In the era of drones and smart missiles, the US has recovered a relic of the First World War: the bayonet

In the middle of the Iraq war, a group of British soldiers launched a bayonet charge against Iraqi militiamen near Al Amara. The scene seemed like something out of another century, but the British Army considered it a tactical success in the middle of a modern combat already marked by night vision, digital communications and advanced weaponry.

The unexpected return of the bayonet. More than 20 years have passed since the scene described, but they counted in a report in Insider that, in an era dominated by FPV drones, electronic warfare, artificial intelligence and guided missiles, the United States Army has decided to bring back something that seems straight out of the trenches of World War I: indeed, the bayonet.

The US Army Ranger School, one of the toughest training programs on the planet, has incorporated new hand-to-hand assaults with this war tool within its extreme combat circuits. As? Apparently, soldiers must advance through smoke, tunnels, trenches and physical obstacles while attacking humanoid targets with knives mounted on the end of the rifle. At first glance it seems like an absurd military anachronism in the digital age. However, for the Pentagon the decision responds precisely to the type of war What do you think can happen? in the future.

The Pentagon obsession. The war in Ukraine and other recent conflicts have shown something which is of great concern to Western military strategists: modern battlefields depend on extremely vulnerable networks, communications, GPS, drones and electronic sensors. Jamming, electronic warfare attacks, and combat chaos can isolate entire units in a matter of minutes.

In this scenario, the US Army fears that soldiers accustomed to operating surrounded by technology lose capacity to continue fighting when screens, communications or air support disappear. That’s why Ranger School now insists on training something a lot. most basic and brutal: move forward, endure fear, maintain physical cohesion with teammates and continue attacking even in extreme situations of exhaustion and disorientation.

A relic that never disappeared. The truth is that, although the bayonet is associated above all to suicidal charges of the First World War, never completely disappeared of modern armies. American troops still used it in Korea and Vietnamand British soldiers and US Marines set it again during particularly violent urban combat in Iraq in 2004.

Its current value is not so much in the weapon itself as in what it represents psychologically. Military historians have been pointing out for years that the bayonet works especially like a tool to train aggression, discipline and the ability to continue fighting under extreme fear. It forces the soldier to accept something that modern technological warfare sometimes hides: that many combats still end at very short distances and in deeply chaotic conditions.

Recovering very old ideas. The movement is especially striking because it arrives just when the war seems more futuristic than ever. Ukraine and Russia have filled the front autonomous droneselectronic interference and constant surveillance from the air. But precisely that same technological saturation is producing an unexpected effect: combat once again becomes extremely disorderly when communications fail or units become isolated.

In many sectors of the Ukrainian front, soldiers survive entire days under drones and artillery hardly any contact of course with higher commands. The Pentagon appears to have drawn an uncomfortable conclusion from that experience: The more technological war becomes, the more important it becomes for a soldier to be able to keep fighting even when all that technology disappears.

The fear of blackout. Plus: America’s new military obsession is not just about developing better drones or missiles, but about preparing troops capable of operating when the entire digital ecosystem collapsesif it does. The bayonet symbolizes precisely that idea.

Not because the Army expects massive loads like those of 1916but because it represents the ultimate survival level military: keep moving forward when there is nothing else left. Ultimately, the decision reflects a very current paradox. The more sophisticated modern wars become, the more armies fear the moment when they will once again resemble something much more ancient, physical and primitive.

Image | Joey Rhodes/US Army

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