Last June, Ukraine demonstrated that inexpensive drones launched from inside an adversary’s territory could threaten some of the most valuable aircraft in the Russian strategic arsenal.
This week, the United States demonstrated that it had absorbed the lesson.
The United States abruptly removed 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom amid concerns about a potential Iranian-backed attack on the base. According to reporting in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. and European officials had received intelligence concerning a potentially complex operation involving drones that could target both the aircraft and American personnel.
Whatever ultimately emerges from the continuing investigation—and Iran has denied involvement—the American response is strategically significant.
The United States was not prepared to leave a concentration of extraordinarily valuable strategic aircraft exposed to the possibility that relatively inexpensive drones launched from nearby could destroy or damage them on the ground.
That is one of the most important lessons of Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web.
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