Allvin calls Ukraine drone strikes a wake-up call for US air defense

The Air Force’s top uniformed leader called Ukraine’s drone attacks against Russian air bases this weekend a “wake-up moment” for militaries around the globe, both for defensive and offensive posture.

“This shows us that seemingly impenetrable locations maybe are not,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told audience members at the Center for a New American Security conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “We need to pay more attention to that.

“Seeing how we do that in our own homeland defense is one thing … but we need to think about how we integrate that into our force design to ensure that we create dilemmas for our adversaries as well.”

The Ukrainian strikes against multiple Russian airfields June 1 involved more than 100 drones smuggled across the border and launched in a coordinated attack from thousands of miles away.

Ukrainian intelligence officials have claimed the strikes caused more than $7 billion in damage to the Russian military and incapacitated more than one-third of the country’s strategic cruise missile carriers. Russian officials have not verified those estimates.

Allvin called that reported impact “eyebrow-raising” for his staff and other military planners.

“We’ve always known that hardening our bases is something that we need to do,” he said. “And we have that in our budgets, to be able to get more resilient basing. But right now, I don’t think it’s where we need to be.”

The top Air Force leader said that President Donald Trump’s proposed $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense project may eventually have elements to counteract a similar drone attack within the United States. But he expected the Ukrainian offensive to speed some discussions on those defensive capabilities in the near future.

“It really comes down to finding the resources to meet all our priorities,” he said. “If all we’re doing is playing defense, and we can’t shoot back, then that’s not a good use of our money. So we’ll see how the conversation gets stirred up again, based on the strike.”

U.S. officials this week are mediating peace talks between the two warring countries on the possibility of a ceasefire or resolution to the decade-old conflict.

Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.

美国空军最高军官称，乌克兰本周末对俄罗斯空军基地的无人机袭击，对全球各国军队的防御和进攻态势来说，都是一个“警醒时刻”。

“这表明，看似坚不可摧的地方可能并非如此，”空军参谋长戴维·奥​​尔文将军周二在华盛顿特区举行的“新美国安全中心”会议上对听众说。“我们需要更加重视这一点。”

“看看我们如何在国土防御中做到这一点是一回事……但我们需要思考如何将其融入我们的部队设计中，以确保我们也能给我们的对手制造难题。”

6月1日，乌克兰对多个俄罗斯空军基地发动袭击，动用了100多架走私越境的无人机，从数千英里之外发动了协同攻击。

乌克兰情报官员声称，空袭给俄罗斯军方造成了超过70亿美元的损失，并使该国超过三分之一的战略巡航导弹运载舰丧失了作战能力。俄罗斯官员尚未证实这些估计。

奥尔文称，报道中提到的影响令他的工作人员和其他军事策划人员“大吃一惊”。

他说：“我们一直都知道，加固基地是我们必须要做的事情。我们的预算中也包含了这笔费用，用于建设更具韧性的基地。但就目前而言，我认为我们还没有达到应有的水平。”

这位空军最高领导人表示，唐纳德·特朗普总统提出的耗资1750亿美元的“金穹顶”导弹防御系统项目最终可能会包含一些要素，用于应对美国境内类似的无人机袭击。但他预计，乌克兰的攻势将在不久的将来加速有关这些防御能力的讨论。

他说：“归根结底，关键在于找到足够的资源来满足我们所有的优先事项。如果我们只会被动防守，而无法主动出击，那我们的钱就白花了。所以，我们将拭目以待，看看这次罢工之后，这场讨论会如何再次升温。”

本周，美国官员正在斡旋交战两国之间的和平谈判，以期实现停火或解决这场持续十年的冲突。

利奥为《军事时报》报道国会、退伍军人事务部和白宫的新闻。自2004年以来，他一直报道华盛顿特区的新闻，重点关注军人和退伍军人政策。他的作品荣获多项荣誉，包括2009年波尔克奖、2010年国家头条新闻奖、国际退伍军人协会新闻领导力奖和美国退伍军人协会新闻媒体奖。