Its so strange to me that counter drone measures (active defenses - like jamming , lasers, nets, guns + passive measures - hardened aircraft shelters etc.) are not more common around airbases and the like. I would have thought governments would be rusting to harden installations and infrastructure. maybe this is the wake up they need.
Those bases are heavily defended against drones. Ukraine has tried repeatedly to hit these bases and only succeeded once prior hitting a single TU-95. Since then there's been nothing as Russia adapted. The long range drones required have a larger radar signature and Pantsir + AA guns on the ground are pretty good at stopping that. That plus heavy EW and GPS jamming.
Which is why Ukraine spent the last year hitting softer targets like oil and factories.
EW is needed at the front, and these bases were deep within Russia. Lasers are not common technology for anti-drone use yet, and likely kinetic weapons are superior since lasers will not work in any sort of bad weather.
Drone countermeasures are an immature technology; nobody knows the solution. Notice the limted defenses elsewhere in the war. The US military is still experimenting with different solutions.
Plenty of proposed solutions, but nothing mature and proven. Again, the US military is still struggling to find answers. Drones dominate the Russia-Ukraine front (and the rear, per the OP).
Why are they so effective in Ukraine and Russia if there are so many solutions? Why do all the experts say they will transform warfare?
START treaty between US and Russia requires that the Bombers are stored out in the open so that they can be monitored from satellite, to check compliance.
I guess after today's attack, that treaty is dead.
> The obligation not to use concealment measures shall not apply to cover or concealment practices at ICBM bases or to the use of environmental shelters for strategic offensive arms.
Anti-drone nets or simple hangars won't violate it.
Russians can and will violate any treaty they have signed, also lying about their actions if caught. It is their handbook since forming of the Russian empire.
