Ukraine's battlefields look like World War I but with a new and terrifying addition that leaves troops with almost nowhere to hide

Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From Businessinsider.com: “Ukraine's battlefields look like World War I but with a new and terrifying addition that leaves troops with almost nowhere to hide”. Below is an excerpt from the article.

Trench warfare, relentless artillery, gains measured in mere meters, and heavy casualties on both sides. The battlefields of Ukraine resemble those of World War I, but with a new and terrifying reality — the incessant buzzing of drones, harbingers of death and destruction that are constantly watching from above. 

The Ukraine war has essentially become "World War I with 21st century ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance]," Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Insider.

Both Ukraine and Russia have used drones of all shapes and sizes to spy on each other and to strike targets on a scale that's never been seen before, and it's changing the face of warfare. Drones are being used to locate enemy positions and direct fire, crash into and destroy buildings in "kamikaze" attacks, and drop bombs on tanks.

With much of the fighting occurring in rural areas with large open fields that are often dangerous to cross — a modern equivalent of WWI's horror-filled "No Man's Land" — drones have proven to be an extremely useful and deadly tool. Both sides are using drones equipped with cameras or other sensors that offer a livestream that can be watched on a laptop or digital tablet to scout out the enemy and coordinate attacks from afar.

Drones have played an important role in adjusting artillery fire and confirming that targets were hit or destroyed. They're an eye in the sky on the battlefield in Ukraine that's making artillery even deadlier.

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