Around 85% of battlefield kills are done with domestically produced drones, according to recent stats I saw. So I think the world bought Ukraine mostly enough time to get their war machine rolling.
That being said, this hurts their air defense far more than the front lines, if I understand it right.
It’s not so much about what is happening on the battlefield, but about air defence. Ukrainian infrastructure is permanently targeted with missiles and drones. The Patriot missiles are very much needed for defence against missiles.
Does the 85% of kills mean drones are the entire kill chain or just a part of it? For example would a Russian tank destroyed by artillery, but spotted by a drone be done by a drone?
Just the last step of the kill chain. So you’re not counting all the enables in the previous study m steps of the chain
From what I understand it’s not including artillery kills. Most tanks are destroyed using kamikaze FPV drones, I believe.
Time for Europe to step in. They saw this coming anyway.
Unfortunately Europe can’t produce and send patriot missiles to feed UA air defense, and cruelly lack of air defense system (for what I know : I don’t).
I guarantee you that the moment Ukraine received one of the Patriot missile systems, they reverse engineeed it. These are smart and highly resourceful people
Many European countries have patriot missiles. They probably not allowed to be exported anywhere without a permission from USA, and if you ignore such an export restriction, you’ll end up in trouble when trying to procure arms the next time. Or, might end up. After what Trump’s done, it could very well be that this would be considered a force majeure situation. We are defending ourselves from the Russia, and of course we must be allowed to use our AD missiles for that.
So, we should probably just send to Ukraine all patriot missiles we have got and immediatelly order a lot of NASAMS and IRIS and SAMP platforms and missiles to replace them.
They have f-16s now too. This allows them to use western air-to-air missiles in addition to air-to-ground, increasing the variety of options people have for giving them stuff.
Here’s a couple of things that are going on
Also German support with 6 Iris-T in Ukraine already and another 6 being worked on. Also 56 Gepards and 2 Skynex systems. https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/military-support-ukraine-2054992
US weapons all come with restrictions anyway, better to get others or make your own.
Polish weapons wouldnt come with restrictions. They would come with demands: “Kill as many russians as possible with this”
Does Poland provide anything more long-range than 155 artillery shell? That’s the main problem:(
Probably
And if not, the Ukrainians are doing quite well in the long-range department. Just yesterday they blew up an oil refinery 1300 km from the front lines.
