual treaties (that didn't strictly apply to Rambo Missions).

The UK had Blair who apparently really really believed that the UK's "special relationship" with the US could temper their excesses in a rash post 9/11 PTSD induced revenge mission [1].

The handfull of lessor players were in it for the promised carrots (with a few having a minor twist of fear of the alternatives should they not go along - but the US at the time was over promising to gain paid allies).

[0] https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/iraq-dossier/

[1] https://mwi.usma.edu/britains-blunder-united-kingdom-marched-war-iraq/

>The ethics of killing will never be left to AI, but the technicalities of acquiring and prosecuting the target?

This is unfortunately completely wrong. Fully autonomous weapons have already deployed for years, and are currently in use on the North/South Korean border. Fully autonomous weapons systems, including drones that use AI to autonomously choose and destroy their targets have been under development for many years.

https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2017/07/28/autonomous-military-drones-no-longer-science-fiction/index.html

There's a reason experts are sounding the alarm - because the ethics of killing are being shifted to AI right now.

>Kallenborn, an expert in unmanned systems and WMD, describes one type of swarm that he calls an Armed, Fully-Autonomous Drone Swarm, or AFADS. Once unleashed an AFADS will locate, identify, and attack targets without human intervention

https://mwi.usma.edu/swarms-mass-destruction-case-declaring-armed-fully-autonomous-drone-swarms-wmd/

There is no "civil war" in Ukraine. It is well-known at this point to have been instigated by agents of Russia. There are more tanks in the occupied territories than in multiple NATO countries combined. Drones, artillery, anti-mine vehicles, and equipment exclusive to the Russian Federation. Let's not use big misleading phrases.

Not to mention that being ethnic anything does not give you the right to start a war. I suggest you imagine a situation where ethnic non-Russians, in Russia, decide to break off a piece. Does Russia have the right to ruthlessly end that? Because it wouldn't even be a question.

Phillip Karber, an American military scholar, has been to the front many times to study Russian military equipment and tactics there:

https://mwi.usma.edu/video-dr-phillip-karber-ukraine-russian-way-war/?utm_source=pocket_mylist