The 2025 U.S. budget (which is still being debated) allocates $1 Trillion for defense. (Considering that nobody is attacking the U.S. that’s a lot of gravy for the military-industrial complex.)
Meanwhile, clever but poor countries are using spycraft plus tech to punch way above their weight. People tend to forget that Israel invented drones way back in order to spare their scarce fighter pilots. Israel first utilized military drones in the early 1970s, with their operational debut occurring during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. This initial use involved both acquired American-made drones and the first flight of an Israeli-developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
https://www.wsj.com/world/modern-technology-spycraft-war-eabda84f?mod=hp_lead_pos9
Modern Tech and Old-School Spycraft Are Redefining War
Ukraine’s strike against Russian bomber fleet, Israel’s decapitation of Hezbollah herald the transformation of warfare
By Yaroslav Trofimov, Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson, The Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2025
Key Points
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Israeli intel operations against Hezbollah reshaped Mideast power, enabling Syria’s downfall and shrinking Iran’s influence.
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Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb struck Russian airfields, eroding Moscow’s cruise missile capabilities.
Modern spycraft, empowered by tech, redresses power balance, favoring weaker actors with limited costs and significant impact.
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Israel’s multistage operation to intercept and booby-trap pagers used by Hezbollah, then the militia commanders’ walkie-talkies, followed up by targeted strikes that killed leader Hassan Nasrallah last September and wiped out most of the organization’s leadership, reshaped—at least temporarily—the balance of power in the entire Middle East…
In the Israeli exploding pager campaign, the result of a yearslong effort to infiltrate Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors, Israel didn’t just dramatically weaken the U.S.-designated terrorist group, its most formidable immediate foe that has lost its stranglehold over Lebanon’s government. Israel also helped create conditions for the downfall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria two months later and the overall shrinking of Iran’s regional power.
The Ukrainian operation on June 1 to target five Russian airfields that house Moscow’s strategic bomber fleet was also the result of a lengthy intelligence operation deep behind enemy lines. The simultaneous attack, launched by drones hidden in prefabricated homes moving on trucks, showed that even the farthest parts of Russia are within Ukraine’s reach—and that Ukrainian intelligence is able to operate throughout Russia’s surveillance-intensive police state. Four of the five airfields—including one just north of Mongolia—were hit. The fifth drone launcher malfunctioned…Ukraine struck more than 20 aircraft and destroyed at least 12, according to drone footage released by Ukrainian intelligence from the four bases and independent satellite photos. The attack has seriously eroded Russia’s ability to launch cruise missiles across Ukraine—one of Moscow’s most important advantages in this war…
Operation Spiderweb is already reverberating through NATO allies who are studying the innovations Ukraine deployed—including the use of artificial intelligence to help guide the drones to their targets… [end quote]
The U.S., which is much easier to move around than Russia and also has supply chains riddled by adversaries, has mind-boggling military and civilian vulnerabilities.
Spending $1 Trillion on big iron won’t help if the iron is blown up by drones. Or if the power grid is shut down by the enemy. Or if critical commanders are assassinated.
Wendy