Can a swarm of two-pound drones, even thousands of them, defeat 500 tanks and 650 fighting vehicles as they attack behind a wall of artillery fire? We may find out.
The article seems a bit sensational but who knows. Also they can't just roll in with 500 tanks at the same time, they don't fly, so they'll have to go down the road of death and get steadily blown up, so I hope!
Didn't we see this episode at the beginning of the invasion? And that was with soldiers with years of training, an unprepared Ukrainian defense, and without the drone technology and the UA defenders skilled at using it.
Anti air defense exists and artillery has limited range, so you're potentially risking the life of a fighter pilot, which is arguably the single most valuable position of any country's military or risk hundreds of lives pushing the front forward to allow the artillery systems to deploy within striking range. While that's happening the armor could be moved or even worse, the areas within range are already zeroed by enemy artillery and when you deploy the artillery systems, shells start raining on your position.
Given these two options, its far more responsabile to force your enemy to mobilize such a large invasion force into strategically predetermined routes where artillery is already zeroed in, drones can lie in wait, mines have been laid, and the complex logistics of assault supply can be distrupted.