When US forces hammered down Iranian cities, little did they know that the Iranian would fight back at this scale. The mighty US firepower and missiles did not stop Iran from punching above its weight.
Uptil now, at least 8 US aircrafts have been destroyed or severely damaged, A number of US radars have been hit and casualties reported. Multiple missiles have hit Israel. The Gulf countries have dealt with fast coming Iranian missiles and drone, many of which they’ve failed to intercept.
The US expected Iran to be left destroyed and empty handed. Instead, the superpower found itself empty of its own 50% patriot missiles and around 50% of its THAAD system missiles. Most of them had been used in intercepting
Iranian drones that were made at a fraction of the missiles cost A domestic Iranian drone can cost as low as $7,000. The missiles intercepting them take millions of dollars to produce. At this rate, the favor heavily lies on Iran’s side,
Iran confidently claimed they are in no short of missiles and drones. If there’s any truth to what Iran mentioned, the US needs to rethink its military strategy and its overall approach to this conflict.
For decades, the US has reigned in as the supreme military power. It’s been hailed as the Mecca of innovation and technology, a place where new ideas breath and come to life.
US triumphed during the Middle East wars, the cold war, and the 2nd World War before that. The secret lied in US high tech innovation, cutting edge weapon technology, and a management structure that made every decision smooth.
But the recent Iran matter had the world discover serious loopholes in the US forces.
If US wants to keep dominating as the military superpower, it has no choice but to reanalyze its entire military buildup and prioritize into emerging technologies and innovation.
Let’s talk about drones first. They have transformed the entire warfare game. They are not expensive. And come with capability of inflating massive damages.
Ukraine used drones as offensive against Russi. Iran has been using them to strike down bases across the Middle East.
The US still needs to invest in massive drone manufacturing infrastructure. The country has procured only 50,000 of modern drones as compared to Ukraine which is manufacturing millions in a year.
During this war, Iran came out with an enormous arsenal of cheap drones. These deadly machines were launched at US basis across the Gulf as well as Israel.
Till now, there has been no permanent solution to tackle these upcoming drones. And it will remain so unless the US military focuses on manufacturing its own at less cost. Currently the US has failed to adopt fast scale manufacturing.
Many of the limited drones being manufactured in US contains Chinese hardware and components. This creates dependence on rivals and exposes weakness.
A viable solution would be to allow large scale and cost-effective production of drones. But that will require harnessing the technology of cheap and fast production.
It’s surprising to know that no such technology has been discovered by the US at scale yet. China dominates the drone market currently. The Chinese DJI company sells more than 70% of civilian’s drones in the world.
The success behind it lies in discovering the tech hobbyist market and optimizing the drone technology and utilizing it in defense.
China’s industrial policies and infrastructure allow it to produce these machines at large scale. The US by far is no good in producing anything cost efficient.
A far greater sweeping change is the implementation of AI in modern warfare. Despite the fact that America is home to the most advance AI companies, other countries have not been far behind in their own pursuit of AI.
Anyone can have access of AI since it’s a product of commercial activity rather than a military one.
The current AI model being introduced by Open AI, Microsoft, Google, and Anthropic are being replicated easily by Chinese firms. American AI models are being used by rivals to train their own native AI technology.
American Ai is still easy to access and manipulate. Recent report showed Yemeni Houthi groups used Claude in navigating drone strikes and guided missiles. This raises questions on AI ‘s credibility.
For the US, it means other nations can have easy access to AI tech and can potentially rival. China has shown remarkable progress in shouldering US in tech. There’s a solid chance it can reach or even surpass US in AI in the next coming years.
But one thing still holding the Dragon back is its inability to create high tech semiconductors and chips. For that very reason, Chinese firms have been desperate in producing home grown semiconductors and high-tech chips for data centers while importing it from the US and the West. Washington alone cannot curb AI’s growth into the market and prevent it from getting it into wrong hands, but it can coordinate with AI firms and work with them into establishing a framework of making it safe.
History has witnessed the rise and fall of every empire. In order to maintain its dominance, the US militarily is in a tough spot. Unless it double down on fast paced tech and manufacturing and create more efficient ways to protect itself from threats.