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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Tuesday, June 03, 2025

Almost like it was a premonition, military analyst Max Boot warned in a Saturday Washington Post op-ed that the future of warfare wouldn't be fought with massive space-based missile shields, but with swarms of cheap, expendable drones. Less than 24 hours later, Ukraine delivered the proof.

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I discussed the daring Ukrainian drone strike on the Russian airbases with my @postopinions.bsky.social colleagues Jim Geraghty and @dmarusic.bsky.social. bit.ly/4mKkD1Q

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-- Max Boot (@maxboot.bsky.social) June 2, 2025 at 10:04 PM

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"With drone swarms now capable of crippling billion-dollar military infrastructure for a fraction of the cost, military analysts who spoke to Newsweek say the United States must reevaluate whether its missile defense priorities are geared for the future"or stuck defending a past that no longer exists.

Defense experts also say the Golden Dome fails the most basic test: relevance.

"Forget Trump's hugely expensive, impractical Golden Dome shield. Drones are the future of warfare," Boot wrote in a separate Washington Post opinion piece.

He pointed to Ukraine's goal of producing 4.5 million drones this year at an average cost of $580 each " a scale that dwarfs the Pentagon's current output.

For the same $25 billion earmarked for the Golden Dome's first phase, the U.S. could theoretically build more than 43 million drones."

;;

Yes, but would the 43 million drones have room for Trump's picture on them like missiles would.... huh, huh?? Gotta think about the important stuff first!

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2025-06-02 03:48 PM | Reply

Max Boot reads and writes about the same things we do, but he is higher up in the Dante's Inferno of blogging than many of us.

Anyways, Ukraine is the expert on drone warfare and they are battle-tested. Operation Spiderweb expertly combined espionage with drone warfare.

China is doing quite well with drone technology, but they have yet to undergo the forge of war: youtu.be

#2 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2025-06-02 04:29 PM | Reply

"the U.S. could theoretically build more than 43 million drones."

Which could saturate and overwhelm any defense system.

Trump wants Golden Dome for the usual reason, to prove to himself that is a big man.

#3 | Posted by Zed at 2025-06-02 04:59 PM | Reply

Pearl Harbor?

Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack by a nation that had not declared war on the US.

Russia invaded Ukraine to start the war, murders women and children bombing schools, hospitals and apartment buildings and steals children from Ukrainian families.

This attack is not even close to Pearl Harbo.

#4 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-06-03 07:01 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

Trump wants Golden Dome for the usual reason,

Let's not forget to funnel billions and billions of tax dollars to Taco-lago members who in turn return money to him through his crypto scheme.

#5 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-06-03 07:03 AM | Reply

Pearl Harbor?
Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack by a nation that had not declared war on the US.
Russia invaded Ukraine to start the war, murders women and children bombing schools, hospitals and apartment buildings and steals children from Ukrainian families.
This attack is not even close to Pearl Harbo.

#4 | Posted by Nixon

In one sense it is: It's a wake up call that Russia, like the US, can be hit. It's a startling realization for many Russians as Pearl Harbor was for many Americans.

#6 | Posted by Sycophant at 2025-06-03 11:03 AM | Reply

"This attack is not even close to Pearl Harbor"

Well there's certainly no question if the President knew it was coming.

The comparison to Pearl Harbor is the losses to the fleet: "disabled or destroyed up to a third of Russia's long-range bomber fleet."

#7 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-06-03 11:16 AM | Reply

Prolly the reason he's promoting this 'Golden Dome' is that he's looking pretty bald now, and as soon as it's all gone he'll have his own Golden Dome. (spray brush orange will have to do!)

#8 | Posted by Corky at 2025-06-03 01:45 PM | Reply

Wait. Isn't the big beautiful wall at the southern border enough to keep out drones, missiles and dark-skinned Spanish speakers? I was personally assured by our king that with the wall we would be safe. Or trapped, one or the other...

#9 | Posted by catdog at 2025-06-03 01:55 PM | Reply

It's a wake up call that Russia, like the US, can be hit.

I thought the drone attacks in Moscow last year said that though this was a far more serious blow.

It's not the first time Ukraine attached Russian airfields. I have to say that Zelensky is a little more restrained when it comes to targeting military targets rather than Putin blowing up women and children in hospitals like the terrorist he is.

#10 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-06-03 02:00 PM | Reply

If Iran or North Korea want to nuke the US they will just ship the bombs in via FedEx. Cheaper and nobody would know where it came from. It's too far to use trucks like Ukraine did.

#11 | Posted by SomebodyElse at 2025-06-03 02:00 PM | Reply

I was personally assured by our king that with the wall we would be safe.

And Mexico would pay for it.

#12 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-06-03 02:01 PM | Reply

That mission took a year and a half to pull off. Ukraine continues to develop the Hrim-2 SRBM, Paliantysia (a "turbojet drone" which is really just a cruise missile used in 1 way attacks), Peklo long ranged missile, etc. Short range quads don't remove the need for missile defense, it just adds another threat. Elon Musk is wrong, drones don't invalidate the F-35 either.

#13 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2025-06-03 02:21 PM | Reply

Almost like it was 'nt obvious...

#14 | Posted by cabron_loco at 2025-06-03 02:49 PM | Reply

Russia invaded Ukraine to start the war, murders women and children bombing schools, hospitals and apartment buildings and steals children from Ukrainian families.
This attack is not even close to Pearl Harbor.

#4 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-06-03 07:01 AM | Reply | Flag: EH?

In the two years leading up to Pearl Harbor... Japan was aligning with the AXIS and trashing China in unspeakable ways... It occupied 20 countries... soooooooo

The US was warned PH was next on their list... Franklin thought it was a bluff... then boom boom bang bang... next thing you know we're interring Asians.

Japan made landfall in Alaska...

I think it's a fair comparison... if starting a war is a reason.

Do you think Russia can crank its war machine in response to Ukraine like we did to Japan?

#15 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-06-03 04:19 PM | Reply

Nixon's post is the most relevant of the day; especially after Putin hypocritically and ridiculously tried to label Ukraine's attack on the exact military hardware Putin uses to attack civillian targets in Ukraine every single day. butweakling Trump warns of sanctions but is too afraid of his master to do anything real. I think Zelensky and NATO understand that, as long as Putin's bitch is President, Ukraine and NATO will have to carry the war to Russia without U.S. help. But if the Russians want the war to end just hang Putin and the war will be over and the world will be better off! Much like when Hitler killed himself and did the world a huge favor. Putin is too much of a coward to do as Hitler did so the Russian people need to do it for him.

#16 | Posted by danni at 2025-06-04 10:41 AM | Reply

Woooooooooow, liberals prove how short-sighted they are every single day. All because they let their masters groom them so well.

If we ignore missile defense, guess what enemies throw at us? It's as if liberals actually think someone will say, "Well, missiles are so 1990s so we won't use them even when our target is vulnerable to them...we will use drones because they are shiny and new."

Please, for the love of God, if you are one of these liberals do NOT ever get into cybersecurity. Defense-in-depth is a crucial platform that is vital to a network's security. Based on liberals though, we should get rid of antivirus filters in email systems and not spend money on it because cybercriminals are using text messages to attack people. The enemy is going to use whatever you are vulnerable to, and it's a numbers game. They don't just choose one attack vector and call it a day. They automate multiple attack vectors to have the best odds of causing damage.

Missile defense is as important today as it has ever been. Just because a new type of attack is out there doesn't mean we can ignore traditional vectors. This is security 101.

And, what's even more hilarious is trying to say that the money could be spent on better things, like defense against drones instead of missiles. Ok, well, taxpayer money can be spent on a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE lot of more important things than changing pronouns and renamed government institutions on official government documents but that doesn't stop liberals from trying to get the US to spend that money instead of on, I don't know, the trillions of debt we are in.

So either way you come at the argument, you are coming across as uneducated and lacking any common sense or logic skills.

#17 | Posted by humtake at 2025-06-04 11:32 AM | Reply

"I think Zelensky and NATO understand that, as long as Putin's bitch is President, Ukraine and NATO will have to carry the war to Russia without U.S. help"

Eerily similar to the Taliban's bitch being POTUS and allowing them to get what they want in the name of "withdrawaling". Sucks we can't get a POTUS in office who makes the right decision that agrees with all 340m+ people in our country. I mean, that is possible, right?

#18 | Posted by humtake at 2025-06-04 11:34 AM | Reply

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