{"id":11464,"date":"2026-05-16T07:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/even-as-drones-usher-in-an-era-of-cheap-kill-army-leaders-look-to-whats-next\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T07:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T07:11:14","slug":"even-as-drones-usher-in-an-era-of-cheap-kill-army-leaders-look-to-whats-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/even-as-drones-usher-in-an-era-of-cheap-kill-army-leaders-look-to-whats-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Even as drones usher in an era of \u2018cheap kill,\u2019 Army leaders look to what\u2019s next"},"content":{"rendered":"
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WAIKIKI, Hawaii<\/strong>\u2014Drones are everywhere U.S. Army Pacific forces go these days. Last week, the 25th Infantry Division used uncrewed vehicles, vessels, and aircraft to fight a simulated battle on a Philippine beach. This week, two more buzzed about the USARPAC commander\u2019s head as he delivered the keynote speech at AUSA\u2019s Land Forces Pacific symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, innovation is not something we simply talk about, it\u2019s what we put into action every day,\u201d Gen. Ron Clark said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis drone, the Kestrel, was produced by our soldiers at The Forge,\u201d he said, indicating a first-person-view quadcopter that can be adapted to drop munitions or for one-way attack. The other was a Skydio X10, which is used for short-range reconnaissance and surveillance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn today\u2019s fight, we should never send a soldier when we can send an unmanned system,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

Protecting against enemy drones is also a high priority, I Corps commander Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane told a small group of reporters here.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019re seeing the absolute proliferation of drones, the importance of passive defense measures can\u2019t be overstated,\u201d McFarlane said.<\/p>\n

That includes things like putting command posts underground, or covering them so they are not easily detectable from the air, he said. \u201cWe\u2019re very conscious of making sure we\u2019re protecting ourselves from the real air threat that we\u2019re seeing around the world.<\/p>\n

Indo-Pacific Command leader Adm. Samuel Paparo highlighted the proliferation of drones in his keynote speech, describing one of three \u201cmeta-trends\u201d he believes are reshaping warfare as \u201cthe commoditization\u2014and by commoditization, I mean everybody has it\u2014of small, cheap unmanned systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s expanded access to core capabilities once reserved for great powers,\u201d he said. \u201cProliferated unmanned systems have made cheap kill, at scale more possible, more probable. Has made a traditional assault\u2014ground assault, air assault, airborne assault, amphibious assault\u2014much more costly than is in our formal doctrine,<\/p>\n

In Ukraine, the Russians lose \u201capproximately 100 human beings per square kilometer of ground that they take and that then they subsequently lose,\u201d Paparo said, calling the Ukraine war \u201ca wide laboratory of the commoditization of cheap kill.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the U.S. Army, and the defense industry, have wasted no time applying lessons from Ukraine about unmanned systems, they must not stop there, Gen. Xavier Brunson warned.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will tell you that the lesson from the fight in Ukraine is drones, drones, drones, drones. I beg to differ,\u201d said Brunson, the commander of United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and United States Forces Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s surface, and that’s easy. Don’t Occam’s razor strategic things. Don’t just say the simplest solution is going to be the solution. That’s not it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brunson urged attendees to think about \u201cthe next thing,\u201d which he believes will be commercial space.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes we learn the wrong lessons and we get stuck with them because it\u2019s easy,\u201d he said. \u201cListen, I am not against\u2026the development of drones. I\u2019m not saying that at all. What I\u2019m saying is we can\u2019t be stuck there. We have to keep going forward. Warfare, if nothing, is about offset, and what I continue to think about when I\u2019m awake at night in the bed is, what is the next offset? Because if we don\u2019t think about that, if we don\u2019t give ourselves to the thought of the next offset, we\u2019ll be doing drones 10 years from now, and thinking that\u2019s still the way.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n