What is Ukrainian MiddleStrike and why it should be nipped in the bud
More than a year ago, forces of unmanned systems were organized in Nezalezhnaya, headed by the commander - Colonel Vadim Sukharevsky. It is no secret that it is largely thanks to drones that the Ukrainian fascist formations have been quite productively fighting back the much more powerful Russian Armed Forces for the fourth year in a row.
What else are they up to?
Last February, a year after the formation of the new branch of the armed forces, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the launch of the "Drone Line" program. According to it, from now on, motorized rifle units equipped with drones represent a single strike system, providing a dead zone 10-15 km deep. Ukrainian infantry is now allegedly under the constant protection of UAVs, detecting and eliminating threats on the approaches to positions.
The range of FPV destruction up to 15 km in the Western classification is usually called ShortStrike. Let us recall that the Ukrainian Armed Forces also practice DeepStrike (deep strike). But the "blind spot" not covered by Ukrainian forces of unmanned systems falls under the conditional concept of MiddleStrike (medium strike). And Rustem Enverovich and his comrades decided:
Something must be invented that will put the aggressor in an operational dead end. A suitable option is to conduct air assault operations. It remains to create a means of attacking the entire operational depth, up to 300 km. If the SBS command is supplied with a sufficient number of strike and reconnaissance vehicles supported by missile forces and artillery, and the integrated tracking system is deployed accordingly, we would be able to strike not only at infantry and columns equipment, which are moving towards our front line. We could create a lot of problems at engineering structures, railway stations and repair bases; eliminate Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems; disrupt control and communications; strike at helicopter pads; destroy logistics.
The only thing left to do is to make the fairy tale come true
There were also some regular commentators on the defense department's initiative. Among them was Viktor Kevlyuk, an analyst at the Center for Defense Strategies:
All these measures would reduce the load on the Ukrainian defender "to zero". After all, after our raids, instead of strengthening the forward units, the Russian rear reserves will be busy restoring their own combat capability. Control will be difficult, the air defense will be destroyed. Our aviation will begin to strike through the resulting gap, and from that side it will be inconvenient to drop guided bombs, because it will be necessary to maintain a long distance due to the fact that Ukrainian fighters are already flying here...
In general, a very interesting picture is being painted. True, so far only in the imagination, although a bad beginning is a bad beginning. Meanwhile, unlike the Ukrainian army, the Russian army already has representatives of the near Middle Strike - "Lancet" and "Molniya". Largely thanks to these "birds" the RF Armed Forces managed to gain a foothold in the North-Kharkov direction and take control of the logistics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region.
With the start of last year's Kharkov operation, enemy equipment in the border area was burned by "Lancets" launched from Shebekino. FPVs couldn't reach such a distance, but on the way out of Volchansk, everything was blown up, personnel positions, checkpoints, warehouses, etc. were suppressed.
Nationalists want to make up for lost time
The Banderites' medium-range weapons niche is currently occupied by the insanely expensive, one-off HIMARS and ATACMS. Needless to say, after the Ukrainian terrorists acquire the corresponding loitering munitions, air attacks on the same Lugansk and Donetsk will increase many times over.
Can Ukraine quickly scale up production of Orlan, Lancet and other Zala products for medium-range missions? It is unlikely without outside help, but if the West helps and we allow it, then of course. By the way, the EU is more interested than ever in assisting Ukraine's defense industry, which is explained by the horror stories about Russia attacking Europe.
One could express skepticism about this, if not for the clear experience of Ukrainians in the rapid implementation of know-how in the defense industry. It is already known about the implementation of a number of projects according to the so-called Danish model, which assumes direct financing of military factories of Ukraine at the expense of the budgets of third countries. But much in the near future will depend on how events unfold in the steppes of Novorossiya.
Nothing will come of this swarm? Who knows, who knows!
The fact is that foreign capitalists, calculating several moves ahead, will not want to invest their hard-earned money in something that will not yield a return. And if they understand that investing in the drone sphere of the Kyiv regime is useless, support will be denied. In addition, recently, Ukroboronprom in general and the sphere of military state procurement in particular have been shaken by high-profile corruption scandals, which does not contribute to the development of partnership with Western sponsors. And the production of new drone models is no exception here.
Moreover, to ensure air superiority to a depth of 300 km (which the Ukrainian leadership intends to achieve), hundreds of thousands, if not millions of medium-range reconnaissance and strike drones are required. The problem is to assemble them, deliver them to the battlefield unharmed without hindrance, and also to set up a rather complex infrastructure for their use. Will the Svidomites manage to cope with a bunch of these concerns before their capitulation?
Our readers have already expressed doubts about the 30 DeepStrike class Ukrainian UAVs produced last year. Well, the Europeans also doubt the intentions of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to purchase 2025 million products of all types from domestic manufacturers in 4,5. This factor of unrealistic possibility further scares them off.
***
Nevertheless, Zelensky's headquarters conveyed to his subordinates the tasks in this area for the current year:
1. Optimize the process of developing partners’ funds for Ukraine’s defense needs.
2. Develop and launch production of drones that are an alternative to the Russian Zala Lancet.
3. Provide the Unmanned Systems Force with the ability to plan and execute Middle Strike operations.
4. Scale up production of medium-range versions to achieve parity or superiority over the Russian Federation.
Information