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⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 Ukraine's MASSIVE Satellite Breakthrough… Now Russia Can NEVER WIN
16:59 Russia's Secret Weapon Failed the Moment It Faced Ukraine... It Was Over in Minutes
33:23 UK Gave Ukraine STONE CLOAK… Now It Will Send Russia to the STONE AGE
48:59 Taiwan Copied UKRAINE'S Smartest Move… Now China Can NEVER Win

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Transcript
00:00:01God is watching Russia and it isn't very happy with what it sees.
00:00:07No, we're not talking about a literal God here, but Russia will feel like it could be.
00:00:11This is as close to a God's eye as anybody is going to get.
00:00:15An all-seeing eye in the sky that sees, informs and enables Ukraine to carry out operations in ways that
00:00:22it's never been able to before.
00:00:23Russia can't hide. It can't pray the God's eye away. All it can do is know that it's being watched
00:00:30by Dutch technology
00:00:31that gives Ukraine real-time data and spells disaster for Russian forces attempting to make moves.
00:00:38Imagine a device that a soldier can carry that looks almost like a handheld video game console, but serves a
00:00:45very different purpose.
00:00:46The soldier isn't using this device to play a few games of Tetris.
00:00:49The screen is filled with images, and each one is being beamed to the device from satellites in as close
00:00:55to real-time as possible.
00:00:56As the soldier taps away at screens and buttons, the images shift.
00:01:00The soldier is searching, backed by a mobile command center that is full of computers that have access to commercial
00:01:06satellites,
00:01:07all of which are feeding images back.
00:01:10More swiping and pressing, in a handful of minutes, the images have revealed what the soldier needs to do next.
00:01:15A flight plan has been plotted, with the images guiding the pilot through air defense installations,
00:01:21or targets have been located on the ground that can be attacked with drones, artillery,
00:01:25or whatever weapon is deemed most effective at wiping that target off the map.
00:01:29In some cases, the frontline soldier isn't just receiving images from the satellites.
00:01:34They can use their clever device to control the feeds from the satellites themselves,
00:01:38allowing them to potentially zoom in, explore other areas, and verify target locations.
00:01:44It sounds like it's a technology pulled straight out of a sci-fi movie, but it's real.
00:01:49This is God's eye, or to give the device its actual name, the Bravo 1 Alpha Close Satellite Support, or
00:01:55CSS.
00:01:57Dutch in origin, but made possible by a wider web of satellites and collaboration that we'll be exploring later.
00:02:02This brilliant tool has given Ukraine soldiers access to intelligence that was never thought possible when Putin launched his invasion.
00:02:09Ukraine can now see what Russia is doing when Russia is doing it.
00:02:13And that means Ukraine can react with lightning-fast speed to stop offensives, launch counterattacks, and even take out Russian
00:02:20logistics.
00:02:21All of this has been revealed by an August 17 New York Times article, which reveals that the Bravo 1
00:02:27Alpha CSS isn't some far away concept.
00:02:30It's being used in Ukraine as we speak, thanks to a concerted Dutch effort to get it up and running.
00:02:35And it's changing everything about how Ukraine fights its war with Russia.
00:02:39We don't know a huge amount about the specifics of Bravo 1 Alpha CSS, at least when it comes to
00:02:45technical specifications.
00:02:46What we do know comes from scattered news reports and some insight provided by the manufacturer itself.
00:02:52For a start, we know that this God's eye collaboration between Ukraine and the Netherlands has been in the works
00:02:57for a long time before the news of Bravo 1 Alpha CSS being in use was revealed.
00:03:02If we head back to May 2025, a handful of reports appeared suggesting that Dutch industry had presented a new
00:03:08concept to Ukraine that would provide the country's soldiers with faster support from space.
00:03:13The plan at the time appeared to be the construction and launch of a new range of satellite systems capable
00:03:19of detecting Russian communication and radar systems from space,
00:03:23allowing Ukraine to identify potential threats as they emerged.
00:03:27Former Dutch Secretary of Defense Geis Thienmann said at the time that he was asking the Dutch space industry for
00:03:33a fast-track solution, stating,
00:03:34The urgency is great and we all realise that. Money, knowledge and resources go hand in hand.
00:03:40The seed of the idea for Bravo 1 Alpha CSS appears to have been planted right around this time,
00:03:46though the Dutch weren't and still aren't in the position to use their own satellites to provide the real-time
00:03:51data that is now being fed to Ukrainian troops.
00:03:53That doesn't mean that the Netherlands hasn't been making positive moves on the satellite front.
00:03:58The Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force has been created, as has an official Dutch Space Command.
00:04:04By 2028, the latter is expected to be a fully operational command that will have several hundred active members, Table
00:04:10.Briefings reports.
00:04:12On June 24, 2025, the Netherlands also conducted the launch of a rocket carrying the first operational synthetic aperture radar
00:04:20that will be used by the Dutch armed forces.
00:04:22But the much larger constellation of satellites needed to get the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS up and running isn't quite
00:04:28in the Dutch remit.
00:04:29Yet, we know that this system is being used by Ukraine. How then?
00:04:34Collaboration has been the key.
00:04:35Unable to provide Ukraine with its own satellites, the Netherlands has instead looked to others.
00:04:40Working alongside commercial satellite providers, the Netherlands has created the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS to be a god's eye in
00:04:46more than just the amount of data and the real-time images that it has provided to Ukraine.
00:04:51This device is a symbol of unity and the strength of partnerships that are being formed to counter Russian aggression.
00:04:57The Wall Street Journal revealed all of this in a June 4 article where it reported that the satellite imagery
00:05:01systems that Ukraine now uses now combine Bravo 1 Alpha CSS,
00:05:05which is the handheld tech, and mobile control centers we mentioned earlier, with contributions from other companies.
00:05:12Vantor is involved, as is a US-based company named Persistent Systems, and a Ukrainian firm named Berevi.
00:05:19Several of these companies are commercial rather than military enterprises.
00:05:22Vantor, for instance, is a commercial business that has already been working with Ukraine for several years, and it launches
00:05:28satellites regularly.
00:05:30The company's constellation can collect more than 3.5 million square kilometers of 30-centimeter-class imagery every single day,
00:05:37Vantor says,
00:05:38and its Legion satellites revisit the same location on Earth as many as 15 times per day.
00:05:45That's just a taste of the kind of tech that the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS has made accessible to Ukraine.
00:05:50Up-to-date activity, tracking, and mapping are all made possible by this constellation.
00:05:55As for the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS itself, Bravo 1 Alpha claims that it was designed specifically to bridge the
00:06:02critical gap between strategic-level satellite capabilities and frontline execution.
00:06:07In practice, this amounts to the control system behind the device receiving images in real-time,
00:06:12and assigning tasks based on the intelligence those images provide.
00:06:15There's an element of artificial intelligence at play, as the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS uses AI to reduce image processing
00:06:22times,
00:06:23along with offering automated analysis that speeds up decision-making.
00:06:27Data also flows through the Dutch system and into battlefield management systems.
00:06:32Bravo 1 Alpha points to Ukraine's Delta system by name.
00:06:35That system has been deployed across all levels of Ukraine's defense forces since August 2025,
00:06:40and it provides untold amounts of data, derived from footage recorded by reconnaissance and strike drones,
00:06:46to satellite imagery beaming in via the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS.
00:06:50Data also comes in the form of 3D coordinates, line-of-sight analysis, and even confidence grading,
00:06:56related to the viability of a strike, again feeding into Ukraine's ability to use its Dutch God's eye
00:07:02to figure out what's a strike, when, and crucially, whether a strike is even possible in the first place.
00:07:09Transport yourself into the boots of a Ukrainian soldier for a moment.
00:07:12Dozens of kilometers away from a Russian position, you park your mobile command center.
00:07:17Inside are analysts, receiving constant satellite images from the various constellations that are compatible with the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS.
00:07:25You're waiting with your handheld device, and drones are loaded with bombs at the ready.
00:07:29As little as a year ago, none of what you're about to do would have been possible.
00:07:33Satellite images took days to reach you.
00:07:35By the time you had the lay of the land, everything would have changed as Russia's forces moved.
00:07:40But now, the process has been streamlined.
00:07:43You still have to wait, but the time can be measured in minutes or hours rather than days.
00:07:48A whole new category of targets opens up as the intelligence comes flooding in from the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS.
00:07:54Mobile drone squads, vehicles, and anything capable of moving can now be struck.
00:07:59The words come through from the truck, the target has been confirmed, and approval has already been received from a
00:08:05senior commander.
00:08:06Now it's time to get to work.
00:08:08Perhaps you pull up more data.
00:08:09Footage from Delta may help you determine a flight path for your drones, along with the intelligence from Bravo 1
00:08:15Alpha.
00:08:15But the result is what matters.
00:08:17In just a few hours or less, you go from positioning yourself to actually striking.
00:08:22The Russian target goes down.
00:08:24You and your team move on to the next one.
00:08:27This is just a little taste of what's possible for Ukraine, thanks to the god's eye in the sky providing
00:08:31images of the battlefield like never before.
00:08:34The impact has been immense, and the damage done to Russia as a result of this technology is almost immeasurable.
00:08:40But before we dig into that, this is a reminder that you're watching the military show.
00:08:44If this is the kind of insight that you want to see, make sure you are subscribed to the channel.
00:08:48We break it down like this every single day.
00:08:52We'll take a look at what tech like the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS has offered to Ukraine through a wide
00:08:57lens first.
00:08:58Technology like this, offering access to commercial satellites and their imagery, has changed the game for Ukraine.
00:09:04In a June 5th report, United24 media revealed that Ukraine has managed to shorten its kill chain, which is the
00:09:10period from target identification to strike, by as much as 90%.
00:09:15All because soldiers now have access to satellite images that are beamed directly to them.
00:09:20Handheld devices like the ones we've discussed can receive those images, but so can tablets, laptops and phones, depending on
00:09:26the specific technology that Ukraine is using.
00:09:28Ukraine has also adapted its internal command flows to meet the speed offered by having access to real-time commercial
00:09:35satellites.
00:09:36Commanders still have to give the okay for a strike, but Ukraine no longer requires that all satellite intelligence undergo
00:09:42a centralized review in Kyiv.
00:09:44Those reviews aren't needed anymore.
00:09:46They existed to help Ukraine determine if what the days-old images they had been receiving showed them was still
00:09:51relevant ahead of a strike.
00:09:52Now that real-time images are being received, the review can be bypassed, and a soldier can have that image
00:09:58open on their device within 15 minutes, United24 media reports.
00:10:01The impact is obvious.
00:10:03And not just when it comes to the speed of the strikes.
00:10:06Without the need for reviews, Ukraine is able to free up work hours that can be used in other ways.
00:10:11Reviews also cost money, along with time.
00:10:14And that money can also serve other purposes, now that Ukraine has its god's eye in the sky.
00:10:19Then there's the collaboration aspect of all of this.
00:10:21Bravo 1 Alpha and the various systems it requires have led to increased collaboration between Ukraine, the Netherlands, and the
00:10:28United States through commercial and military channels.
00:10:30You could even argue that Ukraine has become a testing ground for this new approach to satellite technology, as it
00:10:36has been for so many other weapons systems.
00:10:38It's likely no coincidence that the US Special Operations Command has added software that can transmit images from commercial satellites
00:10:46to soldiers' devices.
00:10:47Ukraine has proved that the approach works, and has refined it to the point that it's making Russia pay, and
00:10:52the US is learning lessons from all of this.
00:10:55Speaking of making Russians pay, that's what it's all about.
00:10:58In its report, the New York Times says that the use of this real-time satellite technology has been key
00:11:04to Ukraine's isolation of Crimea over the past few months.
00:11:07The outlet points to Ukraine's rampage against Shadow Fleet vessels and ferry terminals, which have both been made possible by
00:11:14up-to-date satellite data, showing when Russian ships are loading and where they are going after.
00:11:18Ukraine has hit around 220 ships in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, and it all seems to be
00:11:24due to the God's eye that constantly watches over Russia.
00:11:27Putin will be livid.
00:11:29He knows that Russia can't do anything about this non-stop flow of information short of shooting the satellites Ukraine
00:11:35is using out of orbit, and that's hardly a feasible solution.
00:11:38Instead, he has to watch as his control over Crimea burns. After all, it's not just the Shadow Fleet tankers
00:11:45and misappropriated ferries that Ukraine is able to target with its satellite data.
00:11:49Ahead of those strikes, and continuing as we speak, Ukraine has been attacking Russian vehicles as they make their way
00:11:55along the logistical routes that connect Crimea, Russia, and the occupied territories.
00:11:59For those strikes to happen, Ukraine needs to know where the vehicles are, and it's likely that Bravo 1 Alpha
00:12:05has a pretty big role to play.
00:12:07Ukraine's Crimean isolation strategy has been one of its highlights in 2026, and that means it's also been one of
00:12:13Russia's lowlights.
00:12:15The strategic prize that Putin has held over Ukraine's head since the illegal annexation of 2014 has been turned into
00:12:21a weakness as Crimea is ravaged by fuel shortages, power cuts, and supply issues, all due to Ukraine's strikes.
00:12:30Putin can't just give up the peninsula, that would represent a broken promise to his people, as well as recognition
00:12:35of his abject failure to protect Crimea.
00:12:38So Russia keeps sending weapons, troops, and supplies, and Ukraine keeps smashing all of it with drones.
00:12:45And Ukraine can do it all without sacrificing soldiers, as the Royal United Services Institute points out.
00:12:51In the south, the Ukrainians don't have to put troops in to try and cut off the land bridge between
00:12:55Russia proper and Crimea.
00:12:57If they can get fire control over it so that their drones can sort of cover that area and target
00:13:02logistics going west to east and east to west, then it has the same effect.
00:13:06Which is actually to isolate Crimea, the Institute says, adding,
00:13:10So the position in the south of the country has changed remarkably in the last couple of months.
00:13:14That mention of southern Ukraine leads us to another way the god's eye has been a massive benefit.
00:13:19Ukraine is using its satellite footage for strikes in occupied Zaporizhia.
00:13:23That's according to the New York Times, which highlights how June saw soldiers from the 422nd Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment
00:13:30use satellite images to destroy facilities that Russia has set up in occupied Zaporizhia.
00:13:36Those facilities existed to jam Starlink signals.
00:13:39So Ukraine got to both take out a threat and reinforce its own offensive capabilities, all due to the god's
00:13:45eye.
00:13:47Zaporizhia and the surrounding regions have become a major problem for Russia,
00:13:50both because of its loss of Starlink connectivity and due to Ukraine having access to all of this satellite imagery.
00:13:57According to an August 14th Euronews report analyzing data produced by the Institute for the Study of War,
00:14:02Ukraine has reclaimed about 600 square kilometers in the southeast during the past six months.
00:14:07That amounts to 26 settlements liberated, including four in Zaporizhia.
00:14:12And it's due to strikes like the ones that the New York Times recalls that help make these targeted advances
00:14:17possible.
00:14:18Russia's situation in Zaporizhia has degraded,
00:14:20the point where its artillery units can't get in range of the city that bears the region's name,
00:14:25leaving Russia to rely on drone and bomb assaults from the air rather than making any actual progress on the
00:14:30ground.
00:14:30What we're seeing here is the emergence of a new frontier in the Ukraine war.
00:14:35Reconnaissance conducted in real-time from space is transforming how Ukraine fights.
00:14:41And we're not just talking about the transition from days-old satellite images to up-to-date photos here.
00:14:46Think about reconnaissance drones.
00:14:48There's no doubt that these drones are important and they can provide their own real-time footage of the field,
00:14:53but they're also visible and that makes them vulnerable to being shot down.
00:14:57Signals can also be jammed, rendering a reconnaissance drone useless.
00:15:01Every failed drone mission also adds cost to Ukraine,
00:15:04and that's without even getting to the limited ranges and ground that a reconnaissance drone can cover.
00:15:09We're not saying that these drones have suddenly become useless, far from it.
00:15:13But now Ukraine has other options flying so high that Russia can't touch them,
00:15:17and the Bravo 1 Alpha CSS lies at the heart of it all.
00:15:20Russia can only watch and weep, and the tears fall harder when the Kremlin thinks about its own satellite imagery.
00:15:27Russia has never been one of the leaders of the pack when it comes to using satellites to examine the
00:15:31battlefield.
00:15:32Even so, Ukraine and Russia's own failures have combined to put Russia a long way behind Ukraine in this particular
00:15:38aspect of the war.
00:15:39As far back as May 2024, Ukraine has petitioned satellite companies to stop taking images of the country's territory,
00:15:46or at the very least, ensure that Russia doesn't have access to those images.
00:15:51In 2026, Ukraine has found a way to make access to those images pay off,
00:15:55and Russia certainly doesn't have access to the sort of up-to-date pictures that Ukraine has.
00:16:00Russia's own satellites are also weak, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reports,
00:16:05so weak that Russia has likely been relying on data from Chinese satellites,
00:16:09though the Kremlin denies that Beijing delivers any battlefield data.
00:16:12But as Clayton Swope, who is a 14-year CIA veteran, tells the outlet,
00:16:17Russia's infrastructure is pretty old and creaky.
00:16:20It really seems like a no-brainer that if China is willing to offer either something from a company
00:16:24or from its own government capabilities, Russia will take advantage of that.
00:16:28Ukraine is in the same boat as Russia when it comes to its homegrown satellite technology.
00:16:32But Ukraine's allies are the difference maker.
00:16:35We see that in the Bravo 1 Alpha and all of the companies from at least three different nations
00:16:39that combine to ensure Ukraine has access to the satellite imagery that it has in 2026.
00:16:45The god's eye is bearing down on Russia.
00:16:47The Kremlin has nothing it can use that is anywhere near as effective.
00:16:51As long as that's the case, Ukraine will have a distinct advantage on the battlefield,
00:16:55whereas Russia will still be stuck operating with old data.
00:16:59With its frontline forces failing to make any meaningful progress in Ukraine,
00:17:04the Russian military decided to go all-in on a new secret weapon.
00:17:08A weapon with the potential to change the way the war was fought
00:17:11and cancel out one of Kyiv's biggest advantages.
00:17:15Russian developers and engineers spent months fine-tuning this system,
00:17:18before rolling it out for its first test in real-world combat conditions.
00:17:23They believed that this was the moment that momentum would finally shift back in their favour.
00:17:28They were wrong.
00:17:29Russia's secret weapon failed within minutes, sending the Kremlin's commanders back to the drawing board yet again.
00:17:35The weapon in question is known as the Arena M.
00:17:38It's not a missile or drone, but an active protection system, or APS.
00:17:43As the name implies, an APS is a system designed to actively prevent damage to military vehicles,
00:17:49like tanks and armoured infantry vehicles, from weapons like rockets and missiles.
00:17:54Famous examples include Israel's Trophy System and the United States' Quick-Kill APS.
00:18:00Russia has developed and used several active protection systems of its own over the years,
00:18:05including the Arena, which was originally designed in the early 1990s
00:18:09to counter threats like rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles.
00:18:13In 2026, however, the biggest threat to Russian armour isn't rockets, but drones.
00:18:19Ukraine has developed one of the biggest and strongest fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, in the world,
00:18:25boasting a dizzyingly diverse array of drones to carry out precision strikes against its enemy.
00:18:31And it's used those drones to remarkable effect, destroying thousands upon thousands of high-value Russian assets,
00:18:37from tanks and armoured fighting vehicles to armoured personnel carriers, engineering vehicles,
00:18:43command posts, artillery, radars, rocket launchers and more.
00:18:47As the war progressed, Ukraine's UAVs became so impactful in frontline locations
00:18:52that Russia's commanders completely changed their tactics.
00:18:55Initially, they relied heavily on their armour advantage,
00:18:58sending sizeable columns of armour and mechanised assault groups into towns, cities and settlements,
00:19:04relying on sheer mass of metal and firepower to break through the Ukrainian defensive lines.
00:19:09But as Ukrainian drone operators began to eliminate tank after tank and vehicle after vehicle,
00:19:14the Kremlin realised it simply couldn't continue throwing its armour away so cheaply.
00:19:18So, Russia began using tanks and armoured vehicles less frequently,
00:19:23relying instead on small assault groups of soldiers who were forced to either march into enemy territory on foot
00:19:28or aboard simple civilian vehicles like dirt bikes and SUVs.
00:19:32This made life significantly easier for Ukraine,
00:19:35with various units and battalions able to dig in and defend their locations more efficiently
00:19:40without having to worry about dozens of tanks being sent their way.
00:19:43Meanwhile, the Kremlin's military engineers got to work on ways to make their armoured vehicles more resilient
00:19:49to Ukrainian UAV strikes.
00:19:51That's where the Arena M comes in.
00:19:54A new and improved version of the Arena APS,
00:19:57Russian officials claim that the Arena M can effectively intercept munitions coming from any angle.
00:20:02It does this by relying on a multi-functional Doppler radar,
00:20:05which scans the surrounding area for any incoming fast-moving objects like anti-tank missiles or RPGs.
00:20:12If and when a threat is detected, the Arena M's onboard computer automatically measures its speed, direction and projected flight
00:20:20path.
00:20:21Then, before the projectile makes impact, the Arena M fires its own protective explosive towards it,
00:20:27sending a spray of metal shards into the projectile's flight path to either make it detonate in mid-air or
00:20:33break apart before it reaches the vehicle.
00:20:35Originally, since this system was designed to identify and activate against fast-moving targets,
00:20:41it wasn't considered effective against drones, which move far slower than missiles and rockets.
00:20:46But with drones becoming such a big threat, Russia decided to refine the Arena M to deal with them.
00:20:51And in July 2026, after months of work, Russian sources began to share the news that the T-72B3A main
00:20:59battle tanks,
00:21:00equipped with the latest version of the Arena M APS, were getting ready to support frontline assaults on Ukrainian positions.
00:21:07The reports also claimed that the Arena M was now able to intercept not only anti-tank missiles and shells,
00:21:13but also FPV drones.
00:21:15This had the potential to change everything.
00:21:18If Russia had truly found a way to make its tanks and armored vehicles virtually drone-proof,
00:21:23the intensity of its assaults could multiply overnight.
00:21:26The Kremlin would no longer need to be so cautious and conservative with its armored assets.
00:21:31All of a sudden, Ukraine could find itself facing off against vast tank columns,
00:21:35ready to blow holes in its defensive lines and reduce its fortifications to rubble.
00:21:40And it would no longer have an effective or reliable way to counter them.
00:21:43Russia, meanwhile, could redouble its efforts,
00:21:46making the most of the warm summer months to begin a bold new offensive in key areas along the front,
00:21:51and potentially capturing key pieces of territory that could allow it to push forward and make greater gains.
00:21:56Even though thousands of its tanks and armored vehicles have already been destroyed,
00:22:01Russia still has one of the biggest tank armies in the world,
00:22:04thanks to its vast stockpiles of Soviet-era systems.
00:22:07And even though many of those systems date back decades and have various flaws compared to more modern tanks,
00:22:13they're far from worthless.
00:22:14They still have extremely powerful guns, capable of obliterating vehicles, structures, and soldiers in their path.
00:22:21In other words, despite the fact that drones became such a dominant force in the war,
00:22:26tanks and armored vehicles still have the potential to make a massive difference.
00:22:30Russia just needed to find a way to increase their survivability
00:22:33and allow them to stay on the battlefield long enough to make a difference.
00:22:37Up to that point, all of its efforts had failed.
00:22:40Equipping tanks with makeshift anti-drone armor, like Cope cages for example, hadn't worked at all.
00:22:45Russian troops had tried welding spikes, lattices, mesh, and wire nets on top of their tanks,
00:22:51making it more difficult for Ukrainian drones to strike their weak points.
00:22:54But Ukraine's pilots soon found ways to work around these defenses,
00:22:58like using bomber drones to blow holes in Cope cages from above,
00:23:01before sending strike drones through those gaps to finish the job.
00:23:05The Cope cages also made life a lot harder for Russian tank crews.
00:23:09The added weight meant that their vehicles were slower and harder to maneuver,
00:23:12and the various spikes and other additions even made it quite perilous to get in and out of these tanks
00:23:17as well.
00:23:18The addition of the Arena M, however, seemed like it could be a much bigger step in the right direction
00:23:23for Russia.
00:23:24It wouldn't make tanks invincible, some would still inevitably be damaged and destroyed,
00:23:29and the system was known to have certain limitations,
00:23:32like the fact that it could only carry 12 interceptor projectiles at a time.
00:23:36This meant that all Ukraine had to do was send a dozen drones towards a tank to exhaust its APS,
00:23:41before sending in a final strike UAV to deliver the knockout blow.
00:23:45Still, those 12 munitions could help to buy the Russian tanks valuable time
00:23:50to move across the battlefield and fire their weapons at Ukraine's defenses.
00:23:54They could also open up opportunities for other vehicles or troops on foot
00:23:58to move up behind their tanks and overwhelm Ukrainian positions.
00:24:02Plus, if Ukraine suddenly had to use 10 times as many drones to take out each Russian tank,
00:24:07that would dramatically shift the economic equation of the war.
00:24:10Kyiv would be forced to spend far greater sums of money and materials on drone production
00:24:14if it wanted to continue cancelling out the Kremlin's armour.
00:24:18And this all came at a time when Russia was well and truly on the back foot.
00:24:21Its forces were struggling to make any meaningful gains along the front lines
00:24:25and were even being pushed back in some areas.
00:24:28Its losses had reached unsustainable levels,
00:24:30with the Kremlin no longer able to recruit enough new troops to replace those
00:24:34that were being killed and injured in Ukraine.
00:24:37And even on the home front, Russia was quite literally burning
00:24:40due to repeated Ukrainian UAV strikes on targets like oil refineries,
00:24:45supply lines, command posts and logistics facilities.
00:24:48With its economy in tatters and its prospects of victory growing slimmer by the day,
00:24:54Russia needed some way to turn the tide.
00:24:56It needed to get its armour back in the fight.
00:24:58And the Arena M appeared the one and only way to make that happen.
00:25:02All that was left was to put it to the test.
00:25:04In late July, that test arrived.
00:25:07But before we look at what happened and how it turned out for both sides,
00:25:10you're watching The Military Show.
00:25:12And if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time.
00:25:16On July 22, Russian forces launched their largest mechanised assault in months
00:25:21in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.
00:25:24Details of the assault were shared online by Ukraine's Azov Brigade.
00:25:28On July 22, the occupiers, using forces of the 8th and 41st Armies
00:25:33along with the 90th Tank Division, attempted an assault in the sector
00:25:37held by the 1st Corps Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine,
00:25:40involving dozens of units of armoured and light vehicles.
00:25:44Additional news reports revealed that tanks, armoured fighting vehicles,
00:25:48BM-21 Grad rocket systems, commercial trucks and supporting infantry,
00:25:53were all involved in this assault, along with multiple two-person motorcycle teams
00:25:57operating independently of the main mechanised force.
00:26:01The Azov Brigade reports that Russia also relied on its Gebera and Lancet strike drones
00:26:06in an attempt to control the airspace above the battlefield,
00:26:09along with a Tornado S-Multiple Launch Rocket System .
00:26:12This was a sizeable force, the likes of which Ukraine hadn't had to deal with for over a year.
00:26:18Russia's commanders also ordered the force to leave large amounts of space in between each vehicle,
00:26:23presumably to provide room for them to manoeuvre or take evasive action
00:26:27if they encountered the likes of mines, rockets or drones.
00:26:30In addition, the large mechanised force advanced from multiple axes,
00:26:34converging towards several small settlements around the village of Shakove.
00:26:38Again, this appeared to be a reasonably smart tactical decision.
00:26:42Rather than attacking with one dense column,
00:26:44Russia divided its forces and gave Ukraine more problems to deal with.
00:26:48Azov reports that the assault lasted for approximately four hours,
00:26:52and it didn't end well for the Russians at all.
00:26:55Perhaps they hoped that Ukraine wouldn't be expecting such a vast armoured force
00:26:59to arrive at its doorstep.
00:27:00Maybe they believed that after so many months of dealing with small assault squads,
00:27:04Ukrainian defenders might have forgotten how to deal with tanks and armoured vehicles.
00:27:08They were also banking on the Arena M to be the difference maker,
00:27:12the secret weapon that Ukraine would have no answer for.
00:27:15All of those hopes proved unfounded and fell apart in a matter of minutes.
00:27:19This particular part of the front is especially well defended,
00:27:23and the Ukrainian military isn't in the habit of leaving things to chance
00:27:26or simply hoping for the best.
00:27:28It takes numerous active measures to defend its valuable territory
00:27:31and prepare for every eventuality,
00:27:34and it was more than ready to repel the Russian assault.
00:27:36As soon as Ukraine's reconnaissance drones detected the advancing force,
00:27:40a rapid response plan was put into motion.
00:27:43Azov reports that its own troops, along with attached units,
00:27:46predicted the paths the Russians would take and block them.
00:27:49They set up mines and obstacles,
00:27:51while also using tactical aviation strikes to damage nearby bridges over the river,
00:27:55that runs around and through Shakovey village, disrupting the enemy's advance.
00:28:00Faced with no clear way forward,
00:28:02the Russians tried to construct pontoon bridges to forge new paths over the river.
00:28:06In doing so, however, they simply gave Ukraine more targets to aim for.
00:28:11Within minutes, the skies over the battlefield were filled with FPV drones and heavy bomber drones,
00:28:16with Ukraine also relying on nearby artillery units to rain down fire from above on the Russian forces.
00:28:21Russia's Tornado S-MLRs was wiped out,
00:28:25while tactical aviation strikes eliminated the pontoons before they could be used.
00:28:30As for the tanks and other armored vehicles,
00:28:32many of those were wiped out as well, including those equipped with the Arena M.
00:28:36Footage clearly shows a T-72B3A tank suffering a drone strike while in motion,
00:28:42before additional UAVs moved in to finish the job.
00:28:45There are no images or video showing the Arena M actually functioning to repel any Ukrainian UAVs.
00:28:51That doesn't mean it didn't work at all, as this was a reportedly four-hour conflict,
00:28:56and there are only a few minutes of video footage available from it.
00:28:59The Arena M may have indeed have succeeded in taking out a few drones,
00:29:03but in the end, it clearly wasn't enough to keep Russia's tanks alive long enough for this assault to succeed.
00:29:09The numbers speak for themselves.
00:29:11Azov reports,
00:29:12As a result of the professional actions of all units involved under the command of the 1st Corps Azov of
00:29:18the National Guard of Ukraine,
00:29:19using barrel artillery, multiple launch rocket systems and attack drones, the following were destroyed.
00:29:25Seven tanks, six armored combat vehicles, one BM-21 Grad MLRS, one Tornado S MLRS, three units of special equipment
00:29:35and 47 units of light vehicles.
00:29:38123 occupiers were eliminated and 29 were wounded.
00:29:42The mechanized assault was repelled.
00:29:44The Russian Ministry of Defense has kept quiet about the operation,
00:29:48most likely out of shame and embarrassment at the extent of its failure.
00:29:51And while there is a chance that some of the infantry or motorcycle teams managed to make it past the
00:29:56main engagement area,
00:29:57this assault has to go down as a disaster for the Kremlin's forces.
00:30:01Numerous Russian military bloggers have stated as much,
00:30:04with several of the biggest voices condemning the Kremlin's commanders for giving the green light to what they feel was
00:30:10such a stupid and wasteful assault.
00:30:11The officer on the Front Channel, for example, wrote,
00:30:15In the era of total drone dominance, throwing mechanized columns into frontal assaults is not a tactic, but suicide.
00:30:22This is not a war. This is a massacre carried out by the incompetent people from the Central Military District.
00:30:28The new active protection system of the T-72? Useless. It didn't save anyone. It didn't work.
00:30:34It's July 2026, and our idiot generals are still storming in columns. This is disgraceful. This is the height of
00:30:41incompetence.
00:30:42And such decisions must be held accountable to the fullest extent.
00:30:46Russian writer and political activist Vladimir Kucherenko, better known by his pen name, Maxim Kalashnikov, agreed.
00:30:53Writing on Telegram, Kalashnikov expressed shock that such assaults were still being carried out in the fifth year of the
00:30:59war,
00:30:59despite the fact that everyone should be aware of the threat of a drone war.
00:31:03He went on to demand that those who give the orders for such assaults are held accountable,
00:31:07stating that this is the only way the meat grinder will ever end.
00:31:11These aren't the views of everyday Russians. They're the views of some of the country's most extreme nationalists.
00:31:16The kind of people who want to see the Russian army wipe out Ukraine as we know it.
00:31:20And they largely agree that the country's current strategy is doomed to fail.
00:31:24And it's not hard to see why.
00:31:26In a matter of hours, Russia lost numerous high-value assets and approximately 150 troops, and it made no progress
00:31:33whatsoever.
00:31:34It went all in on the Arena M, believing that this system would make the difference.
00:31:39It even stripped away the spikes and cages from its tanks, since it was so confident that this new and
00:31:44improved APS would be more than sufficient to keep them alive.
00:31:47As the evidence shows, it wasn't.
00:31:50Analysts have pored over the footage from the conflict, with some concluding that the Arena M didn't even fire,
00:31:56and others believing it managed to eliminate a few drones before running out of munitions.
00:32:00Either way, the conclusion is clear.
00:32:02This system isn't the game-changer the Kremlin wants it to be.
00:32:06It's simply not strong enough, meaning that Russia still has zero answer to Ukraine's drone dominance.
00:32:11As long as that continues, the Kremlin's forces will be stuck in a rut, forced to choose between two tactical
00:32:17approaches that have both proven to be ineffective.
00:32:20On the one hand, they might continue to bring back tanks and launch more mechanized assaults, hoping that the sheer
00:32:26volume of their armor eventually proves enough to overwhelm Ukraine's defenses.
00:32:30That's unlikely to happen, however, as Ukraine has proven on countless occasions that its drones are more than a match
00:32:36for even the best Russian tanks.
00:32:38On the other hand, Russia might decide to follow the advice of the military bloggers and keep its armor in
00:32:43reserve, ordering its engineers to work on improving the Arena M even further.
00:32:48Meanwhile, it'll have little choice but to continue sending small squads of soldiers towards Ukrainian positions, hoping that the odd
00:32:55one or two manage to infiltrate enemy positions and disrupt them from within.
00:32:59It's a less wasteful strategy, but extremely unlikely to produce the kind of broad sweeping gains that Russia's President Vladimir
00:33:06Putin wants to see to back up his belief that this war is still somehow winnable.
00:33:11And so, the Russian army remains stuck in limbo, trapped in a damned if you do, damned if you don't
00:33:16scenario, in which every approach fails and even the faintest slivers of progress are all but impossible to achieve.
00:33:23As Ukraine expands its long-range campaign, it faces a challenge.
00:33:28That campaign is already effective, but Ukraine wants more drones hitting their targets and for that it needs to tackle
00:33:35Russia's air defenses.
00:33:36Too many of Ukraine's drones get sent off course or are destroyed by those defenses.
00:33:41The less effective Russian air defenses are, the more Russia burns.
00:33:46It's a simple concept, and now the UK has provided Ukraine with the solution to its problem.
00:33:52You won't believe what the UK just gave to Ukraine as a Harry Potter-style weapon designed by the UK
00:33:58is set to become the next big thing in the war.
00:34:01Ukraine wants to send Russia back to the Stone Age, and now it can.
00:34:05Why the stone cloak is coming.
00:34:08On July 26th, The Telegraph reported that the UK's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has revealed that he is set
00:34:15to sign a new deal with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
00:34:18This new deal will be signed during a meeting between the pair at a naval yard, and it's going to
00:34:23be proof that the UK's support of Ukraine in its defense of its territory against Russia remains unwavering, Burnham declares.
00:34:31So there's a new pact waiting to be signed.
00:34:33What's the big deal?
00:34:34The big deal is what Ukraine will be getting.
00:34:36Under this pact, Ukraine will receive specially developed signal jammers that the UK has developed to integrate into a new
00:34:44series of its own weapons.
00:34:46Named Stone Cloak, these jammers will make Ukraine's incoming drones and cruise missiles practically undetectable to Russian air defense systems.
00:34:54Think of it like the Cloak of Invisibility from Harry Potter, only for weapons.
00:34:58That's what the UK has promised to deliver, but it goes much deeper than that.
00:35:02The UK isn't just handing over some stone cloaks and calling it a day.
00:35:06Ukraine is receiving a license to produce these ingenious jammers for itself.
00:35:11Stone cloaks are nothing new for Ukraine.
00:35:13The UK has already provided thousands of the signal jammers to Ukraine.
00:35:17However, even those thousands aren't quite enough.
00:35:19Ukraine's long-range campaign has ramped up massively in 2026, leading to tens of thousands of Ukrainian drones being launched
00:35:25into Russia and the occupied territories.
00:35:27That's what Ukraine needs. Tens of thousands of stone cloaks to go along with the sheer number of drones that
00:35:33it unleashes.
00:35:34With this new agreement, Ukraine will receive the intellectual rights to the technology so it can mass produce them, perhaps
00:35:40on a scale that even the UK can't manage.
00:35:43Ahead of Zelensky's visit, Burnham explained why he made the decision.
00:35:46Britain stands with Ukraine, shoulder to shoulder, and our support remains unwavering.
00:35:51Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve, and we will not back down until we achieve a long
00:35:56-lasting peace for Ukraine, Burnham said.
00:35:58Before adding, Stone Cloak is the best of homegrown British innovation and proven on the front line, and it will
00:36:04be vital to protecting our security in both our countries.
00:36:07This was a message to Voldemort, sorry Putin, that Ukraine's drones and missiles are about to become invisible.
00:36:14And there's nothing he can do about it.
00:36:16As much as the UK wants to prove that it still stands with Ukraine, which itself is a gutshot to
00:36:20Putin as he tries to create division throughout Europe,
00:36:22There is an element of self-interest in this new deal. Ukraine gets to make Stone Cloaks.
00:36:27In return, the UK gets to gather mass deployment data on a jammer that has already proven its worth on
00:36:33the front lines in Ukraine.
00:36:35British Army chiefs say that data will be collected on the performance of Stone Cloak once it's deployed en masse,
00:36:40with that information then being used by the UK as it develops its next generation of missiles and drones.
00:36:46In particular, the UK wants to see how the current version of the jammer works because it intends to build
00:36:51Stone Cloak into Project Brake Stop,
00:36:53which is an upcoming low-cost cruise missile.
00:36:56We also imagine that the UK and Ukraine will both use the data collected to make tweaks to Stone Cloak,
00:37:01making it even more effective when stacked up against Russian air defenses.
00:37:05This new deal is big for Ukraine, for several reasons that we'll explain soon.
00:37:10But first the big question, what is Stone Cloak exactly?
00:37:13Stone Cloak is a new type of signal jammer that can be loaded into drones and missiles.
00:37:18It's designed to help those weapons overcome air defenses.
00:37:22URACTIVE has a little more information.
00:37:24These jammers are small, at roughly the size of a tablet computer.
00:37:27They can be fitted directly to a weapon that Ukraine intends to fire,
00:37:30and they work by jamming the signals used by air defense systems that allow those systems to track and target
00:37:36Ukraine's projectiles.
00:37:37From that, we can assume that Stone Cloak affects not just the air defense system itself,
00:37:41but the radar that is attached to the system.
00:37:44Apart from that, we know little beyond speculation.
00:37:47Stone Cloak likely uses radio frequency jamming to make projectiles difficult to detect.
00:37:52With no official data sheets made public,
00:37:54we can only assume that includes the radio frequency bands used by Russian early warning and tracking radars.
00:37:59Ukraine will also need to be able to source critical parts to make its own Stone Cloaks.
00:38:04These include semiconductors, amplifiers and RF modules,
00:38:08all of which Ukraine seems to be able to source for its other weapons.
00:38:11Presumably, it should have no difficulty getting its hands on these components,
00:38:15though the number of each that it's able to purchase could hamper the number of Stone Cloaks that Ukraine makes
00:38:19for itself.
00:38:20But that's a future problem.
00:38:21For now, Ukraine will be jubilant that it's gotten its hands on the rights to make a device
00:38:25that could make a massive difference to its war against Russia.
00:38:28But before we go deeper into why that difference is coming,
00:38:31this is a reminder that you are watching The Military Show.
00:38:34If you like what you see from our channel, then remember to subscribe and ring the notification bell,
00:38:38so you never miss any of our analysis of the latest weapons used by Ukraine.
00:38:42Let's start with the thing that Stone Cloak is going to counter, Russia's air defences.
00:38:46Though a lot has been said on this very channel about how badly those defences are failing,
00:38:50as Ukraine's drone operators have been able to carry out hundreds of strikes against Russian targets in 2026 alone,
00:38:56they are still a problem.
00:38:57And if Russia is to be believed, far more of Ukraine's drones get intercepted
00:39:01than actually make it to where Ukraine wants them to go.
00:39:04For instance, Al Jazeera reports that Russia's defense ministry claimed that air defences destroyed 571 of Ukraine's drones
00:39:12during a single overnight attack leading into July 24th.
00:39:15Toward the end of 2025, the Royal United Services Institute ran a study that concluded that fewer than 10%
00:39:22of the drones
00:39:22that Ukraine launches reach their targets.
00:39:24Whether that's still the case over half a year later isn't clear,
00:39:27but what really matters here is that Ukraine wants its long-range strikes to be even more effective than they
00:39:32already are.
00:39:33Attacking air defenses directly helps with that, as doing so leads to the creation of safe aerial corridors for drones
00:39:39and missiles.
00:39:40However, Ukraine's goal now is more success.
00:39:42What if Ukraine can launch 600 drones and have 20% of them find their mark, or 30%?
00:39:47That's what the UK's stonecloak decision could enable.
00:39:50If Ukraine is able to mass-produce these devices to the point where it can install them on most,
00:39:54if not all, of the projectiles that it fires into Russia and the occupied territories,
00:39:58then it has a serious force multiplier on its hands.
00:40:01Think about what that means for things like the refinery strikes that Ukraine has been carrying out.
00:40:05Those strikes are already effective.
00:40:07On July 25th, Ukraine unleashed another, striking the Tiumen refinery that is 2,000 kilometers away from its borders.
00:40:14The attack caused a fire. That blaze would have been even bigger if more of Ukraine's drones broke through the
00:40:19defenses.
00:40:20There are also benefits to Ukraine in terms of the cost of these strikes.
00:40:24Though drones offer a low-cost way to carry out long-range strikes,
00:40:28sending swarms of UAVs that never reach their targets still means that Ukraine is pouring tens,
00:40:33if not hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain with each attack.
00:40:36Again, Stonecloak could change that.
00:40:38The entire calculus of Ukraine's deep strike strategy changes as a result.
00:40:42And as for the impact on Russia,
00:40:44well, that brings us nicely to the second reason why this Stonecloak licensing agreement is so important.
00:40:49A long-range strategy that is both expanding and working very well already
00:40:53now has the potential to inflict enormous economic and psychological pain
00:40:57on a Russian population that is already feeling the impact of a war that they never thought would come to
00:41:02their doorstep.
00:41:03When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022,
00:41:05the prospect of drones and missiles reaching 2,000 kilometers deep into Russian territory wasn't even a consideration.
00:41:11Even when the initial invasion failed and Ukraine started to get its hands on Western missiles,
00:41:16the ranges of those missiles restricted attacks to the border regions of Russia, along with Crimea and the Black Sea.
00:41:22Fast forward to 2026 and the situation is very different.
00:41:25Ukraine isn't just capable of long-range strikes, as we saw in Tumen.
00:41:29It's unleashing them with a frequency that alarms even the coolest-headed Russians around.
00:41:33In a May report, United24 media revealed just how much Ukraine's deep-strike campaign has escalated.
00:41:39In August 2024, Ukraine launched a little over 1,000 drones at Russian military targets.
00:41:45In July 2025, the number has risen to 3,000.
00:41:48But in March 2026, Ukraine was up to around 7,000 drones in a single month,
00:41:53which was enough to send Ukraine beyond Russia in terms of the sheer number of projectiles launched into the other
00:41:58side's territory.
00:41:59Russia no longer has a peaceful near-rear anywhere that matters.
00:42:03The only locations that are safe from Ukraine's drones are in the Russian Far East,
00:42:06which is so far away from Ukraine that it's practically a non-factor,
00:42:10outside of providing Putin with a region from which he can recruit soldiers.
00:42:14There is a purpose to these strikes beyond the numbers.
00:42:17Ukraine is trying to cripple Russia's economy while offering constant reminders to Putin's people
00:42:21that the war their leader started now impacts them.
00:42:24On the economic front, Ukraine's drones are already having the intended impact.
00:42:28In a July 6 report, The Telegraph revealed that half a million Russians went bankrupt in 2025
00:42:33due to the economic impact of the war, adding that the country now faces an explosive banking crisis.
00:42:39Growth isn't coming anytime soon, either.
00:42:41Russia's economy ministry has been forced to adjust its gross domestic product,
00:42:45or GDP, growth forecasts for 2026 from 1.3% to 0.4%.
00:42:51The same is true for 2027, where the GDP growth forecast is now 1.4% instead of 2.8%.
00:42:57And these are Russia's massaged figures, so you can bet your bottom dollar that the reality in the country is
00:43:03much worse.
00:43:04Ukraine's deep strikes have been a huge cause of these economic problems.
00:43:08They've also contributed to a fuel crisis in Russia that extends to the majority of the country's regions
00:43:13and has caused particular pain for Crimea's occupiers, who are increasingly being isolated by both middle- and long-range
00:43:20strikes.
00:43:20Ukraine has even started striking seemingly civilian businesses, as it has with Wildberries, which is considered the Amazon of Russia.
00:43:28Wildberries isn't as innocent as Russia would have you believe.
00:43:31The e-commerce platform makes drones, components, and even military gear available on its store.
00:43:36Striking blows against the company's warehouses, as Ukraine has done several times in July, means that billions of dollars of
00:43:42stock goes up in flames.
00:43:44For entrepreneurs who relied on Wildberries for their businesses, the blows sustained are devastating and deadly.
00:43:50Wildberries has now hidden the military categories on its online portal.
00:43:54That's how terrifyingly effective Ukraine's long-range strikes are.
00:43:58Now, add the stone cloak into that mix.
00:44:01With these invisibility cloaks strapped to their drones, a campaign that is already causing Russia's economy and people a ton
00:44:07of pain ramps up even more.
00:44:09Ukraine won't have to increase the number of drones it's launching.
00:44:12It will simply become more effective with the numbers it's already sending into Russia.
00:44:16And the timing of the new license deal couldn't be any better either.
00:44:19Following a July 26th meeting with military leaders, Zelensky announced that Ukraine has created a new list of military targets
00:44:26that it intends to strike in Russia.
00:44:27Today, we agreed to continue our operations and updated the list of priority targets, in accordance with their real impact
00:44:34on Russia and its ability to continue and prolong this war, Zelensky said.
00:44:39Adding,
00:44:40The main goal is to further pressure Russia into diplomacy by disrupting the production of weapons components, causing oil and
00:44:46other economic losses, and bringing this war back to a familiar ground.
00:44:50The stone cloak licensing and production likely won't be set up in time to impact these particular targets.
00:44:55But more will be listed in the future.
00:44:58Ukraine's drones aren't going anywhere.
00:45:00Well, they are.
00:45:01Right into Russia, and with the stone cloaks equipped, even more regularly into the hearts of the targets that Ukraine
00:45:06assigns to its drone operators.
00:45:08There's one more reason why stone cloak will worry Russia.
00:45:11It is yet another sign that Ukraine is cooperating with its partners well beyond what Putin thought possible.
00:45:17Again, we take you back to what Russia assumed Ukraine would always be in 2022.
00:45:21To Russia, Ukraine was a weak nation.
00:45:23Sure, it managed to fend off the initial special military operation.
00:45:26But after that, it was only surviving because Western nations were sending billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine.
00:45:32Ukraine did, of course, rely on these weapons massively during the first few years of the war.
00:45:36But a transformation has occurred.
00:45:38In 2022, Ukraine would accept any weapons that were offered, and it was very much cast in the role of
00:45:43aid recipient.
00:45:44That was okay for Putin.
00:45:46As much as he hated the collective West for jumping to Ukraine's aid, he also believed that he could manipulate
00:45:51Western leaders into withdrawing that aid in time.
00:45:53He just had to cast Ukraine as a leech that didn't deserve to survive.
00:45:56The goal was division.
00:45:57In 2026, Ukraine isn't the weakling that Russia wanted to cast it as. Frankly, it never was.
00:46:03But now, we see a version of a country that is an active contributor to the European and global defense
00:46:07spaces, rather than a nation that relies solely on others to survive.
00:46:12Think about what the UK licensing stone cloak to Ukraine really means.
00:46:15This isn't just the UK allowing Ukraine to build a weapon.
00:46:18It's recognition of the fact that Ukraine's defense sector has grown so much, both in size and complexity, that it
00:46:24can be trusted to build one of the most modern pieces of equipment that the UK's military has developed.
00:46:29What we see here is recognition of Ukraine as a burgeoning defense powerhouse.
00:46:33The Ukrainian defense sector that was valued at $1 billion at the start of the invasion has ballooned to the
00:46:38point where its capacity is above $55 billion.
00:46:41Ukraine isn't just a recipient of aid anymore, it's a contributor, and the UK granting a stone cloak license is
00:46:47recognition of the fact that Ukraine has become a valued partner in British defense, just as the UK is a
00:46:52valued partner to Ukraine.
00:46:53We're seeing this kind of thing happen with surprising regularity in 2026.
00:46:57Stone cloak is just the latest in a growing line of advanced technologies that are being licensed to Ukraine for
00:47:03production.
00:47:03Earlier, the US made the shocking announcement that it was going to license Patriot interceptor missile production to Ukraine, meaning
00:47:10one of the world's most advanced air defense missiles will be built on Ukrainian soil.
00:47:15Defense Express reported on July 23rd that Patriot missiles manufacturer Raytheon is now in active negotiations with Ukraine to get
00:47:22that licensing deal over the line.
00:47:23France also licensed several weapons to Ukraine earlier in July, giving Ukraine permission to produce its own Aster-30 air
00:47:30defense missiles, Assam hammer bomb kits, and Scalp cruise missiles.
00:47:34What these deals tell us, and the stone cloak agreement reinforces, is that Ukraine has become a linchpin in European
00:47:40defense.
00:47:40The UK recognizes that fact, it sees value in having Ukraine build its jammer, because Ukraine can test the device
00:47:47like no other nation, and it can build it reliably to the point where Ukraine may well be producing stone
00:47:51cloaks for the UK when the war is over.
00:47:53The Atlantic Council has gone as far as to dub Ukraine Europe's shield, and it has a point.
00:47:59If Russia is the enemy that all of Europe knows it needs to counter, Ukraine is creating the blueprint while
00:48:04giving its partners valuable time to prepare.
00:48:06As for Putin, the stone cloak deal is as sure a sign as any that he has received so far
00:48:11that his attempts to divide and deter Ukraine's partners aren't working.
00:48:14That's the key point that Burnham made when announcing the new deal.
00:48:17Russia will still try to divide.
00:48:20It has intensified its shadow war behind the scenes in a renewed attempt to stop the flow of support to
00:48:25Ukraine.
00:48:26Sabotage on the territory of partners has been recorded, as have drone incursions, operations close to subsea cables, disinformation campaigns,
00:48:34and weaponized migration.
00:48:35All of this is supposed to intimidate countries like the UK, to the point where they stop doing things like
00:48:40granting licenses to Ukraine to produce a device that makes Russia weaker and Ukraine stronger.
00:48:44It isn't working. Ukraine's partners see through it all and know that desperation underpins everything that Putin is doing.
00:48:52The UK's Harry Potter style weapon is just the latest to come to Ukraine, despite all of Russia's attempts to
00:48:58cajole and intimidate.
00:49:00For Taiwan, it's not a question of if China will eventually invade, but when.
00:49:05It could still be some time away, or it might happen within the next 12 months.
00:49:10Either way, the island territory wants to be ready to defend itself as well as it possibly can.
00:49:15In order to do that, it's taking some serious inspiration from another country that has had to deal with aggression
00:49:21from a significantly larger and stronger neighbour, Ukraine.
00:49:24Ukraine's mastery of drone warfare has helped Kyiv's forces achieve the impossible, turning the tide of a conflict that seemed
00:49:31destined to end in a resounding Russian victory.
00:49:34And if drones can help Ukraine fend off Russia, then perhaps they could do something similar for Taiwan with China.
00:49:40That's why the Taiwanese military has made the call to create a drone hellscape to stop an invasion before it
00:49:46even begins.
00:49:47That term, hellscape, was coined back in August 2023 by then-commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command, John Acolino,
00:49:56and was described in detail by his successor, Admiral Samuel Paparo, in an interview with the Washington Post.
00:50:02I want to turn the Taiwan Strait into an unmanned hellscape using a number of classified capabilities so that I
00:50:08can make their lives utterly miserable for a month, which buys me the time for the rest of everything.
00:50:12To be more precise, the hellscape's strategy envisions a battlefield absolutely filled with drones, tens of thousands of them in
00:50:20all forms, from unmanned ships and submarines in the water to aircraft dotting the skies, all working in tandem to
00:50:27engage thousands of enemy targets all at once.
00:50:30It's an idea that the US has been working on for quite some time, with the Department of Defense taking
00:50:35big steps towards procuring and fielding enormous amounts of unmanned systems, having learned just how effective they can be from
00:50:41the war in Ukraine.
00:50:42The department also began its replicator initiative in 2023, aimed at developing new unmanned system capabilities to help America and
00:50:51its allies stay one step ahead of their enemies in this domain.
00:50:54Because hellscape isn't just about having huge amounts of drones, it's also about enabling them to work together.
00:51:01That's why the US Navy has also been working on programs like Project Overmatch, which focuses on combining information flows
00:51:08from different drones and units into a single picture, turning the hellscape from a cluster of independent unmanned systems into
00:51:15a single coalesced force sharing the same aims and information.
00:51:19In theory, should the US gain credible intelligence regarding an invasion of Taiwan in the days and weeks prior, it
00:51:26could rapidly reposition its unmanned assets like MQ-9 Reaper UAVs from the Philippines and unmanned surface vessels USVs from
00:51:34various parts of the Pacific region towards Taiwan.
00:51:37Since they're relatively small and lightweight, assets like these are often quite easy to move compared to larger military vehicles
00:51:44and equipment.
00:51:45Once in place, thousands of unmanned systems could be launched from the likes of submarines, surface ships and aircraft around
00:51:51the region over the course of the initial days and weeks of the war.
00:51:55Their objective wouldn't be to completely destroy the opposing force.
00:51:58It would simply be to delay it and make any sort of progression as difficult to achieve as possible, buying
00:52:04time for allies to mobilize and other larger assets to arrive in the region.
00:52:08That's exactly what Taiwan needs, but it's not counting on America alone to defend its interests.
00:52:14It's taking steps to be able to create its very own hellscape.
00:52:17Entire fleets of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs and unmanned attack boats are being built across the territory's military facilities as
00:52:25we speak.
00:52:25The idea is simple, should China launch an invasion, Taiwan's drone army will allow it to stay one step ahead.
00:52:32Taking to the air and the seas, these unmanned vehicles will be able to spot any signs of enemy movement
00:52:37in advance.
00:52:38From there, Taiwan can orchestrate a rapid response, literally flooding the Taiwan Strait with vast swarms of drones, in addition
00:52:44to missiles and artillery fire,
00:52:46in order to absolutely overwhelm the invading force, raining down fire from the skies while also striking from the water
00:52:52to make the amphibious assault far deadlier than China could have ever imagined.
00:52:56Like their US counterparts, Taiwanese tacticians were inspired by the remarkable achievements of the Ukrainian armed forces.
00:53:03Until that war began, Taipei perhaps hadn't quite realized the value that drones could hold, with Lieutenant General Wang Wenqi,
00:53:11Director General of Strategic Planning for the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, recently telling lawmakers,
00:53:16our drone and counter-drone efforts started relatively late, and initially we were trying things out as we went along.
00:53:23Now, however, Taiwan has absolutely understood that drone warfare could be the difference maker it needs to withstand a war
00:53:29with China.
00:53:30Wanting to become the next big drone superpower, just like Ukraine before it,
00:53:34the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs announced in May 2026 that it intends to produce 100,000 drones per month
00:53:43by 2030,
00:53:44with half of those being exported to strengthen the country's economy and the remaining half remaining in Taiwan for national
00:53:50defense and security.
00:53:51According to Xiao Xu Shui, Director General of the MOEA's Industrial Development Administration, Taiwan is currently able to produce a
00:53:59maximum of around 15,000 units,
00:54:02with around 20% of them being exported, but it wouldn't take much to scale up production.
00:54:06He also noted that, even though China is able to create cheap consumer-grade drones in vast quantities quite easily,
00:54:13thanks to its large-scale production infrastructure, Taiwan is still able to compete quite strongly when it comes to military
00:54:19-grade UAVs,
00:54:20with the likes of anti-jamming features and autonomous flight systems.
00:54:25In June 2026, Taiwan took its commitment to drone warfare one step further.
00:54:30The country's executive branch pitched a whopping $6.6 billion budget for the procurement of over 200,000 domestically-made
00:54:37unmanned systems,
00:54:39designed to defend the island against invaders.
00:54:41To be more specific, the proposal would cover the acquisition of 208,200 one-way strike drones,
00:54:48along with an additional 1,446 reconnaissance drones and a batch of 1,320 unmanned surface vessels, as detailed by
00:54:57the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense.
00:54:59The Secretary General of the country's National Security Council, Joseph Wu, said that these drones would form an unmanned shield
00:55:06for the island,
00:55:07with Minister of National Defense Wellington Ku adding that the systems would significantly improve maritime domain awareness and targeting capability.
00:55:15This all represents quite a big shift in Taiwanese military strategy.
00:55:19Taiwan has always known that the threat of Chinese invasion was real,
00:55:23with Xi Jinping stating on numerous occasions that the reunification of China and Taiwan is, in his words, unstoppable.
00:55:30Yet for years, Taipei's tactics focused mostly on quite conventional methods to counter an unexpected attack from the mainland.
00:55:38The country invested heavily in large military platforms like fighter jets and heavy tanks,
00:55:43the kind of equipment needed to fight a conventional battle.
00:55:45It was, in effect, preparing to confront China head-on in the water and along the coastlines,
00:55:51engaging in symmetrical combat and relying on innate advantages of geography to provide the all-important edge its forces needed
00:55:58to keep pace with their enemy.
00:55:59Over time, Taiwan has realized that a much smarter approach is to embrace asymmetric warfare instead.
00:56:06Because when war with China comes, it will not be a fair fight.
00:56:09The Chinese People's Liberation Army will be far larger, stronger and better funded,
00:56:15with more aircraft, vessels, ground vehicles and far more troops too,
00:56:19plus massive stockpiles of missiles and other long-range munitions.
00:56:22Indeed, there's a clear reason why China sits third in the global firepower military strength rankings,
00:56:29while Taiwan is down in 22nd place.
00:56:31It's a similar sort of disparity to Russia, second in the rankings and Ukraine 20th.
00:56:36And just as Ukraine rapidly realized it was never going to defeat Russia in a conventional conflict,
00:56:42Taiwan has also had to accept it cannot go toe-to-toe with such a mighty force.
00:56:46But that doesn't mean it can't compete with it.
00:56:49It's simply a question of choosing the right tactics and the right equipment,
00:56:53which is why Taipei has been so keen to move away from conventional firepower
00:56:57and towards the sort of mobile, distributed and unmanned systems that can help it defend itself more effectively,
00:57:03including anti-ship missiles, mobile air defenses and sea mines.
00:57:07And that's where the drone hellscape comes in,
00:57:10with unmanned systems potentially holding the most value and potential to shift the conflict in Taiwan's favor,
00:57:16when the time finally comes,
00:57:18allowing it to emulate Ukraine's David versus Goliath approach to its own war with Russia.
00:57:22There are, however, several challenges standing in Taipei's way.
00:57:26But before we dig into this, quick side note.
00:57:29The military show brings you the full picture, not just headlines.
00:57:32Hit subscribe to stay ahead of the curve.
00:57:36Taiwan is making the right moves.
00:57:39From 2022 onwards, through its Sea Air Combat Power Improvement Plan,
00:57:44it's made massive investments in the kinds of weapons and military equipment it will need to hold off a Chinese
00:57:49invasion.
00:57:50It's clearly serious about drone warfare too, with Mick Ryan, retired Australian Major General,
00:57:55who's extensively studied the military strategies of Ukraine and Taiwan,
00:57:59noting that Taipei has clearly realized that drones will be important in all the domains, in all the phases.
00:58:05Numerous American defense firms, such as General Atomics and Kratos,
00:58:09have been selling UAVs for Taipei,
00:58:11and are even in negotiations to begin co-production efforts to bolster the island's domestic defenses.
00:58:16Altius attack drones, also created by US firm Anduril, have also been seen being used in training exercises in Taiwan,
00:58:24and MQ-9C Guardian drones arrived in the region in June as well.
00:58:29But acquiring drones is just the first part of the puzzle.
00:58:32There are two more challenges to overcome before war breaks out,
00:58:35if Taiwan wants to make the best possible use of its expanding unmanned army.
00:58:39The first of those challenges is for Taiwan soldiers to learn how to work with drones efficiently.
00:58:45This is something that many military forces all over the world are working on at the moment.
00:58:49They've seen how powerful and influential drones can be on the battlefield,
00:58:53due to the events of the Russia-Ukraine war, and they don't want to be left behind.
00:58:58Many are even reaching out directly to Ukrainian defense firms and tactical planners for advice and insights
00:59:04on how best to integrate unmanned vehicles into their operations,
00:59:07and what kinds of training regimes to establish to get their troops up to speed with these new technologies.
00:59:13Ukraine had to learn all this the hard way, under pressure, in a live conflict.
00:59:18Its armed forces had no choice, no respite, no breathing room.
00:59:21They simply had to figure out how drones worked, and how to use them to disrupt their enemies' operations on
00:59:26the fly,
00:59:27while dealing with daily bombardments.
00:59:29Taiwan doesn't have that.
00:59:31On the one hand, that's a positive.
00:59:32It means that Taiwan's forces still have a certain level of freedom,
00:59:36and a certain amount of time to educate themselves and improve their standards.
00:59:40On the other hand, it can also invite a degree of complacency.
00:59:44As Xu Xiaowang, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei, explains,
00:59:52It's very difficult, because they haven't experienced the crucible of war.
00:59:56The army's frontline military operations must undergo a total change from the past.
01:00:01In the Russia-Ukraine war, if you fire one round, you won't have a chance to fire a second, if
01:00:06you just stay lined up there without moving on.
01:00:09Fortunately, Taiwan's tacticians appear eager to ensure that complacency doesn't set in.
01:00:14Indeed, during the country's Han Kuang annual military exercises, which were held in early August, soldiers were often seen working
01:00:21with unmanned systems of various kinds.
01:00:24The country's military invited reporters to observe this 10-day program of military exercises,
01:00:29with Major General Liu Wenyuan affirming that the country's armed forces are being trained not only on deploying drones, but
01:00:36combating them as well.
01:00:38A recent drill also involved units scrambling to defend islands off Taiwan's eastern coast by using drones to hunt down
01:00:44enemy forces.
01:00:45And during Han Kuang, the country's president, Lai Qing Tei, was on hand to observe another exercise involving troops testing
01:00:53two types of prototype strike drones.
01:00:55On top of all of this, Taiwan has also established its own literal combat command, aimed at integrating drones, artillery
01:01:02and mobile missiles into a vast coastal shield, defending the island against the Chinese threat.
01:01:06These are all steps in the right direction, but there's still some way to go before Taiwan can be ranked
01:01:12alongside Ukraine as a true champion of drone warfare.
01:01:16Stacey Petty-John, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and the author of a recent study
01:01:22of Taiwan's Drone Warfare Strategy,
01:01:24has urged the country's tacticians to not get too focused on the technology more than the equally essential organizational and
01:01:31doctrinal changes that are needed to implement a hellscape concept.
01:01:34In other words, Taiwan needs to find the right balance between investing in new technologies and procuring vast amounts of
01:01:41drones,
01:01:42while also adjusting its military practices to use them as effectively and intelligently as possible.
01:01:47Only then will it be in a position where it can achieve its aims of making China's amphibious assaults as
01:01:52costly as possible,
01:01:54and making Beijing work for every single inch of progress across the Taiwan Strait.
01:01:58Now, the second big challenge Taiwan needs to address in the coming months is making sure it has enough stockpiles
01:02:04of drones,
01:02:05plus the ability to make many more by the time the invasion begins.
01:02:09Why? Because if and when China does invade, a big part of Beijing's strategy will likely revolve around isolating Taiwan
01:02:16as quickly as possible.
01:02:17The PLA will want to blockade the island, sealing off access so that no external support can enter.
01:02:23That means that Taiwan may not be able to rely on America and other allies sending shipments of their own
01:02:28drones or other military equipment to help the island defend itself.
01:02:32In effect, Taiwan could be in a situation where it has only itself to rely on.
01:02:36And if that happens, it's going to need huge amounts of drones that are ready to take to the air
01:02:41and water right away,
01:02:43as well as drone production facilities that are ready and waiting to roll thousands more of the production lines in
01:02:48the days and weeks to follow.
01:02:50Thankfully, as mentioned earlier, Taiwan's leadership has already identified these two issues as top priorities.
01:02:56Indeed, both sides of the country's political landscape are in absolute agreement regarding the need to make more drones as
01:03:03rapidly as possible.
01:03:04Sure, political friction recently led to a record 260-day budget deadlock,
01:03:10but the cabinet countered by pushing through a $6.6 billion six-year special budget,
01:03:15specifically to safeguard domestic drone procurement.
01:03:18What matters is that the drones get made.
01:03:20And that's already happening.
01:03:22Taiwanese manufacturers like Thunder Tiger are already steaming ahead in designing and developing new models
01:03:28to help the country achieve its military ambitions.
01:03:30US firms like Shield AI are also playing an active role in assisting them.
01:03:35Taiwan is also selling increasing amounts of drones each year as it aims to make itself a major player in
01:03:40the sector
01:03:41and bring much-needed funds into the island's defense sector.
01:03:44In the first three months of 2026 alone, for example, Taiwan exported a whopping $115 million worth of drones.
01:03:52That's more than it managed in the whole of 2025.
01:03:54Many of these drones have been sold to the Czech Republic, but some have also ended up in places like
01:03:59Poland and even Ukraine.
01:04:01Taiwan is also increasing its exports of drone components too, like motors and optical equipment,
01:04:07as it positions itself as more a trustworthy and dependable alternative to China,
01:04:12for democratic states wishing to invest in drone technology without sending their money straight to Beijing.
01:04:17As Michael Robbins, President of the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International explains,
01:04:23Taiwan sits at the center of one of the most important industrial and strategic competitions of our time.
01:04:28It's one of the few places positioned to produce trusted drone components at scale.
01:04:33In other words, everything is already in place for Taiwan to become a leader in drone development, production and warfare.
01:04:39It just needs to continue down the path it's already following, accelerating and enhancing the ideas and initiatives that are
01:04:46already in place in order to get itself ready for whatever comes next.
01:04:50It may be far smaller than its opponent, but Taiwan has many advantages.
01:04:54It has strong infrastructure, an incredible technology sector, powerful allies around the world and even geography on its side.
01:05:02The fact that it's an island makes it much harder to invade than a place like Ukraine, for example, and
01:05:07it's one of the biggest reasons why China hasn't attacked already.
01:05:10Beijing has had to spend time and massive amounts of money building the world's biggest navy and developing its various
01:05:16missile programs to create a force that's actually capable of pulling off what would be one of the toughest amphibious
01:05:22assaults in modern military history.
01:05:24Thankfully, it still doesn't appear ready to invade just yet, and that means that Taiwan still has time to ramp
01:05:30up its drone production, train its unmanned systems operators and put the pieces of hellscape in place.
01:05:36If it can achieve all that, there's every chance that Taipei can emulate Kyiv and pull off a David versus
01:05:42Goliath victory for the ages.
01:05:45And Taiwan's growing mastery of drone warfare isn't the only thing Xi Jinping needs to worry about.
01:05:50China also needs to contend with the full fury of the American military machine, which grows stronger by the day,
01:05:56which you can learn about in this video.
01:05:58Alternatively, for more military news from the Far East, check out this video, which looks at how North Korean dictator
01:06:04Kim Jong-un may have acquired unprecedented leverage over his Chinese counterpart.
01:06:09And finally, don't forget to subscribe to The Military Show for more breaking news and insightful analysis of the latest
01:06:15big military stories from around the world.
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