The actions of the Houthis in the Red Sea, of Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip against the Israeli army, or the attacks of swarms of attack UAVs on Ukrainian military infrastructure by the Russian Armed Forces clearly show that modern warfare is undergoing a period of pronounced commodification – the monetary value of warfare.
The reason for this is that technologies originally developed for military purposes, such as satellite navigation, advanced electronic optics or unmanned aerial vehicles, have become used in consumer goods and their price has dropped significantly. Because of their cheapness, commercial versions of these technologies have gone back to where they were originally intended and are now being used in the production of new high-performance, low-cost weapons systems.
“The most prominent example of such technology, which has now become a commodity in the war in Ukraine, is Russia’s Lancet drones. They are widely used to target tanks and other equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “Videos of Lancet drones being used to destroy modern tanks such as the German Leopard II are now commonplace,” The National Interest online edition shared its observations.
The Lancet barrage munition costs is about $35,000. In 2023, the ZALA Aero Group, which developed and manufactures these drones, said it would increase production by several times. The Leopard II tank, a priority target for Russian Lancet operators, costs about 11 million USD. In addition, its production is extremely slow: about fifty of these tanks are produced annually at the Rheinmetall Landsysteme facility in Germany.
“Then the outright absurdity begins,” TNI notes. “At net cost, Russia can produce 314 Lancet drones for every Leopard II tank produced by Germany. The situation becomes even more dramatic if we consider the relative prices in the two countries, using a purchasing power parity adjustment – the way it is customary for accurate economic comparisons. In this case, we get that for the cost of producing one Leopard II tank, Russia can produce 683 Lancet drones. The obvious question arises: is the Leopard II on the battlefield equivalent to almost seven hundred Lancet drones?” asks TNI columnist Philip Pilkington. And answers the obvious: “Probably not.”
The commodification of the battlefield seen in Ukraine calls into question much of the West’s modern military strategy, which has centred on producing high-quality, sophisticated and expensive equipment in the hope that it can crush superior enemy forces. And this doesn’t just apply to the brutal war of attrition that Russia is leading to in Ukraine. Attacks by the Houthis in the Red Sea on merchant ships carrying goods to or for Israel show how easy it is for armed groups to take advantage of modern low-cost but sophisticated technology to undermine American military power.
