Dominations medeival war base layout3/21/2024 Innovative weapons (and tactics) solve specific problems, and the challenge in the high medieval centuries was to resist and overcome the one-man tanks of the era, armored knights, who had come to dominate the battlefield, which, incidentally, meant domination by socio-economic elites, noblemen who could afford not only the armor, but also warhorses, squires, smiths-an entire support system. In crude forms, crossbows of sorts had appeared in Asia and elsewhere in antiquity, but the weapon as we know it matured in Europe just prior to the Crusades. The ever-renewed contest between heavy and light, protected and nimble, doubtless dates back to prehistory, but a particularly acute example is the advent of the crossbow. Manned aircraft all but disappeared from the skies above the sprawling trench lines of the Ukraine war’s second year. The full range of capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-drones-from surveillance to the kill has not only facilitated the massacre of massed armor for pennies on the dollar-or fractions of a penny-but dramatically reduced the training time and expense required for operators substituting for pilots. Mobile warfare, rejuvenated at Cambrai, proved senile on the Steppes. A century after its introduction, the tank has plummeted in its battlefield utility and survivability. Relatively cheap drones overwhelm expensive tactical systems, while their more-sophisticated counterparts penetrate strategic defenses when used in mass. ![]() The never-ending struggle for advantage between attack and defense, lethality and protection, and the innovative and “tried and true” has intensified yet again, this time in Ukraine-to the dismay of some defense contractors and the glee of others.
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