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Colby A. Chavez

Professor Gregory Torres

Fundamentals of Information Literacy and Systems

10 October 2022

The Age of Drone Combat

When Russia begun hostilities against Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022 (Cristofor), it

kicked opened the door to the next revolution in warfare: the age of the drone combat. While

drones have been used in counterinsurgency operation throughout the “War in Terror”, the nature

of that combat was always asymmetrical. The cauldron of conflict created by the Russians has

shown to be a testing ground for the cutting-edge military developments of the last 20 years in

open battle.

Brand new compact technology, such as a 5.5 pound tube-fired drone that can fit in a

backpack by the U.S.-made Switchblade weapon platform, is potent enough to take out any main

battle tank currently fielded. This has proven to be a game-changer on the modern battlefield

(Bird). While these claims have been made before in smaller conflicts. it was still lacking

evidence prior to the conflict in Ukraine (Antonio Calcara).

There are some who see this as the start of a drone revolution, viewing these events as a

precursor to rapidly changing world politics in the wake of this revolution (Antonio Calcara). As

the tech behind this becomes more common and cheaper, it will allow non-state actors to wield

the big stick normally only reserved for the military of much larger players on the world stage.
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Bibliography
AeroVironment. Switchblade 300 fact sheet. n.d. https://www.avinc.com/tms/switchblade. 10 October
2022.

—. Switchblade 600 Fact Sheet. n.d. https://www.avinc.com/tms/switchblade-600. 14th October 2022.

Antonio Calcara, Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, Raffaele Marchetti, Ivan Zaccagnini. "Why Drones Have Not
Revolutionized War: The Enduring Hider-Finder Competition in Air Warfare." International
Security (2022).

Bird, Steve. Small but deadly baguette bomb gives Ukraine upper hand in battle of drones; US-made
Switchblade device can be carried in a backpack and could be critical in next phase of war.
London, England: Sunday Telegraph, 2022.

Cristofor, Ana Caterina. "Ukraine war--a national trauma." Bulletin of Integrative Psychiatry (2022).
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AGE OF DRONE COMBAT

 Drones dramatically lower human and financial cost of warfare.

 Drones can fill offensive roles: destroying targets with that cost an

order of magnitude more than the drone.

 Drones can fill intelligence roles: gathering information on end my

troops or guiding artillery to their target.

Type Range Loiter Weight Speed

Time

Switchblad 10km 15 Minutes 5.5lbs(2.5kg) Cruise:63mph

e 300 Dash:100mph

Switchblad 40km 40+ Minutes 120lbs(54.4kg) Cruise:70mph

e 600 Dash:115mph

Additional Information

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