Saw a video today of a Russian dude just blow his own brains out when he heard a drone coming. Didn’t even run.
They were saying war is hell so long ago, and it’s only getting worse…
It could happen here, had an episode that talked about drone use in the middle east. They interviewed people that talked about how horrifying it was to hear that high pitched whine. I get that drones are having a moment, but that moments been going on for quite a while. It’s also not going anywhere anytime soon. There’s going to be countermeasures to the countermeasures.
Furthermore the drone swarm technology demonstrated PUBLICLY through DARPA then seemingly disappearing is terrifying.
Shit, Michael Reeves made a drone swarm publicly on YouTube, what, 10 years ago?
I’m almost afraid to bring it up; but there’s a drone system being/was being used in Africa to deliver medications and whatnot that use blades designed after Owl wings that make almost no sound. It just sounds like a small gust of wind.
Don’t need that for war, the psychological damage is important.
The Germans literally put sirens on their hunting bombers in WW2 to inflict fear in the people hearing it (https://youtu.be/Evi8YYDywL4)
It would be interesting for assassinations or terrorist though…
Stooka JU-87 Unmistakable sound, you heard that sound you ran
You can go to YouTube and listen to audio of Katyusha salvoes. The sound is hellish.
Or you have a mental breakdown/shutdown its not uncommon for people to freeze in such a situation.
The most interesting thing here is that the syren was actually intended as a speed indicator for the pilot to be able to target better. Well after the psychological effects where discovered most army’s put whistles on their bombs (i think the Germans startet that as well)
Is that those helical rotors? They’re supposed to be quite good in many ways, not just the noise.
I don’t think so. IIRC it was more about the shape of the blade and that there was only one of them on each rotor with a weight built in to balance it out. With one rotor turbulence is negligible while still providing lift.Here’s a video about Owl wings.
Here’s
theanother video about the rotors:Incredible stuff! The sound is so buttery. People who understand harmonics and sound engineering amaze me. I’d love to build a quadcopter that sounds like this.
Pretty slick invidious links there too, last time I used that it wasn’t a very good experience, glad it’s come this far.
In Ukraine, they’re using stock commercial drones. Not even bothering to harden them against EW. It shortens their range significantly, but they’re still lauded as “better than artillery”.
Hobbyists recently built a custom drone that was able to chase a formula one car around a track and beat it on a straightaway.
The countermeasures will need to be pretty impressive, is all I’m saying.
The next generation of drones has AI, they won’t go away.
Oh and the counter measures are basically useless for the most part and easily countered with tinfoil(or rather copper foil against microwaves) changing the frequency (against “anti drone guns” and other interfering transmitters) and hacks are usually too slow
The only actual defense is regular Anti air weapons (basically shoot lost of small metal fragments in the air so something will hit) but the problem there is the targets are usually to small and are mistaken for birds, or fly to low.
The most modern Anti air Systems (Oerlikon Skynex, Arrow and similar) try to account for all of that with adaptive systems, but they fight a uphill battle currently, also these systems are stupidly expensive and so is the ammunition they need so covering all troops with them is basically impossible (no they don’t scam the governments, there is a shipload of research and testing behind it and a load of advanced technologies that are just expensive to build)
They can’t put out the kind of rate of fire that artillery can (well, not without a lot of operators being dedicated to them), but it’s also a lot easier for a guy launching a drone to hide than it is an artillery piece.
I still think, though, that a big factor in low-end drones playing the role they are right now is because the state of air defenses targeting them isn’t fantastic. My suspicion is that that is going to change, and it’s likely going to, over the long run, favor the counter-UAS side rather than the UAS operator. That is, I don’t dispute the statement that he’s making about the battlefield today, but I’m not necessarily sold that that’s where it’s going to be over the long run. My guess is that there’ll also be some be back-and-forth; at the very least, having some longer-range platform deploy shorter-range quadcopter things; as far as I know, that’s not currently being done.
i think the big difference is accuracy… especially since everyone is in trenches designed to survive artillery.
Gepards take them down just fine and apparently Rheinmetall is frankensteining Skyranger turrets onto Leopard 1 chassis – MBT-wise the Leo1 isn’t really combative any more but tons are available, also, Ukraine has already plenty of those chassis and knows how to service them. The Skyranger is a definitive upgrade over the Gepard’s cannon and targeting, it can take down whole swarms. Also: New are actually getting built, noone’s going to build a new production line for Gepards.
It’s easier to jam a signal than it is to transmit.
My fear is the technology to automate target acquisition is already present and will become standard before the technology to jam the operator comes to bear properly.
Which is fine, because another approach to EW against the drone comes into play but it’s the automated target acquisition that scares me the same way nukes do.
They do work well in conjunction with arty, as spotters.
They are way more accurate and inflict significant psychological pressure. You know you wont die fast when they hit you, the explosive is to small to do that, you cant outrun them, shooting them doesn’t work 90% of the time, AA cant do shit against them because they look like birds to it.
The moral crushing potential of drones is frightening but good as long as used by the right people. Drones are the artillery of the 21st century. (although artillery is more effective for stationary or heavy targets)
Every type of weapon is a tool for a specific type of work… However you can use most tools as a hammer (shooting soft targets)
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I feel like drones are having a moment that will be short-lived as anti-drone technology develops (either electronic countermeasures or active anti-drone defense systems).
No, actually swords…wink wink!..swords are the best thing to fight Ukrainians with. Swords and rocks. Definitely I wouldn’t use artillery, that’s old and antiquated. And drones are just to play. So totally, if you’re a roosky show up to the front in shorts and a sword. That’s the best. Wink 😉.
Also, don’t bother with shields. They are boring and very girly. 2 swords no armor super effective
Have you seen what artillery does to a hot ruzzian holding two swords ⚔️? Nothing. They are impenetrable!
