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> I see a lot of comments saying that "but the technology will improve". When people say "the technology will improve", I think they're usually referring to th

by mopsi 1y ago

> I see a lot of comments saying that "but the technology will improve". When people say "the technology will improve", I think they're usually referring to the drones currently in use becoming much better not due to breakthroughs in technology, but by applying existing technology more effectively for military purposes. Current military drones used in Ukraine are inefficient conversions of civilian products that were never meant to operate under jamming, leave as small thermal signature as possible, etc. Original military designs, which are optimized for the battlefield rather than the local dog park, can be significantly better.

palata 1y ago
> Current military drones used in Ukraine are inefficient conversions of civilian products Are you sure about that? Many drone companies have been engineering for the military for years before the Ukraine invasion in 2022. The thing is, those FPV drones are super, super, super cheap. We do have better technology, it does exist. But it is more expensive. Is it worth it then? That's the question.
- mopsi 1y ago
  Those drone companies are offering ridiculously expensive and overengineered products like the Switchblade, even though a drone 1/10 of its price can do the same job in many scenarios. These are bloated products that have seen little combat and haven't been trimmed down to the bare essentials. They are the Juiceros of the drone world. Meanwhile, we have cheap FPV drones that have proven themselves in combat, but they remain toys upgraded with 3D-printed parts by tinkerers. They haven't been repackaged into proper military products and adapted for mass manufacturing. The sweet spot between a toy and a $20k+ product from a military supplier remains largely unaddressed. It's like the early days of personal computing when some people had already assembled working machines in their garages and demonstrated their usefulness, but there were no rugged and standardized mass-market versions yet that could be ordered by the hundreds of thousands.

by mopsi 1y ago

palata 1y ago

> Current military drones used in Ukraine are inefficient conversions of civilian products Are you sure about that? Many drone companies have been engineering for the military for years before the Ukraine invasion in 2022. The thing is, those FPV drones are super, super, super cheap. We do have better technology, it does exist. But it is more expensive. Is it worth it then? That's the question.

mopsi 1y ago
Those drone companies are offering ridiculously expensive and overengineered products like the Switchblade, even though a drone 1/10 of its price can do the same job in many scenarios. These are bloated products that have seen little combat and haven't been trimmed down to the bare essentials. They are the Juiceros of the drone world. Meanwhile, we have cheap FPV drones that have proven themselves in combat, but they remain toys upgraded with 3D-printed parts by tinkerers. They haven't been repackaged into proper military products and adapted for mass manufacturing. The sweet spot between a toy and a $20k+ product from a military supplier remains largely unaddressed. It's like the early days of personal computing when some people had already assembled working machines in their garages and demonstrated their usefulness, but there were no rugged and standardized mass-market versions yet that could be ordered by the hundreds of thousands.