Operation Spider Web, the brilliantly audacious Ukrainian drone attack on several Russian airbases located thousands of miles from the battlefield, has been largely lauded as a major tactical and strategic success. Many supposed lessons are being drawn — some, no doubt, applicable, but others hastily jumped to and unwarranted.

The spycraft involved in this attack was extraordinary — hiding drones in the tops of boxes loaded on Russian trucks whose drivers were unaware of their cargo and then released on signal ranks with the greatest of exploits.

While Pearl Harbor is an inappropriate comparison, as Ukraine has been at war for over three years, Jimmy Doolittle’s daring B-25 raid over Tokyo in April 1942 is a good parallel. After all, who would have thought B-25 bombers could fly off a carrier deck?

Perhaps the best analogy is Britain’s Special Air Service, created in 1941 by then-Major David Stirling to conduct hit and run raids on Nazi bases in the North African campaign. Mounted in jeeps, the Special Air Service crisscrossed the desert delivering not just one but multiple surprise attacks on German airbases, physically destroying with bullets, hand grenades and explosive charges more enemy aircraft than the Royal Air Force would ultimately shoot down.

To........

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