Ukraine podcast: Military expert – New drones not a “silver bullet”

According to security expert Christian Mölling, the new Ukrainian drones are a challenge for the Russian air defense system, but not a “silver bullet”. Mölling said on Friday in the stern podcast “Ukraine – the situation” that the extremely light flying objects, which were only loaded with a few kilograms of explosives, created “pressure to adapt” on the Russian side. They will now work to find ways to better capture the drones, some of which are made of cardboard. For example, the sensitivity of the radar could be increased. “There is still a metal part in it,” said the research director of the German Society for Foreign Relations. “It will not be the miracle weapon that now flies on by the thousands uncombatted.” Ukraine has recently stepped up its drone strikes in Russia, using not only the light and cheap carrier weapons, but also a system that appears to be able to attack targets at great distances.

Security expert Mölling: Ukraine is trying to overwhelm Russia’s air defenses

Mölling expects that the Ukrainian armed forces will try to overwhelm the Russian air defense with the number of drones. This could start a new phase in the race between offensive and defensive weapons. He compared the situation of the Russian air defense with that of the Ukrainian. They too have to use expensive defense systems against relatively primitive drones. “It’s not about the cost of the weapon, it’s about the damage that occurs,” he explained.

Mölling also considers it conceivable that the Ukrainians will further increase the efficiency of the drones through the use of modern information technology. This could include, for example, the drones being networked and sharing information with each other. “From a Ukrainian point of view, going for automation makes total sense,” he said.

The expert made it clear that Ukraine must equip its army differently than the West has traditionally done. “The West has always armed against itself,” said Mölling. He always derived assumptions about the abilities of the other side from his own abilities. Analysts would have called it a “race against yourself”. In the end, this led to high quality and low quantity. “Now we see that this type of armament wasn’t the right thing to do for this war, at least.”