A better solution would be to use small drone swarms and create a surveillance state in the rural areas. Each drone can see about 100m2 at 100m height. So 10K drones for 1 km2 = 10 million dollars.
Attach weapons and you have zero risk of life and can maintain a permanent presence, that can essentially be automated by AI and computer vision.
And I've only spent 0.01% of the yearly spend on the war.
> After the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on September 27, 1996, Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdul Rashid Dostum, two former enemies, created the United Front (Northern Alliance) against the Taliban, who were preparing offensives against the remaining areas under the control of Massoud and Dostum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
Amazing how it's almost an exact repeat of 25 years ago.
Attach weapons and you have zero risk of life and can maintain a permanent presence, that can essentially be automated by AI and computer vision.
And I've only spent 0.01% of the yearly spend on the war.
This is clearly the future of warfare.