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And anybody who's been to the Funker lately can tell you that they're the new insurgents as well. It's astonishing how overnight the terrain of war changed comp
by lagniappe 3y ago
And anybody who's been to the Funker lately can tell you that they're the new insurgents as well. It's astonishing how overnight the terrain of war changed completely when the first drone guided projectile was launched in personal combat.
I'd be curious to know what percentage of a certain brand of drones is dedicated to this purpose, and what those supply lines look like, because most of the videos I see have only but a small handful of models in use.
- scrps 3y agoUkrainians mostly use their own drones made by various groups locally to avoid being centralized, they are also running into issues with russian jamming. Consumer drone gear is very easy to jam, also easier to foxhunt (RF location hunting) so it works both ways.
- coffeebeqn 3y agoI wonder would something like a small anti-radiation missile work against whoever is sending the strong EW signal
- brucethemoose2 3y agoOr an anti-radiation drone!
- reactordev 3y agoSo now you have SEAD missions to protect your CAS missions but all in 1/14th scale FPV drones… the future is wild. It’s a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock.
- scrps 3y agoSomehow prescient: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Soldiers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Soldiers
- hdhfjkrkrme 3y agoA missile is too heavy, it's easier to just fly the drone into the jammer if you can locate it.
- ponector 3y agoI doubt the signal is stronger than mobile phone or satellite connection. And the drone is too small to be intercepted with missile. FPV drone costs 500-1000$ now and is the game changer in the current war. No ground offensive operation can be maid now without great loses.
- jdietrich 3y agoJamming is a mixed bag, because a) you lose your own drone capability in that area and b) you broadcast a loud beacon that says "HERE IS THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF A HIGH-VALUE ASSET". The Ukrainians have had some big wins from triangulating weird-looking RF signals and unleashing hell on whatever is radiating it - you can jam a drone, but you can't jam a 155mm shell.
- Manuel_D 3y agoJamming can avoid "friendly fire" through a variety of means. Directional antennas can emit RF in the direction of the enemy, but not your own assets. You can also jam on different frequencies than you're using to operate your own drones.
- scrps 3y agoThat and larger drone comms for russia I would guess are satellite based which is harder to jam and sadly out of budget for the Ukrainians. That being said I wonder if you could control small drones over satellite or if that is a $900 solution to a 99 cent problem.
- Manuel_D 3y agoSatellite communications also has the issue of bigger form factor and larger power requirements. Not an issue for a predator drone, but your DJI isn't going to be using satellite comms any time soon. The more promising areas are optical communications (but this has issues with fog and atmospheric attenuation), or directional antennas. Like, a yagi on a gimbal constantly pointed at the control station.
- _ea1k 3y agoThat's all fine and dandy, but if you can use the source to approximate a location, you can hit it with himars. Alternatively, send gps guided drones with optical targeting. If the jamming system has inadequate air defenses, it might not be jamming for long.
- jdietrich 3y ago
- reactordev 3y agoIt’s a lot cheaper to 3D print your own frame and just buy the components to build an FPV drone with an attachment for whatever payload you want to deliver. You can build one for under $300 if you already have controllers and headset to pilot one. Blades can now be 3D printed as well using SLA printers or using carbon fiber. ESC’s can be made with Arduino. I doubt they are flying DJI’s in one-way missions. Military drones are one thing but these new front-line drones have changed warfare forever.
- spywaregorilla 3y agoThe drones are so cheap it's pointless not to send them on suicide missions. The cost per kill is vastly far from the limiting factor.
- aftbit 3y agoThey are 100% flying DJI drones on 1-way missions. Even a relatively expensive DJI drone costs less than an artillery shell. War is hell in many ways, not least of which is the sheer expense and resource consumption it demands.
- mrguyorama 3y agoActually the American M795 155mm HE artillery round costs the US army about $820 each. However, FPV drones are the cheapest GUIDED weapon by far. It's finally cost effective to give every single soldier a "Fuck that guy in particular" weapon. They will be significantly less effective in a real, peer conflict between great powers though. China or the US would likely have significant EW capabilities against drones. The US would probably rather turn off GPS entirely than deal with American soldiers being donked on the head with personalized grenades every day. So drones in a conflict like that would be much less useful in "hot" locations, or will be significantly more expensive per unit so they can be made harder to jam and interfere with, or will be used more as a nuisance.
- stormfather 3y agoIn a great power war the autonomous drones with inertial guidance and optical targeting are coming out.
- melling 3y agoIt might be astonishing but it was obvious soon after the war started that drones would change warfare. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31842578
- lesuorac 3y agoI'm not sure that's accurate. Drones have been in use long before Russia took any land from Ukraine in 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_warfare#Notable_drone_strikes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_warfare#Notable_drone_st...
- melling 3y agoSure, they’ve been around for a while. However, a war like the one in Ukraine will accelerate the development and usage of drones. You could tell by the early usage in the first few months of the war. Now more global defense dollars will go into the rapid development. Wait until we see swarms of (semi)autonomous drones
- bostik 3y ago> Wait until we see swarms of (semi)autonomous drones Slaughterbots[ß] becoming reality in 3...2...1... ß: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
- _ea1k 3y agoI think we are already there. "Optical targeting" and "edge computing" are terms getting tossed around in weird ways at times.
- dendrite9 3y agoPrior to 2022 it seemed clear this was coming, fighters in Burma were using small drones against the dictatorship both for spotting and to drop explosives. It seemed like Ukraine was where real resources could be put into action, and things ramped up significantly. Before the videos from Burma I'm not sure where else to look, maybe Syria? There were drones used by ISIS but they seemed closer to military drones than what we see now with commercial drones or drone components used. I'm glad not be in the business of protecting people/infrastructure from harm.
- cbsmith 3y agoI like the implication that drug mules aren't effectively insurgents. ;-)
- hdhfjkrkrme 3y agoFor FPV drones both Ukraine and russia but the components from China and assemble them locally. Ukraine is very worried that China is trying to cut them off, so they buy through a long chain of intermediaries.