Let's look back to 1941. On December 7, 1941, Japan unexpectedly attacked Pearl Harbor. Almost no one believed that the Japanese would be able to cross the ocean unnoticed and strike at the "impregnable" Hawaii. Then Japan destroyed/damaged 328 American aircraft and 19 ships, including 8 battleships. This strike changed the course of the war and showed: the future lies with aircraft carriers, not battleships.
Yesterday, Ukrainians also rewrote the rules of war and showed that they have trump cards - drones broke through "impregnable" Russia.
The Russian military command is out: the attack on 5 Russian air bases, including thousands of kilometers away in Siberia and the Far North, by drones that were hidden in trucks and launched remotely - even Putin did not expect this.
President Zelensky said that Operation Spiderweb disabled up to a third of the Russian strategic aviation, in particular the Tu-95, Tu-22 and A-50 - aircraft that the Russian Federation uses to launch cruise missiles.
The analogy with Pearl Harbor, which Russia is already citing, is not entirely accurate - Pearl Harbor opened a new war, and the attack on Russian airfields became part of Ukraine's defense in the ongoing war.
But there is a commonality: these strikes demonstrated the collapse of the old military doctrine. In 1941, it was battleships. Today, it is manned aircraft. Drones, which cost many times less, hit the aviation by $ 7 billion.
This bold strike is also a response to the shortage of Patriot missiles. The Ukrainians decided: if you can’t intercept a missile, you need to destroy the plane on the ground.
Ukrainian drones have proven that there are no “unreachable” bases. If they got deep into Russia’s rear, China or North Korea could do the same tomorrow. You can forget about fences and patrols. The future belongs to those who know how to catch threats from the sky.
