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(War on the Rocks) Between May 10 and 13, 1940, German Panzer Group Kleist advanced through the densely wooded Ardennes Forest, which the French considered impenetrable to large, mechanized formations. Numbering five armored and three motorized infantry divisions, totaling around 41,000 vehicles, the entire panzer group moved along just four Rollbahnen, or axes of advance, creating the largest traffic jam in military history.When the leading XIX Armored Corps, commanded by Gen. Heinz Guderian, converged on the French city of Sedan, it epitomized the concept of Schwerpunkt, or point of main effort. Following his maxim “Klotzen, nicht kleckern” (hit with the fist, don’t feel with
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(Small Wars Journal) On September 14, 2019, a swarm of 18 drones and 7 cruise missiles targeted Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, managing to bypass the sophisticated Patriot batteries intended to defend the sites. The attacks briefly halved the kingdom’s oil output and constituted the single largest disruption in the history of modern oil production. When a handful of low-cost weapons can defeat billions of dollars’ worth of conventional defense equipment, a nation must reconsider whether the strength of its land, air, and maritime forces alone accurately measures the level of operational readiness it requires. The lessons from Saudi Arabia in 2019 and the lessons from the most recent round of conflict in the Gulf have made it clear that only by incorporating a multi-layered counter-drone architecture, one that seamlessly fuses together detection, classification, and response, will the Gulf States be able to protect their conventional forces and defense infrastructures from becoming obsolete. Drawing on historical parallels and Kuwait’s own recent experience, this essay aims to demonstrate that layered protection and cost sustainability should become essential measures of readiness in the region.
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(The Cipher Brief) Washington made three decisions this week, and none of them has an end date. On the night of October 14, Ukrainian units in the field found that their Starshield terminals had been capped at a speed, 160 kilometers an hour by the published figure, 70 by President Zelensky's account two days later, which cuts off any strike drone that flies faster than the cap. Reuters reported, citing American and Western officials, that the order came from inside the White House; a senior official said the President had made no such request. Service was reported partly restored by October 15. No terms were ever published. The restriction followed a week in which American negotiators had warned Kyiv that intelligence sharing could be suspended if strikes on Russian energy targets continued, and in which the President announced an "energy ceasefire," which President Zelensky said was "news for me." Ukraine paused its refinery campaign for three days. On October 15, Zelensky told the Financial Times, "We're done," and that morning Rosneft's Ryazan refinery burned. The same day, CNN reported that Ukraine had run out of Patriot interceptors.
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