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Curious what separates a military drone vs a drone used in war. Surely most of the improved flight capabilities would also be useful to consumers who just want

Curious what separates a military drone vs a drone used in war. Surely most of the improved flight capabilities would also be useful to consumers who just want to tool around on the weekends. How long before these military specs filter into the consumer market?

Muromec 3y ago
Where do you think those FPV kill-drones are coming from now?
- Ancapistani 3y ago
  Chinese parts, purchased by third party nations, designed and assembled in Ukraine. Why?
kube-system 3y ago
One difference between suicide drones and hobbyist drones is the design lifetime. IIRC some of the gasoline engines used on suicide drones are built with a peculiar design that is powerful but wears out in just a matter of minutes. But that's acceptable because it'll still outlast the lifetime of the vehicle. Another difference is payload configuration.
vdaea 3y ago
"PlayStation 2 a Weapons Development Platform?" https://games.slashdot.org/story/00/04/16/1953243/ps2-a-weapons-development-platform https://games.slashdot.org/story/00/04/16/1953243/ps2-a-weap...
surfingdino 3y ago
You don't want military drones for consumer applications. Consumer drones are designed to last the length of warranty + 1 day. Military drones are designed to last long enough to deliver their cargo or provide essential intel. Because of their limited lifespan, some of them are made of cardboard https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/09/13/cardboard-drone-vendor-retools-software-based-on-ukraine-war-hacks/ https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/09/13/cardboard-drone-v...
- paganel 3y ago
  Those cardboard-made drones were just a PR move, they never saw real battle, or at least I have never seen any videos involving them (and God knows I refresh r/UkraineRussiaReport/ quite a lot).
  - z3ncyberpunk 3y ago
    you should probably stop getting news from Reddit, for your own health.
    - xyzsparetimexyz 3y ago
      Thanks for the unsolicited advice.
    - CapricornNoble 3y ago
      SOME parts of Reddit serve as useful aggregators for news that would otherwise be scattered across a dozen Telegram chat groups and 50 Twitter accounts. It's just important to recognize when you are in a DEEEP (and therefore not particularly useful) echo chamber. Admittedly, that can be difficult on Reddit where most the sub-Reddits that give an air of neutral impartiality are some of the most heavily censored and astroturfed.
    - paganel 3y ago
      Why? They're the closest to the reality on the ground out there, which does say something about mainstream media, I agree.
  - aaron695 3y ago
    [dead]
  - tim333 3y ago
    Maybe not video but >Ukraine claims it damaged prized Russian jets using 'cardboard' drones from Australia in a daring raid https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-struck-5-russian-jets-drones-made-cardboard-2023-8?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-struck-5-russia...
dist-epoch 3y ago
What Ukraine wants right now is DJIs, not Bayraktars. So it's a bit of reverse, consumer drone tech is superior to military tech when you take price and availability into account.
- m4rtink 3y ago
  For frontline use, sure. But they definitely also want cheap long range cruise missiles. Its already hard for them with Russia using the Iranian Shahed scooter engine drones, but I don't think Russia will be really able to defend its territory against similar drones once Ukraine gets its cheap long range drone production going at speed.
  - thriftwy 3y ago
    The issue for Ukraine that even it gets the same capacity, it will not exactly be able to bomb the Lancet factory in Elabuga. Russia can keep essential stuff out of range. That's also what it did in WWII.
    - LegitShady 3y ago
      that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to bomb, stuff that they don't want to spend long range weaponry like ATACMS on.
- LegitShady 3y ago
  If ukraine could get a bunch of shahed clones themselves they'd happily use the on russia. They'd also get smaller drones too. They're both useful.
paganel 3y ago
> Curious what separates a military drone vs a drone used in war. Right now, not that much, as lots and lots of civilian drones are used both by the Russians and Ukrainians for surveillance or for grenade drops. Usually military drones are bigger (like this Shaheed knock-off from this article) and can do more (usually more destructive) stuff compared to civilian drones, like the Russian Lancet drones.

Muromec 3y ago

Where do you think those FPV kill-drones are coming from now?

Ancapistani 3y ago
Chinese parts, purchased by third party nations, designed and assembled in Ukraine. Why?

kube-system 3y ago

One difference between suicide drones and hobbyist drones is the design lifetime. IIRC some of the gasoline engines used on suicide drones are built with a peculiar design that is powerful but wears out in just a matter of minutes. But that's acceptable because it'll still outlast the lifetime of the vehicle. Another difference is payload configuration.

vdaea 3y ago

"PlayStation 2 a Weapons Development Platform?" https://games.slashdot.org/story/00/04/16/1953243/ps2-a-weapons-development-platform https://games.slashdot.org/story/00/04/16/1953243/ps2-a-weap...

surfingdino 3y ago

You don't want military drones for consumer applications. Consumer drones are designed to last the length of warranty + 1 day. Military drones are designed to last long enough to deliver their cargo or provide essential intel. Because of their limited lifespan, some of them are made of cardboard https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/09/13/cardboard-drone-vendor-retools-software-based-on-ukraine-war-hacks/ https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/09/13/cardboard-drone-v...

paganel 3y ago
Those cardboard-made drones were just a PR move, they never saw real battle, or at least I have never seen any videos involving them (and God knows I refresh r/UkraineRussiaReport/ quite a lot).
- z3ncyberpunk 3y ago
  you should probably stop getting news from Reddit, for your own health.
  - xyzsparetimexyz 3y ago
    Thanks for the unsolicited advice.
  - CapricornNoble 3y ago
    SOME parts of Reddit serve as useful aggregators for news that would otherwise be scattered across a dozen Telegram chat groups and 50 Twitter accounts. It's just important to recognize when you are in a DEEEP (and therefore not particularly useful) echo chamber. Admittedly, that can be difficult on Reddit where most the sub-Reddits that give an air of neutral impartiality are some of the most heavily censored and astroturfed.
  - paganel 3y ago
    Why? They're the closest to the reality on the ground out there, which does say something about mainstream media, I agree.
- aaron695 3y ago
  [dead]
- tim333 3y ago
  Maybe not video but >Ukraine claims it damaged prized Russian jets using 'cardboard' drones from Australia in a daring raid https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-struck-5-russian-jets-drones-made-cardboard-2023-8?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-struck-5-russia...

dist-epoch 3y ago

What Ukraine wants right now is DJIs, not Bayraktars. So it's a bit of reverse, consumer drone tech is superior to military tech when you take price and availability into account.

m4rtink 3y ago
For frontline use, sure. But they definitely also want cheap long range cruise missiles. Its already hard for them with Russia using the Iranian Shahed scooter engine drones, but I don't think Russia will be really able to defend its territory against similar drones once Ukraine gets its cheap long range drone production going at speed.
- thriftwy 3y ago
  The issue for Ukraine that even it gets the same capacity, it will not exactly be able to bomb the Lancet factory in Elabuga. Russia can keep essential stuff out of range. That's also what it did in WWII.
  - LegitShady 3y ago
    that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to bomb, stuff that they don't want to spend long range weaponry like ATACMS on.
LegitShady 3y ago
If ukraine could get a bunch of shahed clones themselves they'd happily use the on russia. They'd also get smaller drones too. They're both useful.

paganel 3y ago

> Curious what separates a military drone vs a drone used in war. Right now, not that much, as lots and lots of civilian drones are used both by the Russians and Ukrainians for surveillance or for grenade drops. Usually military drones are bigger (like this Shaheed knock-off from this article) and can do more (usually more destructive) stuff compared to civilian drones, like the Russian Lancet drones.