Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. The Editorial Council, the Wall Street Journal 3 min Read 04 Jun 2025, 06:37 IST Ukraine’s Drone strike on Russia reveals American homelandworthy, which emphasizes the need for better defense. (Beeld: Reuters) Summary The US Fatherland is also vulnerable to drone and rocket attacks. The Americans now know about Ukraine’s remarkable drone strike Sunday that damaged as many as 40 aircraft deep in Russia, while strategic bombers like ducks in a row on military bases. One urgent lesson beyond the conflict is that the US homeland is much more vulnerable than most Americans realize. The details of the daring operation of Ukraine are few, but Kyiv managed to sneak in cheap drones across the border and use it to destroy expensive Russian military assets. The bang for the Buck of Ukraine was considerable. You don’t have to be a fan of thrillers to represent a similar scenario in the United States. “Could it have been B-2s by means of Iranian drones flying out of containers, let alone Chinese?” Military analyst Fred Kagan asked this week. The US strategic bomber fleet is small (about a third of the size it was in the Cold War) and concentrates on a handful of bases. Look at the aerial photo flying over social media from B-52 bombers at the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The story is similar to fighters and capital assets such as aircraft carriers. One lesson is that President Trump’s planned Golden Dome Racing Defense Shield is not the Boonoggle it is in the press. The headings are working on space-based intercepts. But the US is exposed to many threats except ballistic missiles – from drones and spying sheets to speed missiles launched from submarines. The two -party strategic attitude commission warned in 2023 that the US needed better integrated air and rocket defense against “coercive attacks” from Russia and China, and such an attack could come from conventional weapons. In a crisis over Taiwan Seestraat, Xi Jinping can threaten the chief commander: stay out of the western Pacific, or you never know what can happen to your expensive F-22s in Alaska. This is one of the reasons why the US needs a layered rocket screen that uses new technology and existing systems such as the Patriot. Israel’s recent success that drones has shot down with lasers shows that innovative and wealthy societies can fulfill new threats. President Trump deserves credit for raising missile defense as a presidential priority. But the US has lost some basic muscle memory since the Cold War in a dangerous world. A Preste report this year by Thomas Shugart and Timothy Walton at the Hudson Institute warned about highly vulnerable US airfields, especially in the western Pacific. For the new B-21 bomber, the Air Force is looking at shelters “Akin to Sunshades,” Messrs. Shugart and Walton write, which can make the plane “exposed to threats, including deadly” unmanned air vehicles. “Not to build about $ 30 million” hardened aircraft shelters “for more than $ 600 million B-21 bombers, is an unwise decision that can endanger the US ability to stop worldwide,” they write. Such shelters are always a low budget priority compared to aircraft and missiles, and the message here is that defense spending cannot stick to 3% of the economy and that the security Americans expect. The bill moving through Congress covers $ 25 billion for Golden Dome. But a national air defense will not be built by a one -time cash infusion, and the administration is building up a sustained defense to increase its fiscal Falcons. Americans get used to wars that fought through a power of volunteers far from home, but all in the US will be on the front lines of the next conflict. Political leaders can do much more to educate the country about this vulnerability, rather than boasting that the US military is the best it has ever been. It is not. Ukraine has done the US a favor by destroying bombers of an American adversary – and send America a wake -up call over its own complacency. Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #ukraine War Read Next Story
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