The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
First Ukraine, Now Iran: A New Era of Drone Warfare Takes Hold
English Summary
The article argues that the convergence of low-cost drone technology and precision guidance has ushered in an era of 'precise mass' warfare, first demonstrated in Ukraine and now fully manifest in the U.S.-Iran conflict surrounding Operation Epic Fury. The authors highlight a critical cost-exchange imbalance: defending against $20,000-$50,000 Shahed-136 drones requires interceptors costing $125,000 to $4 million each, rapidly depleting limited air defense stockpiles across the Gulf states and potentially drawing down Indo-Pacific reserves needed to deter China. The implications are stark—the U.S. must dramatically increase investment in attritable, scalable systems like LUCAS beyond the current 0.5% of defense spending, as precise mass capabilities are becoming a permanent feature of modern warfare that empowers both great powers and lesser states alike.
中文摘要
本文主張，低成本無人機技術與精準導引的匯流已開啟「精準量產」戰爭時代，此一趨勢首先於烏克蘭戰場展現，如今在美國與伊朗圍繞「史詩之怒行動」的衝突中全面顯現。作者指出一項關鍵的成本交換失衡：攔截單價僅兩萬至五萬美元的沙希德-136無人機，所需攔截彈造價卻高達十二萬五千至四百萬美元，這將迅速耗盡波灣各國有限的防空庫存，並可能抽調印太地區用以嚇阻中國的儲備。其影響極為嚴峻——美國必須大幅增加對LUCAS等可消耗、可規模化系統的投資，超越目前僅佔國防支出百分之零點五的水準，因為精準量產能力正成為現代戰爭的永久特徵，賦予大國與中小型國家同等的作戰能力。
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