As Watling himself puts it: “Unhardened UAVs are disposable tools like munitions and get consumed very rapidly. You need them in your force and you need them to be cheap.”
For decades, Western armies have relied on a few expensive, ‘exquisite’ high-tech platforms, and that includes drones. This conflict of disposable drones may lead to a radical change in military procurement towards the many and the cheap.
Drones are closer in attrition to ammunition than aircraft, so just need to be resupplied as such. They are undoubtedly helpful with all the mortar and artillery spotting, so we need enough resupply to make the attrition worth it.
Also, what think tank is this? Are they credible?