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Your linked video is interesting, but I fail to see how this at all differentiates/promotes drone usage versus artillery, indirect fire. Your video shows somet
by Reubachi 1y ago
Your linked video is interesting, but I fail to see how this at all differentiates/promotes drone usage versus artillery, indirect fire.
Your video shows something that an artillery corps could accomplish just as easily and not at all be prone to EW.
Granted, moving indirect fire is probably more expensive than a single fpv drone dropping a thermite bomb, but at scale indirect fire is far cheaper, more effective, and critically not prone to EW.
- esseph 1y agoThink of the fpv drone like a smol guided TOW missile at extremely low cost. The artillery, while destructive, is not going to be nearly as accurate. If you want artillery to hit something on the move accurately you want something like a laser adjusted Excalibur round. The drone is actually extremely efficient.
- CapricornNoble 1y agoLaser-guided artillery rounds have been around a while. The Soviets were using laser-guided 240mm heavy mortar rounds in Afghanistan. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13518040500354992 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1351804050035499... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnopol_(weapon_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krasnopol_(weapon_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M712_Copperhead https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M712_Copperhead
- esseph 1y agoI was one of the first non special operations troops to use a modern infantry-company sized drone (small, low cost) to guide conventional and guided artillery in 2008-9 for the US. Laser guided Excalibur rounds didn't come out until much later, same for the laser guided jdams. And the cost of those is much higher, plus logistical an deployment cost, than a FPV drone. Edit: I also don't know anybody that ever fired a copperhead round in anger. That was very much a product of 80s and 90s doctrine to counter Russian armor.
- tguvot 1y agothere are now laser/gps guided mortars. probably still more expensive than drone but easier to deploy
- esseph 1y agoYep, 120mms I think. You won't find them with light infantry, but you will with Cav / Mech units.
- tguvot 1y agospecial forces and other unspecified units: https://breakingdefense.com/2024/02/iron-sting-an-exclusive-look-inside-israelis-new-precision-mortar/ https://breakingdefense.com/2024/02/iron-sting-an-exclusive-...
- esseph 1y agoSorry I'm talking US specifically. To my knowledge there still isn't a laser guided mortar in the US inventory with dual mode laser terminal guidance. HEGM project was cancelled in 2018.
- tguvot 1y agowell, if usa will get a bundle of iron dome, iron fist and iron sting, it will get a cool 30% discount
- ponector 1y agoGPS guided munitions like Excalibur are useless against peer adversary. Costs as much as 100 regular rounds and as 200+ FPV drones but has zero accuracy thanks to EW and jamming.
- esseph 1y ago... Not quite. Local airborne EW platforms can relay GPS signal. Combined with Inertial Navigation System reduces the CEP. Laser terminal guidance gets it on point. The US has a lot of work to do in EW - it also has done a lot of work to prepare for some of these scenarios.
- dinfinity 1y agoDrone 1 (or any other means) destroys the canopy. Drones 2-10 are no longer hindered by said canopy and deliver their payload with extreme and dynamic precision. Remember that the argument was basically that drones can do nothing useful in (heavily) forested terrain. They can with a little bit of creativity.
- originalvichy 1y agoI guess we live in different regions. Everything north of Estonia/Denmark is thick spruce and pine forest. I’ve seen what artillery does to these trees, but I’d be hesitant to say a drone could lift something heavy enough to serve like Vietnam war era ”daisy cutters”. Artillery explodes closer to the forest floor.
- tguvot 1y agorussians really didnt like this last year https://youtu.be/SUe7SJgVMmo?t=110 https://youtu.be/SUe7SJgVMmo?t=110
- esseph 1y agoLast line isn't necessary correct. Artillery rounds have different types of fuses. A US VT (variable time) fuse is meant for airburst - for example to splinter a forest canopy.
- neuralRiot 1y agoIsn’t artillery easier to locate/ counter attack than a drone operator station?
- tobias3 1y agoRCH 155 which Ukraine has now can shoot while moving. That should make it harder to counter.
- esseph 1y agoYes. Run over to the impact crater that was just made, and with a little experience you can quickly know the round type, direction, and distance. If you have those last two you can rattle off a quick counter fire mission. Artillery counter-fire radar systems can also identify and track artillery/mortar fire.