Smoke is seen following an attack on an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, September 14, 2019. Videos obtained by Reuters
The Guardian: Middle East drones signal end to era of fast jet air supremacy
Tiny, cheap, unmanned and hard-to-detect aircraft are transforming conflicts across region
In the history of modern warfare, “own the skies, win the war” has been a constant maxim. Countries with the best technology and biggest budgets have devoted tens of billions to building modern air forces, confident they will continue to give their militaries primacy in almost any conflict.
Tiny, cheap, unmanned aircraft have changed that, especially over the battlefields of the Middle East. In the past three months alone, drones have made quite an impact in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and possibly now Saudi Arabia, where half the country’s oil production - and up to 7% of the world’s global supply – has been taken offline by a blitz that caused no air raid sirens and seems to have eluded the region’s most advanced air warning systems.
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WNU Editor: The era of fighter jets and air supremacy is not coming to an end. The real concern is air defense. Saudi Arabia has spent billions to protect these sites, but they have been ineffective against drones .... The Saudi drone attack took out a known weak spot in the oil supply chain with a cheap, low-tech weapon that billions’ worth of air defenses are powerless to stop (Business Insider).
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