All offensive warfare is maneuver-based. It is when maneuver become unacceptably costly that defense and wars of attrition come to the fore. Every great offensive commander in history: Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Jackson Patton (please add your own in “comments”) repeatedly defeated forces superior in number by their speed of maneuver, showing up when and where they were not expected. Even Washington, the great defensive strategist, won his most important victory by speed and surprise.

Speed and surprise. Surprise is the purpose of speed. …

The point—lest I get lost in buff stuff—is that speed and maneuver are decisive mostly as they are used to achieve concealment and surprise. Concealment and surprise are what the drone deprives to modern ground forces even as the satellite deprives them to the fleet. It is the advent of battlefield reconnaissance costless in human life that is pushing the “advantage” (if one can call pointless bloodshed an advantage) back to the defense in land warfare.

[This entire series has been eye-opening for me. If you’re just seeing this now, go to Richard’s Substack and read it all. — Ed]