Aerial and naval drones are reshaping theaters of war
The technologically advanced and wealthy States of the Middle East are gradually moving away from a strategic attitude towards long-term grueling military operations. After all, the longer conflicts last, the more they deplete limited resources and, consequently, the more the parties to the conflict are prone to risky decisions. This circumstance forces the military leadership of the Middle East countries to reconsider their approaches to the use of the theater of operations and to planning operations on land, at sea and in the air.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE THEATER OF WAR
The geopolitical transformation that is currently taking place in the world affects many processes in the military-political field in many regions of the world – and especially in the vast and densely populated region of the Middle East.
The Middle East is full of political nuances for a number of reasons. Often, the complication of intra-state and regional contradictions is facilitated by the intervention of external forces, which, as experience shows, can sharply exacerbate them. All conflicts and contradictions in this region are of a multi-level nature. The political systems of most countries in the region are in the process of formation, therefore, changes in the situation in these countries themselves sometimes lead to destabilization of the situation as a whole. As an example, internal contradictions and conflicts in Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Libya, etc. can be cited.
Powerful external factors are added to the internal contradictions, such as Israel's confrontation with the Arab world or the intensification of rivalry for regional leadership between Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. These factors result in other multi–level contradictions at the interstate level: Syria–Turkey, Israel–Turkey, Turkey–Egypt, Yemen-Saudi Arabia. And Iran has already reached directly to the territory of Israel through the Shiite arc of Iran-Iraq-Syria and is now able, using missiles of almost tactical range, to strike at Israel with the hands of its proxy agents.
THE ROLE OF DRONES IN CONFLICTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Although remote-controlled aircraft technology has been around for at least half a century, Israel revolutionized the field in the 1980s by combining relatively inexpensive drone technology with real-time video broadcasts.
Drones were used to detect the location of Syrian air defenses in Lebanon and detect terrorist groups that used mobile surface-to-air missiles against Israel.
The explosive use of drone warfare technologies in the 1990s and 2000s also affects the current state of affairs in the Middle East - as, indeed, in other theater of operations. Iranian drones have been built since the 1980s and were used in the Iran-Iraq war, but the technology at that time was very primitive. However, during the "global war on terrorism" started by the United States and its allies, Iran was able to take possession of downed American drones, "reconstruct" and modernize them. Although the Islamic Republic of Iran does not have production facilities comparable to the United States, it uses its factories built by American specialists during the reign of the Shah.
Israel is a pioneer in the creation of air defense/missile defense (air defense/Missile defense) to prevent drone attacks, including lasers, which are more effective and economical to deploy than expensive missiles for the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) and the Iron Dome tactical missile defense system. Israel has also provided unmanned surface ships and boats to the United States to patrol the Persian and Oman Gulfs. At the same time, China, which is already openly competing with the United States and the West for global hegemony, uses its huge production facilities to create thousands of "fake" drones.
COUNTERING UAV ATTACKS
After many years of fighting armed enemy quadrocopters in the Middle East, the United States is trying to find new algorithms to counter this threat – just using the so-called "cheap drones". At the same time, the Americans are trying to develop a new way to use their drones not only for protection, but above all for data collection and attacks.
A new unit, known as Task Force 99, at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, is currently practicing the use of small, store-bought "civilian" drones for the US Air Force. Quadrocopters and similar inexpensive drones have a number of advantages: they are easy to find, cheap to buy, relatively simple to set up and operate, they do not require special care, they can be transported almost anywhere, they are quickly replaced. These lightweight drones are much less sophisticated than the remotely piloted American Air Force MQ-9 Reaper or RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs. But they can still cause significant damage to the enemy if they are equipped with video cameras, radio interference generators or explosives, and especially if they get into the jet engine of an airplane and destroy it.
Next year, Task Force 99 will combine small unmanned aerial vehicles with various low-tech gadgets that can give pilots an advantage on the battlefield.
MARINE DRONES
The countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf (GCC) are planning to expand a multinational fleet of unmanned surface ships in the Middle East as part of monitoring the situation against drug and arms trafficking.
Vice Admiral Charles Bradford ("Brad") Cooper, who heads the Central Command of the US Navy, highly appreciated the involvement and active participation of all six GCC countries in increasing the patrol units of marine drones. Recall that the GCC member countries are Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. Bahrain and Kuwait have publicly pledged to purchase these systems.
The planned increase in monitoring would allow GCC members to monitor most of the Persian Gulf waters. At the same time, Iran is located on the other side of the gulf at a distance of 35 miles at the narrowest point and up to 200 miles at the widest. Representatives of the US Navy last year announced the goal of creating an unmanned fleet of 100 offshore platforms by the end of 2023.
The US military has been experimenting for some time with a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and long-range unmanned naval vehicles to carry out such missions. One of the systems under consideration for the Middle East region is the 33-foot Voyager platform developed by Saildrone.
The company says that due to the increased demand for its services, it plans to increase production of Voyager systems, as well as the 65-foot marine Surveyor drone over the coming year. Two Saildrone Explorer unmanned aerial vehicles also participated in the first joint unmanned vessel exercises in the Persian Gulf between the Navy and the UAE in 2023.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS FORCES
The most significant theater operations in which the Special Operations Forces (SSO) of the US Armed Forces have been involved in the last decade are Afghanistan and Iraq. If we analyze American combat special operations, we can conclude that their characteristic feature is the increasing speed and increase in the number of formations involved.
An analysis of the operations "Enduring Freedom" and "Iraqi Freedom", as well as the actions of the SDF in Libya, allows us to identify the main directions for improving the forms and methods of using special formations. In the medium term, the main form of use of special forces of the US Armed Forces in the Middle East will continue to be special operations characteristic of Americans. But in the future, the clear boundaries between offensive and defensive operations, according to American experts, will gradually fade.
TANKS AT LOCAL THEATERS
Middle Eastern customers are gradually ceasing to pay increased attention to high-tech armored vehicles. One of the main reasons for this trend is the increase in the vulnerability of the tank on the battlefield, which has been observed continuously since the Arab-Israeli war in 1973. As a result, this has led to the actual loss by tanks of the importance of the main means of breakthrough and maneuver – and, accordingly, deprived maneuverable combat operations of the main technical support. It is still impossible to predict whether the increase in the protection of the tank (primarily due to the introduction of active protection systems) will be able to radically change this situation. One can only assume that this situation will stimulate intensive work on improving tanks and, possibly, intensify purchases of the most modern and advanced tank platforms.
BARRAGE AMMUNITION
The development and use of barrage ammunition (BB) has become one of the priority means and directions of the next revolution in military affairs, which is taking place before our eyes. And although attempts to develop such weapons were made by a number of states at the end of the twentieth century, the first serial representative of this class of weapons was still the Israeli Harpy.
Currently, Israeli-made Harop-type bombs are in service with a number of countries, including Azerbaijan, Israel, India, Morocco and Singapore. They have been actively used and are being used in armed conflicts and wars of varying intensity. The most recent and sensational example is the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020-2022, where the Azerbaijani military used barrage ammunition with very high efficiency (although with obvious insufficiency of enemy air defense systems).
CONCLUSIONS AND GENERALIZATIONS
1. The state and military leadership of the countries of the Middle East continues to implement an approach to manning the national armed forces with samples of weapons and military equipment produced by foreign countries. This aspect attracts the attention of researchers because it allows a comprehensive assessment of the combat capabilities of these weapons.
2. The diversification of sources of arms purchases causes some practical difficulties for end users in the Middle East region. For example, the Turkish S-400 complexes cannot be integrated with the NATO air defense system due to the fear of information leakage about the Western-made means included in it.
3. The emergence of multifunctional BB systems has stimulated a significant increase in interest in this type of equipment from customers from the Middle East. For many countries, they have become an opportunity to obtain "quasi-shock" drones without investing astronomical financial resources in the purchase and subsequent operation of the corresponding systems.
4. The experience of recent armed conflicts allows us to draw the main conclusion that the development of special operations forces of the US Armed Forces in the Middle East region will take place in the direction of further improving the capabilities to integrate their actions with all types of conventional forces within the framework of the NATO coalition.
Vasily Ivanov
Vasily Ivanovich Ivanov is a journalist.