7 ms·
US asked Ukraine for help fighting Iranian drones, Zelensky says
- mitchbob 8mo agohttps://archive.ph/2026.03.05-175641/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr5llg0e9g9o https://archive.ph/2026.03.05-175641/https://www.bbc.com/new...
- verdverm 8mo agoOne only needs to look to Ukraine for how this might play out in the long-run, remixed a bit. 1. Neither side has been unable to stop the other from mass producing drones. Too easy to build in small facilities, whack-a-mole scenario. 2. Interceptors will become depleted, more "squeakers" will get through as time goes on. Some graphs: https://bsky.app/search?q=ukraine+drone+graph https://bsky.app/search?q=ukraine+drone+graph
- KK7NIL 8mo agoIt's important to separate the short range quadcopters that are easily built in small workshops from the long distance winged drones that can weigh several hundred pounds (like the Shahed drones). The latter, as they're built by Russia currently, require a decent size facility to build en mass. It's not the kind of thing Hamas could build in their tunnel system, for example. I agree with your second point that interceptors will become depleted though and this is a serious problem.
- verdverm 8mo agoUkraine is building long range drones as well. Look to the strike stats inside Russia, many well over 1000km. The IRGC is significantly more resourced than Hamas, building enough to fire off 100s a week should be no issue for them. They can build ballistic missiles, they twice struck an oil refinery in Bahrain today: https://bsky.app/profile/elhamfakhro.bsky.social/post/3mgd5oawr6s22 https://bsky.app/profile/elhamfakhro.bsky.social/post/3mgd5o...
- KK7NIL 8mo agoI agree, it would be hard to stop Iran from producing a significant number of long range drones (hard to stop it from getting the parts it needs when it route them through the Stans or the Caspian sea).
- m4rtink 8mo agoNote that neither Ukraine or Russia have air supperiority. It would be much harder for IRGC to build and launch hundreds of drones with basically predators stalking the sky & strikes from manned jets availalbe on short order.
- choilive 8mo agoFight fire with fire. Anti-drone drones that are near cost parity. Or make some investments to develop, cheap, mobile, relatively short ranged point-defense systems. A middle ground between CWIS and CROWS or a CROWS-like system optimized for drone defense. The engagement distance will be close, but it turns the asymmetry back around.
- verdverm 8mo agoThis is what Ukraine is doing, but it will always be imperfect. Shahed style drones don't fly a straight path. Ukraine has built out an auditory detection network using cheap phones, has mobile response teams for different types of incoming threats, yet it is still not enough. Given the resources we are using today, while still seeing drones and ballistics get through, does not bode well for a 100% reliable system.
- CorrectHorseBat 8mo ago>Search is currently unavailable when logged out Do you have any specific links?
- verdverm 8mo agonoted, hope they change this logged out thing with the upcoming search update https://bsky.app/profile/cordhenning.bsky.social/post/3melaolxamk2w https://bsky.app/profile/cordhenning.bsky.social/post/3melao... https://bsky.app/profile/emmanuellechaze.com/post/3lq5duclgic2i https://bsky.app/profile/emmanuellechaze.com/post/3lq5duclgi...
- Helloworldboy 8mo ago[dead]
- mwpmaybe 8mo agoIs that a squeaker, or a squirter?
- verdverm 8mo agoI think you are right that the more liquidy of the two is what Hegseth said
- rasz 8mo agoNot these drones. Factories are in fact HUGE, very far away and staffed by scammed migrants and children. Yelabuga is ~1000 miles from Ukraine. https://www.euronews.com/2025/07/21/russia-ramps-up-drone-production-using-teenage-workers-video-shows https://www.euronews.com/2025/07/21/russia-ramps-up-drone-pr... African women tricked into making Russian drones https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrzdpre058o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdrzdpre058o https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/europe/russia-secretive-drone-factory-rapid-expansion-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/europe/russia-secretive-d... Ukraine managed to hit it couple of times, but they would need tens of Tomahawks to properly deal with the place https://english.nv.ua/russian-war/drones-hit-yelabuga-in-tatarstan-reports-claim-strike-on-shahed-production-sites-50535902.html https://english.nv.ua/russian-war/drones-hit-yelabuga-in-tat... Ukraine war: Deepest Ukraine drone attack into Russian territory injures 12 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68712158 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68712158
- cdrnsf 8mo agoUkraine should refuse to help barring a commitment to continued support and support of their preferred peace plan.
- idontwantthis 8mo agoThey should take payment up front.
- mekdoonggi 8mo agoWhile I love the idea of sticking it to Trump, this is the wrong approach. The right approach (which Zelensky is doing) is for Ukraine to sell defense drones to countries that now need them (US, Isreal, Gulf States). Ukraine gets money while scaling their manufacturing and everyone else gets drones that actually work and are continually being refined in the field.
- mothballed 8mo agoIf Zelensky wants to turn it into a capitalist enterprise then he should be careful with that game, because US could easily ask to be given hard assets in return for the $100B+ in aid we give them, or just reduce aid by exactly the amount they are charging for their drone help.
- verdverm 8mo agoUS direct aid is near zero at this point. The new deal is the EU paying for most of the military supplies. Ukraine is well positioned to be a major arms supplier for the new drone warfare reality. No one has the experience they do.
- mothballed 8mo agoUS has given more aid to Ukraine than any other country, and has $400M more allocated for this year. So lets cut the bullshit about excluding all the times anything other than $0 was supplied -- it's putting a major spin and presenting things in a deviously false way. This kind of rhetoric is why we're bitter about it. We give the most out of anyone, yet there is still this sort of welfare queen bullshit of vell vwhat have you done for uz lately when something simple is asked back like some help with drones. Despite giving more than anyone, the best thanks we can get is "but that one time, you gave us $0, so none of this counts" and by the way, if you want drones then fuck you pay me. The sense of smug entitlement is off the charts. You're unwittingly displaying why the kind of lies Trump told to get elected worked. Of course Trump was totally being fraudulent about his "no new wars" rhetoric (his rhetoric about having Europe pick up their share did have some truth), but there's a reason why his rhetoric worked.
- bdangubic 8mo agodone… in exchange for 100 nukes
- yread 8mo agoHe also said that gulf states expended 800 patriot missiles (about 1 year of production) which is more than Ukraine got over the whole war
- dmix 8mo agoPlus apparently the US only ordered 73 THAAD interceptors over the last 4yrs, when there was capacity to make 384 https://x.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/2029405914931863830 https://x.com/ColbyBadhwar/status/2029405914931863830
- trhway 8mo agoUS just have too much money as moving to use interceptor drones is very simple when you have the need. Russia and Ukraine both ultimately scaled up volunteer started development and production of that "fastest drone on Youtube" for the interceptor role. Cheap, simple, and works against pretty much any prop-driven drone used there. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1rigqam/operator_pov_footage_of_an_elka_dronekiller/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1rigqam/oper... Russia did start to use those hobby jet engines instead of props on the attack drones, and that made them go 600km/h instead of 200km/h. I'm yet to see the interceptor drone for that - it will also have to use, while smaller, such a hobby jet engine. Again laughably cheap - $3K Alibaba. (there are some other options too, i think we'll see them in time too (if anybody have few mils to burn - ping me :). Anyway, the guys are having wonderful time as their hobby became the eye of the global multibillion hurricane of hot military tech. Even the Blackwater guy - the one who was riding the money tsunami back in the Iraq time - got into it by just recently becoming some C-exec in a pre-IPO Ukranian drone developer)
- phil21 8mo agoAA artillery (radar guided, I'm sure even better improvements with modern tech could be made) seems like a pretty easy win here as well? Cheap bullets, downside being populated areas might impose a risk due to low-flying objects and the interception trajectories needed. Something like the Phalanx only not $50k/burst.
- akie 8mo agoDid they say "thank you" and "please"?
- zerr 8mo agoMost importantly, did they wear ties?
- verdverm 8mo agoThey didn't when announcing to the world they had started the war. Unbuttoned shirt, no tie, baseball cap, from mar-a-lago...
- skeeter2020 8mo agoJon Stewart took exception: "This is how we're doing this? 2 am? Mar-a-lago basement? no lighting? You don't even have one of those influencer halo things? You just go down in the basement? and this is what we're wearing? Blazer, no tie, shirt unbuttoned? Looking more like the father of the bride settling up with the caterer? ... and not to nitpick, but baseball hat? ... " and it goes on.
- verdverm 8mo agoJS was how I first learned about the conditions of the announcement For being satire, it's such a good source for perspective on the headlines
- strangattractor 8mo agoDid they have the cards?
- koakuma-chan 8mo agoThey had trump cards.
- 8mo ago
- moffkalast 8mo agoThis is like that episode of SG-1 where Baal comes to ask O'Neil how to fight the Replicators. "I'm sorry, we must've had a bad connection there, for a second it almost sounded like you were asking me FOR HELP"
- chaostheory 8mo agoThis means that there’s a ground invasion… Iran is just as mountainous as Afghanistan. This will be a disaster.
- braincat31415 8mo agoIf you look at the map, there is no place to stage it. The border with Turkey is very small. Staging in Iraq would mean troops under attack from both sides even before they cross the border.
- mothballed 8mo agoThe Kurds soundly control a mountain land corridor between Iraq and Iran, and have controlled that since even before the recent attacks. Iran is not in a position anytime soon to close that without air power that they don't have. I don't think staging light infantry will be a problem but I don't think they'll successfully break out of the mountains, certainly not into any land that isn't already ethnically Kurd (or Baloch, but that's in the other corner of the country).
- Animats 8mo agoWell, Ukraine is, by necessity, the leader in defending against drone attacks. Ukraine wants more Patriot air defense missiles in exchange. A reasonable deal.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- adampunk 8mo agoCertainly one which could have occurred to America prior to a few thousand of them flying over Ukraine.
- verdverm 8mo agoPatroits are not for shahed interceptions, that's a losing financial equation. They are used for the iskanders and hypersonic like missiles
- Animats 8mo agoYou have to shoot back with what you've got that's in the right place.
- verdverm 8mo agoNot always, both Ukraine and Israel make judgement calls in practice.
- adampunk 8mo agoThe point is it takes an enormous fucking ball sack to refuse help to Ukraine in their hour of need while Iranian drones are raining down on their citizens and then when we need some help to ask them for their expertise Just history-textbook level gall.
- verdverm 8mo agoI think I meant to respond to the same comment you did, instead of yours I 100% agree with you, the discrimination is shameful
- CrzyLngPwd 8mo ago[flagged]
- coffinbirth 8mo agoReminder that the US is primarily responsible for the precision strike killing of at least 165 school children[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_airstrike https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Minab_school_airstrike
- BJones12 8mo agoYeah because we haven't seen innumerable similar lies [0] in the past, with lies about deaths and lies about who fired the weapon. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahli_Arab_Hospital_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ahli_Arab_Hospital_explosio...
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- coffinbirth 8mo agoConvenient, right? That doesn't make the war crime(s) the US is responsible for simply disappear.
- honzaik 8mo agothe NYT is reporting this was the US https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-sch... i recommend employing more critical thinking in the future and less propaganda spreading
- Helloworldboy 8mo ago[dead]
- verdverm 8mo agoI haven't seen an update to who fired the missiles (there were two that hit the schoole), US or Israel Good thread with nuance: https://bsky.app/profile/mikeblack114.bsky.social/post/3mgbd6ts6hs2m https://bsky.app/profile/mikeblack114.bsky.social/post/3mgbd...
- themgt 8mo agoThe real story is that the Patriot and other interceptor stockpiles Zelensky's asking for are now critically low, and tens of thousands of soft targets are hard to defend against cheap drones. This war is on course to set off a truly unprecedented global energy crisis within days, and the USA/allies don't currently appear to have any plan to fix it.
- dmix 8mo ago> on course to set off a truly unprecedented global energy crisis within days That's not exactly how oil supply works. There's plenty of stockpiles which take months to burn through and only some places depend on Iranian oil. China is their biggest buyer and it's around 13.4% of China's oil imports.
- yread 8mo agoit's not just about iranian oil. The strait is blockaded. Plus refineries in Kuwait, KSA and Bahrain were targeted. And LNG facilities in Qatar - which stopped and restarting will take ~1 month at least. Leading to this https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas Gas in EU is cca 100% more expensive than a week ago. EDIT: oh and kerosene 70% up, diesel 35% percent up
- Ostrogoth 8mo agoTo add to your comment, ~20%-25% of global oil production passes through the AG (Iran is only ~4% of current global production) @ ~21mbpd. The longer that oil can’t get out (Saudi’s have a 5mbpd pipeline to red sea, but only 2mbpd loading capacity), the quicker it will erase the current oil glut and eat into inventories. Most of the discounted oil China has been buying from Iran/Russia has actually been going into inventory. The strait itself is a narrow channel, and the main risk is mines and underwater drones. Sinking a few tankers in the strait would cause a lot of headaches.
- dmix 8mo agoThat's a fair point.
- ck2 8mo agoGood thing this isn't actually a war according to everyone in the administration and they just annouced it's likely going through September (which means until end of year) and they are now dropping 2000 pound bombs on targets next to civilians https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/04/evacuation-middle-east-iran-war-00812898 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/04/evacuation-middle-e... > "U.S. Central Command, meanwhile, is asking the Pentagon to send more military intelligence officers to its headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to support operations against Iran for at least 100 days but likely through September, according to a notification obtained by POLITICO" (billion dollars a day and that's before replacing all the weapons)
- _alaya 8mo agoIs special military operation.
- shmerl 8mo agoTrump should stop bootlicking Putin then and give Ukraine serious long range ground to ground missiles. Time for Putin to pay higher price for being a fascist scum.
- EnPissant 8mo agoHe also went on to say that Lionel Messi asked him for tips on corner kicks.
- stevenwoo 8mo agoFor the anti-drone drones, the factory for the non electric components is row after row of 3D printers, the drones only need to work for one mission. I posted this earlier. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47208567 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47208567
- rasz 8mo agoThis is a really terrible setup and I still dont understand why Ukraine keeps doing it in 4th year. One injection molding machine will produce more parts than a row of 50 3D printers and Ukraine is already full of companies running plastic injection manufacturing.
- carabiner 8mo agoWe'll soon have drones fighting drones, with few or no lives at risk. Like countries burning piles of money until one runs out.
- TiredOfLife 8mo agoThat is already happening in Ukraine.
- carabiner 8mo agoThere are quite a few lives being lost in Ukraine still.
- juliusceasar 8mo agoAll this shit to distract from the Pedo files... USA has become Israel puppet state.
- FrankWilhoit 8mo agoName your price, Volodymyr.
- comonoid 8mo agoUkraine should request strong cards in exchange.
- ianschmitz 8mo agoWe’re not playing cards
- comonoid 8mo agoBut you do.
- Flundstrom2 8mo agoThere's been so many things I didn't have on my 2026 bingo card I've lost count... Can't we get back to some form of normality soon? I'm happy to take another pandemic instead of the current state of the world.
- 1718627440 8mo agoThat's the worst it got ... yet.