Back in November, David Hambling noted that Russian Lancet strikes had fallen off:
The Lancet is a long-range killer, striking at distances of over 25 miles and with a shaped-charge warhead capable of knocking out tanks. It has been notably effective in damaging Ukrainian artillery, as the drone can pursue moving targets. But the number of strikes recorded by Russian OSINT site Lostarmour – which has a semi-official role providing data to Lancet makers ZALA – has been falling, from 180 in August to 81 in September, 100 in October and, with more than half the month gone, just 24 in November so far.
The interceptors are not bringing down many Lancets: instead they are taking out the reconnaissance and communication assets which enable them to find targets.
The Lancet operates in a hunter-killer team with ZALA reconnaissance drones. These with survey an area and identify and locate a target. Once this is confirmed, the Lancet is launched. The reconnaissance drone may also act as a flying radio relay, making the Lancet more resistant to jamming. It will observe the strike, and carry out post-strike damage assessment to determine whether to send a follow-up attack. In many cases the LostArmour videos include multiple strikes against the same target until it is destroyed.
The US/NATO is losing this war, but maybe they will learn how to fight the next time. Or maybe they should just learn how to play nice with other people.
Bob Sykes says:
They used to know how to fight. Also, on which part of the body one is supposed to wear pants. And how to tell the boys from the girls.
The people in infancy “maybe will learn”. The people in late-stage dementia tend not to.
Others already have learned which game they play, so changes in style would not lead anywhere even if this was somehow possible.
No, this continuity is truly unfixable. The next one will have to not just paint over symptoms of the problem, but get rid of the underlying forces to crawl out of this pit. But who knows what it may look like until it appears?