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Artillery with spotters accomplished the same task.
by famil 4y ago
Artillery with spotters accomplished the same task.
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoExcept you can't survey an area with a an artillery warhead. Sure, you can use your spotters to scout ahead, but why put them in danger of an ambush and have them get killed by a sniper or hidden machinegun, when you can survey that area from a safe distance, and take out the sniper/machine gun if you see one? This is not meant to replace artillery battalions and scouts, but to complement them.
- greedo 4y agoCheaper to use a drone for spotting instead of a FIST unit. That's what's working for the UA. Kamikaze drones have a role for the smaller units, but at the battalion level, it's better to use a surveillance drone to coordinate fires from mortars, MLRS and artillery. The rounds fired from these systems typically have longer range than a drone, a higher rate of fire, and larger warheads.
- glogla 4y agoI think these are pretty complementary. Switchblade 300 is a 10km range Javelin (same warhead in fact) with integrated surveillance capability that can go beyond range of sight. It is not there to replace mortars, artillery and MRLS, which are area weapons.
- thelittleone 4y agoThe switchblade 300 has the same warhead as a javelin? Got a source for that?
- foxyv 4y agoIt's the 600 with the tank buster.
- openasocket 4y agoswitchblade 600 has the Javelin-like warhead, switchblade 300 has something equivalent to a 40mm grenade for a warhead
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoThe 300 is the low collateral assassination drone when you can't use sword bombs.
- gpderetta 4y agoArtillery has been used by Ukraine, and by a lesser extent by Russia, extremely effectively as a precision weapon against all kind of targets, including MBTs.
- gpderetta 4y agoIn fact it seems to me that overall drones as artillery spotters have been much more impactful than direct fire drones in this war.
- alkonaut 4y agoYou can survey with a drone. Merging the observation with the munition is what makes it a loitering munition, but drones for observation/targeting/correction + traditional corrected or guided artillery is very similar (especially guided shells like Excalibur etc which are also themselves similar to loitering munitions just that they loiter very briefly…)
- melling 4y agoI’ve heard varying numbers about the range of the artillery. Somewhere between 15 and 45 miles. Whatever the range, hundreds of drones covering the country could allow for extreme precision.
- sitkack 4y agoSame task, totally different logistics. You can put the spotter and the artillery in your backpack? The task is only one part of the equation.