5 ms·

Saw some videos myself today, looks like a pain in the ass to deal with. Doesn't look like small arms fire can bring it down, and it flies really low, so probab

Saw some videos myself today, looks like a pain in the ass to deal with. Doesn't look like small arms fire can bring it down, and it flies really low, so probably not ideal for proper air defenses. The other problem seems to be that it has a unit cost of about 20k and looks to be very easy to produce. Does it do a lot of damage when it lands?

Max-Ganz-II 4y ago
I could be completely wrong, but they look like prime targets for shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. Easy to see, slow and low. Gunfire, mmm, don't know. Hand-held, I think you'd have a hell of a time trying to score a hit without tracer bullets, and the bullets which miss will be coming down at speed into central Kyiv. They can perfectly well kill. If you did score a hit, well, I really don't know. Could be it's packed with sensitive internal components - maybe you would at least damage it enough that it would no longer be able to guide correctly to its target. Or maybe it's mainly fuel tank and wing and punching holes in both just before impact makes little difference. I'd say radar-guided AA gunfire would take such drones out easily, at least when I saw it; but it surely flew to Kyvi at very low altitude, and gained height only at the end. I wonder if they were piloted in real-time, or if they had on-board guidance? Damage, I'll see later, when I attend the local impact sites. The bang and smoke were quite a lot less than the missiles from a few days ago.
- nocubicles 4y ago
  Some tutorial for bringing these drones down stated that you should load your magazine with 2-1-2-1-2-1 etc where 2 are normal bullets and 1 is tracer. Not sure how effective it is but using normals with tracers is good idea I guess.
- Someone 4y ago
  > Gunfire, mmm, don't know. Hand-held Guns are getting smart. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a30720528/us-army-rifle-smash-scope/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a30720528/...: The U.S. Army is evaluating a scope that won’t let the user fire his or her rifle unless the shot is guaranteed. The SMASH scope is the product of Smart Shooter Ltd., an Israeli company, and could go on the Army’s upcoming replacements for the M4 carbine and M249 squad automatic weapon. The scope, or one like it, will eventually go on the Army's next generation squad automatic weapons. (Company at https://www.smart-shooter.com/ https://www.smart-shooter.com/)
rasz 4y ago
The best counter to those drones would be other drones. Either quads or fixed wing. Its <$1K to put together fast drone with 10 minute battery time. You could probably disable iranian drone with something as simple as ribbon forced into the propeller.
- ducksinhats 4y ago
  If they are the off the shelf type that seems to be implied here then simple radio and GPS jamming works fine. If it is really unsophisticated then with a powerful enough signal you could hijack it and fly it somewhere safe.
  - rasz 4y ago
    Components might be off the shelf, but integration is custom and Im guessing it has a heavy Kalman filter which wont let you just blast spoofed _elevation changed by 1000m_ GPS signal and expect it to dive dive dive.

Max-Ganz-II 4y ago

I could be completely wrong, but they look like prime targets for shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. Easy to see, slow and low. Gunfire, mmm, don't know. Hand-held, I think you'd have a hell of a time trying to score a hit without tracer bullets, and the bullets which miss will be coming down at speed into central Kyiv. They can perfectly well kill. If you did score a hit, well, I really don't know. Could be it's packed with sensitive internal components - maybe you would at least damage it enough that it would no longer be able to guide correctly to its target. Or maybe it's mainly fuel tank and wing and punching holes in both just before impact makes little difference. I'd say radar-guided AA gunfire would take such drones out easily, at least when I saw it; but it surely flew to Kyvi at very low altitude, and gained height only at the end. I wonder if they were piloted in real-time, or if they had on-board guidance? Damage, I'll see later, when I attend the local impact sites. The bang and smoke were quite a lot less than the missiles from a few days ago.

nocubicles 4y ago
Some tutorial for bringing these drones down stated that you should load your magazine with 2-1-2-1-2-1 etc where 2 are normal bullets and 1 is tracer. Not sure how effective it is but using normals with tracers is good idea I guess.
Someone 4y ago
> Gunfire, mmm, don't know. Hand-held Guns are getting smart. https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a30720528/us-army-rifle-smash-scope/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a30720528/...: The U.S. Army is evaluating a scope that won’t let the user fire his or her rifle unless the shot is guaranteed. The SMASH scope is the product of Smart Shooter Ltd., an Israeli company, and could go on the Army’s upcoming replacements for the M4 carbine and M249 squad automatic weapon. The scope, or one like it, will eventually go on the Army's next generation squad automatic weapons. (Company at https://www.smart-shooter.com/ https://www.smart-shooter.com/)

rasz 4y ago

The best counter to those drones would be other drones. Either quads or fixed wing. Its <$1K to put together fast drone with 10 minute battery time. You could probably disable iranian drone with something as simple as ribbon forced into the propeller.

ducksinhats 4y ago
If they are the off the shelf type that seems to be implied here then simple radio and GPS jamming works fine. If it is really unsophisticated then with a powerful enough signal you could hijack it and fly it somewhere safe.
- rasz 4y ago
  Components might be off the shelf, but integration is custom and Im guessing it has a heavy Kalman filter which wont let you just blast spoofed _elevation changed by 1000m_ GPS signal and expect it to dive dive dive.