Drones & Military Siege
August 8, 2026โข212 words
The old rules of military encirclement are unraveling due to drone technology.
For centuries, if an army managed to cut off an enemy unit's ground supply lines, the clock started ticking. Without a steady stream of food, clean water, and fresh ammunition, trapped soldiers had two choices: surrender or starve. The use of drones have turned that siege playbook upside-down.
Take the defense of Kupyansk, where a small pocket of Russian soldiers managed to hold out while completely surrounded for approximately nine months. These soldiers stayed alive through a drone supply line. Ariel drones, "Baba Yaga", ran constant night missions to drop essential rations, medical supplies, food, water, crates of ammo, and aerial drones into their shattered buildings while they continued to fight their enemy.
Drones transport critical equipment like satellite radios, fuel, power banks, replacement parts and medical supplies. Such communication awareness with command, reduces psychological isolation that usually mentally breaks trapped soldiers.
Drones have reduced the classic "starve them out" siege strategy. At the same time, the military strategy of encirclement of such trapped soldiers can in fact create kill targets for AI drone swarms against the encroaching encirclement of enemy soldiers.