The Pentagon is going mad about drones for a war with China

The Pentagon has a new idea. They are going to buy thousands and thousands of land, sea and aerial drones over the next two years with the aim of frightening Beijing into behaving non-aggressively in the Indo-China region. With so many available unmanned systems, the Pentagon is telling Beijing it could fill the air and sea and, if necessary, land with robotic systems to damage the massive navy and army if they so much as dare to head off towards Taiwan. The new drone programme was announced with huge enthusiasm a few days ago but no one as far as I'm aware asked the obvious question: "I thought it was supposed to be all about America's superiority in aircraft carriers that was deterring Beijing from trying to seize Taiwan, and the mass of anti-ship missiles which are being bought for the US Marines. How can swarms of drones really put off the mighty Chinese fleet from scurrying across the South China Sea to Taiwan? Well, the Pentagon thinks it's the best way forward and they are planning to push ahead as fast as possible. Officials also point out the drones will be cheap. They also point to the lessons learnt from the war in Ukraine where drones fill the skies every day. But the other lesson learnt from Ukraine is that masses of aerial drones get shot down, although the sea drones used by Ukraine have been very effective. Who knows, in two years time when the Pentagon has bought all the drones it wants for the China theatre, the PLA (People's Liberation Army) will have come up with a super anti-drone system that will undermine drones' effectiveness. The carriers, of course, will stay play a huge part in deterring China but the great thing about drones is that they are unmanned and cheap, so if you lose a few thousand no American lives are lost, whereas if a carrier is sunk, you're talking mass casualties and the loss of a ship costing up to $13 billion.