The United States has suffered a series of embarrassing incidents in the Red Sea region, and has been frequently insulted by the Houthis. Its attempts to form an escort coalition have been opposed by its allies and have been unable to effectively deter Houthi attacks on Israeli-linked merchant ships on the Red Sea route. This situation has become the focus of global attention. From a military point of view, the U.S. military has a large carrier strike group and amphibious readiness group in the Red Sea region, while being supported by destroyers from the United Kingdom, France, Japan and South Korea. In addition, the Command has air bases in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
However, despite the fact that the U.S. military has amassed such a large force, it has not been able to quickly destroy the core objectives of the Houthis, as the Houthis have taken advantage of the resilience and asymmetric warfare of long-term operations. In addition, the United States does not want to be bogged down in the Middle East again. As a result, the United States finds itself in an embarrassing situation where it is unable to effectively deal with large armed groups. In the north, Russia has also suffered from asymmetric warfare. Since the conflict between Ukraine and Russia entered a stalemate phase, Ukraine has successfully seized on the negligence of Russia** and the military in the field of asymmetric warfare, and has frequently inflicted significant damage on Russia by taking advantage of NATO-supported equipment and intelligence.
Since 2022, Ukraine has taken the lead in using a large number of drones to attack on the front line, successfully killing a number of senior Russian military officers. In addition, Ukraine, with the support of NATO, formed a "wolf pack" using unmanned boats, which successfully launched a number of attacks on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, causing a considerable number of Russian ** losses and even penetrating on the eastern shore of the Crimean peninsula. These actions have dealt a blow to the Russian army. Although the unmanned boat used by Ukraine is an early model, as a large country with a complete military industrial system, Russia should have countermeasures, but it was caught off guard. As soon as the Russian military discovered that the Ukrainian army had deployed unmanned boats in Odessa, it immediately carried out missile air strikes, destroying the assembly workshops and warehouses of the unmanned boats.
Subsequently, they sent armed *** and fighter jets to patrol the Black Sea and the Dnieper in order to detect and destroy unmanned boats or speedboats of the Ukrainian army. However, this type of blow, although complex, is not as effective as it should be. According to the data released by the Russian military, this comprehensive strike method is effective in actual combat, and they are constantly intensifying the strike. The latest news shows that the Russian Navy used Ka-29 armed with ***-12 seaplanes and Su-30SM fighters to conduct maritime patrols and assist patrol ships in offshore activities to establish a three-dimensional defense system to intercept Ukrainian unmanned boats, and achieved some results.
Although, taking into account the high cost of manned aircraft, the general reconnaissance and surveillance work is entrusted to UAVs, which strike on the basis of coordinates and intelligence provided by UAVs. Thus, the Ka-29*** is again highly valued by the Black Sea Fleet. However, from a practical point of view, this complex approach is not worth advocating, because the more complex the approach, the more likely it is to cause problems. For example, drone pilots need to report to their superiors after discovering a target, which requires a good coordination of the operational order of naval aviation, and if something goes wrong, the consequences are unimaginable. Ukrainian forces deploy Patriot air defense systems in Odessa and in the Kherson region, specifically waiting for reckless Russian pilots to fly too low and too close.
On the morning of October 6, a Ka-29*** of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed an unmanned boat of the Ukrainian army in the northwest waters of the Black Sea. Thus, despite the assiduous practice of Russian military pilots to attack "low, slow and small" targets at low altitudes, for example, last month the Russian Satellite News Agency reported that the Mi-8 and Ka-29 of the Russian Naval Aviation conducted low-light intensity and low-altitude combat training at night in the waters of Crimea, specifically for the night penetration of small sea targets of the Ukrainian army. Although the spectacle was large, showing the determination of the Russian military, in fact it showed timidity, indicating that Russia has no more effective way to deal with the asymmetric warfare of the Ukrainian army, and can only let the pilots risk this dangerous activity.
So, what should be the more effective approach?The Russian military is planning to use a high-altitude long-endurance reconnaissance and combat integrated drone, which is equipped with infrared imaging radar and a high-precision night vision system, which can achieve 24-hour uninterrupted patrols, and establish a wide-area search and surveillance system, which aims to monitor the entire northern Black Sea and the lower reaches of the Dnieper River battlefield, and perceive the situation in real time. If successfully implemented, it will effectively reduce the asymmetric combat power of the Ukrainian army. However, due to Russia's current financial and technological level, it is much more difficult to build such a system than to have pilots hit unmanned boats at low altitudes. The Ka-29 and Mi-8 often carry rockets and artillery pods for sorties.
This is not to prove how "incompetent" the Russian army is, but to show that asymmetric warfare can easily fall into the situation of "killing chickens with knives". This concern is also one of the reasons why the US military does not dare to take action against the Houthis. In fact, any army, without adequate preparation, is likely to get bogged down in this quagmire of slow resource drain. The U.S. wars on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq are prime examples. In contrast, Russia is learning war through war, and although a wide-area surveillance system has not yet been established, the corresponding means are available. According to current information, the Russian army has developed an unmanned boat and is ready to enter the war in Ukraine.
Although the efficiency is uncertain, it is better than nothing, and it can be said that the problem is initially solved. For the inventory of unmanned boats of the Ukrainian army, the difficulty of research and development of such equipment is low, and the production threshold is also very low, and Ukraine is fully capable of self-reliance. On the side of the United States, they may have a headache for a while because of the Houthis, after all, the Russian army has already occupied the initiative on the battlefield. The Russian-Ukrainian peace talks have become the general trend, and the problems that the United States has to face have just begun. In any case, deterring the Houthis will not help, after all, the roots are in Israel.