The news from Ukraine is necessarily focused on what is happening on the battlefield, but there are any number of stories on the periphery that can supply the larger context in which those battles are turning. Air Force Magazine has a regular publishing schedule of news, including links to other publications of interest. Here’s a selection from the latest offering:
April 26 is going to see aid for Ukraine discussed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Ukraine is going to need aid for some time to come:
“Stakeholders” from up to 40 nations will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on April 26, to discuss how to deliver extended and more lethal aid to Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
The meeting is “not a NATO ministerial” but instead a gathering of those interested in providing aid to Ukraine in its resistance to Russia’s invasion, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby told reporters April 22. More than 20 nations have accepted the invitation, he said.
The European Union, Finland, Georgia, and Sweden have been among the entities invited to participate in recent NATO meetings discussing the war in Ukraine.
“One of the things that [Austin] wants” from the meeting is “the beginnings of a discussion with like-minded nations about long-term defense relationships that Ukraine will need going forward,” Kirby said.
“We obviously want to talk about what’s going on now. We certainly want to hear from … other nations about what they’re doing, in terms of immediate defense assistance, and how that might change,” Kirby said.
More at the link.
One of the munitions now headed for Ukraine is the Phoenix Ghost drone.
April 21, 2022 | By Greg Hadley
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:30 p.m. to include clarifying comments from the Pentagon press secretary on when the Phoenix Ghost was developed.
The Pentagon is giving Ukraine a secretive new drone that the U.S. Air Force has developed—one that “very nicely” suits the needs of the Ukrainian military, the Pentagon revealed April 21.
The U.S. will deliver at least 121 of the new Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million assistance package announced by Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby. But, what is the Phoenix Ghost?
“This is a drone that had been in development before the invasion, clearly,” Kirby said during an afternoon press briefing. “The Air Force was working this, and in discussions with the Ukrainians about their requirements, we believed that this particular system would very nicely suit their needs, particularly in eastern Ukraine.”
...The exact capabilities that Phoenix Ghost will offer to Ukraine are being kept under wraps, as Kirby declined to comment. But he did say the drone is “akin” to the Switchblade drone that the U.S. has already delivered to Ukraine.
Switchblades are often referred to as “kamikaze drones” or “loitering munitions” because they are capable of flying over a target before crashing and detonating in a precision strike. Different versions of the Switchblade can fly between 15 and 40 minutes, with a range from 10 to 40 kilometers.
The Phoenix Ghost is “designed for tactical operations,” Kirby said. “In other words, largely but not exclusively to attack targets. It, like almost all unmanned aerial systems, of course, has optics. So it can also be used to give you a sight picture of what it’s seeing, of course, but its principal focus is attack.”
Drones have had a large impact on the battlefield in Ukraine, literally and figuratively. That doesn’t replace other aid, of course.
In addition to Switchblades and the new Phoenix Ghost, DOD has also provided Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Mi-17 helicopters, Humvees, artillery, and millions of rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades, among other items.
More at the link.
Defense One reports AI is being applied to the Ukraine conflict to learn how to model the kind of combat now being seen.
AI Is Already Learning from Russia’s War in Ukraine, DOD Says
Today’s battlefield data is helping smart machines model the wars of the future.
Less has been said about the use of artificial intelligence in the Ukraine war than, say, anti-tank missiles, but the Pentagon is quietly using AI and machine-learning tools to analyze vast amounts of data, generate useful battlefield intelligence, and learn about Russian tactics and strategy, a senior Defense Department official said on Thursday.
“What you're not seeing,” said Maynard Holiday, director of defense research and engineering for modernization, is “our exquisite intelligence capabilities that are able to oversee the battlefield,” including gathering and archiving signals intelligence.
“We'll definitely be doing an after-action analysis on everything we've seen with respect to Russian tactics,” Holiday said at Defense One’s Genius Machine’s AI summit on Thursday, and all of it will go into a database that “we can train and then war game on.”
Just how much battlefield intelligence the U.S. is passing to Ukraine is a matter of some conjecture. The United States is not operating drones in Ukraine, but commercial satellite companies have made large volumes of pictures and images available to the public.
More at the link.
One of the elements of the Ukraine conflict that has gotten attention in Daily Kos coverage is the importance of NCO's (Non-Commissioned Officers) in making Ukraine’s military far more effective than the Russian forces attacking the country.
In simple terms, Russia has ordinary grunts under commissioned officers starting at lieutenants and going on up. Initiative is not a feature; orders come from the top down and must be strictly followed. This works only when communications are good and flowing both ways — not a feature of Russian performance to date — and it imposes a lag time on information coming in, going up the command chain, and then flowing back down in the form of orders to the troops. A lot can happen while waiting on orders from HQ or results from the field.
(Maxim 2: A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.)
In contrast, the Ukraine military has learned to use NCO’s effectively with help from foreign trainers, and has allowed them far more initiative to respond to changing conditions and opportunities.
An April 22, 2022 address by the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass gives some insight into what kinds of roles NCO’s and Airmen are expecting going ahead.
...Our adversaries are modernizing fast, and looking to replace us on the world stage. As technology advances, our adversaries are taking ideation to execution faster and faster—and training their people how to employ these new systems in a high-end fight.
To that end, we are also modernizing to ensure that our air dominance remains uncontested. However, in contrast, we aren’t just training our Airmen to use these systems, we are developing them to be the leaders our Air Force will need to win a strategic competition.
That will be the one competitive advantage we will always have over our adversaries—our people. The more deliberately we develop them today, the more successful they will be tomorrow. We don’t need Airmen to simply execute tasks off a checklist. We need Airmen who can think critically, strategically, and operate with an innovative mindset. Future conflict will never look like it has in the past, and we need our Airmen to be adaptive at speed and scale.
emphasis added — More at the link
Russia has scored one ‘success’ — Sweden and Finland are increasingly prepared to formally Join NATO thanks to what they’ve seen happening in Ukraine according to Defense One:
...For decades, Sweden and Finland have pursued a policy of neutrality and declined to join NATO. Even last month, after Putin sent forces into Ukraine, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that joining the alliance would “further destabilize this area of Europe.” But as Putin’s unprovoked and brutal attack continued, both Finland, which shares a 830-mile border with Russia, and Sweden, which faces it across the Baltic Sea, have warmed to the idea. Both countries' parliaments are currently debating the issue. Last week, Andersson said that “the security landscape has completely changed,” while Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said her country will make a decision on applying in “weeks.”
Russia’s invasion has influenced the publics in both Nordic nations as well. A poll released Thursday found that 51 percent of Swedes supported joining NATO, a six-point increase from a similar poll just a week before. That number jumps to 64 percent if Finland also joins the alliance, and experts all predict the two countries will act together.
“They have not made a decision yet, so the train has not left the station already, but indeed all signals are on green currently,” said Pierre Morcos, a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Opinion polls have dramatically shifted in terms of joining the alliance, political parties are reconsidering their historical reluctance to join NATO” and “both countries have prepared the necessary steps to join the alliance.”
emphasis added — more at the link
ONE MORE THING:
It’s getting explicit: via the Daily Beast —
Lloyd Austin III, the secretary of defense, has said the U.S. is now aiming to degrade the Russian military
...a key U.S. goal in supporting Ukraine is “to see Russia weakened to the degree it can not do the kind of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.” Austin, speaking bluntly Monday after a tour of Kyiv on Sunday, said Russia had “already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops, quite frankly, and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.” Austin was accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on his trip, which was shrouded in secrecy until President Volodymyr Zelensky blurted out the secret at a Saturday afternoon news conference. They are the highest-level American officials to go to Ukraine since the invasion began, and they are believed to have discussed a ramping up of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. “The first step in winning is believing that you can win,” Austin told reporters. “They believe that we can win, we believe that they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support. We’re going to do everything we can—continue to do everything we can to ensure that gets to them.”
emphasis added
Recent polling finds Americans want Biden to be tougher on Russia. The response to Austin’s statement — both in Russia and in America — should be interesting. The statement is certainly unambiguous.