BEYOND DRONES: WHY TECHNOLOGY CANNOT REPLACE MASS

Headlines typically highlight how high-tech drones are transforming combat, but the raw reality of protracted warfare still comes down to people.
Gil Barndollar, a senior research fellow and Marine veteran who has conducted multiple research trips across Ukraine, sits down with host Steve Trynosky to discuss what the West might be missing. Barndollar argues that Western militaries risk drawing the wrong conclusions from the conflict by focusing almost exclusively on technological innovation while overlooking the grueling demands of military manpower and societal mobilization.
From frontline exhaustion and strained rotation cycles to the messy friction of conscription, the war demonstrates that technology cannot replace mass or human endurance. Trynosky and Barndollar examine why peacetime societies struggle to prepare for the shared sacrifices required in sustained, large-scale conflict—and why assuming a nation can simply switch on a draft overnight is a dangerous gamble.
It is a sobering look at the human dimension that democracies must confront before the next crisis hits.

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