Future prospect of unmanned war and order

"Decentralization" of operational processes

Traditional warfare emphasizes the vertical command system, while modern unmanned warfare encourages parallel attacks and independent decision-making.From the "drone swarm tactics" in Ukraine to the point-like attacks in Gaza and the Red Sea, in this kind of war, the combat mode is changing from centralized command control to multi-point distributed execution, and the expansion path of the war is more like distributed data network than the linear advancement of tanks and large corps in traditional wars.Third, the "asymmetric amplification" of power contrast.Unmanned warfare reduces the "cost of the weak" and improves the "defense difficulty of the strong". 

Non-state/marginal actors, such as Houthi armed forces, Chechen special units, and some militia combat units in Ukraine, have successfully carried out many strategic strikes by using unmanned systems. However, the traditional army has to spend millions of dollars to deal with every wave of "low-cost harassment."In April, 2025, the U.S. aircraft carrier Truman swerved in the Red Sea to avoid the drones and missiles launched by Houthi forces, causing a towed F/A-18E fighter jet to slide into the sea, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses. 

This incident clearly reveals the high-intensity defense response triggered by low-cost attacks and its profound impact on the war resource structure.The essence of unmanned war is not only to change tools, but to break the state monopoly on war. It splits the war power originally dominated by the state into a new mechanism with multi-point emergence, low-cost implementation and cross-platform cooperation.More and more wars exist in the cloud, code, images, coordinates and permissions. 

Technology platform, data algorithm and commercial communication system are forming the "infrastructure" of a new generation of war.In the middle east war zone, operational information is transmitted by Telegram encryption; The target position is located by GPS satellite; The video of the attack was uploaded to YouTube for dissemination and deterrence; The US military relies on Microsoft, Amazon, Palantir and other platforms to build its image recognition and tactical feedback system.In Ukraine, Palantir provides real-time image recognition system, Microsoft Azure hosts military communication and data, and AWS provides satellite image analysis and data backup. Ukrainian combat ports are completely nested on these platforms.