Chinese UAV/UCAV development

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Blitzo

Blitzo

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Abominable said:
For the purpose of logistics a commercial drone is absolutely fine, they are doing the exact same job. What's your objections to the Matrice 600?
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On the contrary, for the purposes of tactical resupply, things like payload, ruggedness, resistance to jamming (you don't want to lose your drone and your cargo especially if you're resupplying a tactical group that needs it), are more important and a bit more than what your standard Matrice 600 should be used for in real life. Heck, DJI even offers other drones that would be a bit more appropriate for this mission such as the Agras family which are not only more rugged and water and dirt resistant but also have significantly greater payload.

Now, again, there's nothing wrong with using a Matrice 600 or other similar consumer drone for primitive and early experimentation/demonstration purposes. But let's be open and acknowledge it for what it is as if pretending this is suitable or intended for widespread fielding.



Abominable said:
I don't know why people are laughing at the individual meals being delivered, that's exactly how I imagine resupplying outposts like Galwan to be like going forwards. Commercial drone delivery has been trialed in several countries but has not taken off. The only place it has proven to be commercially viable is in resupplying remote locations like African villages that were previously supplied by bush pilots. That is basically the border with India.

It could mean MREs become a thing of the past or for emergencies only. Soldiers on posts can order whatever they want and in half an hour it arrives.
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It's fairly simple, the optics and rationale of it is not very impressive.
It's obviously a photo op for an early experimentation/demonstration of concept.

It's not that impressive and frankly looks a bit lame. So saying "yeah it looks odd" and then moving on is a perfectly reasonable response.
 
A

Abominable

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Blitzo said:
On the contrary, for the purposes of tactical resupply, things like payload, ruggedness, resistance to jamming (you don't want to lose your drone and your cargo especially if you're resupplying a tactical group that needs it), are more important and a bit more than what your standard Matrice 600 should be used for in real life. Heck, DJI even offers other drones that would be a bit more appropriate for this mission such as the Agras family which are not only more rugged and water and dirt resistant but also have significantly greater payload.

Now, again, there's nothing wrong with using a Matrice 600 or other similar consumer drone for primitive and early experimentation/demonstration purposes. But let's be open and acknowledge it for what it is as if pretending this is suitable or intended for widespread fielding.

It's fairly simple, the optics and rationale of it is not very impressive.
It's obviously a photo op for an early experimentation/demonstration of concept.

It's not that impressive and frankly looks a bit lame. So saying "yeah it looks odd" and then moving on is a perfectly reasonable response.
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I agree the particular picture is a photo op....anywhere you can get a tracked vehicle does NOT require drone deliveries...lol

I'm just wondering why you think a drone performing the role it is needs to be military. It's the sort of thinking that leads to the USAF buying $50,000 coffee cups.

Payload: Maybe but you dont want it to be too much or you lose the advantage of employing a drone.
Ruggedness: this would come at a cost, whether it is to payload, range, etc. I don't think a drone delivering supplies to a soldier needs to be more rugged than a civilian drone.
Resistance to jamming: is this really an issue for the role that is being proposed? Indians won't be anywhere near this drone. Especially in peacetime.

Not nitpicking on your post, we see a lot of wacky PLA concepts posted on here, but this is one of the ones I think would be very useful.

I'd imagine positions on the LAC are very remote and difficult to supply. Some of the footage I've seen looks like the base camp at mount everest, only accessible by foot, i.e. soldiers need to carry everything on them. Having frequent drone deliveries would make a big difference IMO.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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Abominable said:
I agree the particular picture is a photo op....anywhere you can get a tracked vehicle does NOT require drone deliveries...lol

I'm just wondering why you think a drone performing the role it is needs to be military. It's the sort of thinking that leads to the USAF buying $50,000 coffee cups.

Payload: Maybe but you dont want it to be too much or you lose the advantage of employing a drone.
Ruggedness: this would come at a cost, whether it is to payload, range, etc. I don't think a drone delivering supplies to a soldier needs to be more rugged than a civilian drone.
Resistance to jamming: is this really an issue for the role that is being proposed? Indians won't be anywhere near this drone. Especially in peacetime.

Not nitpicking on your post, we see a lot of wacky PLA concepts posted on here, but this is one of the ones I think would be very useful.

I'd imagine positions on the LAC are very remote and difficult to supply. Some of the footage I've seen looks like the base camp at mount everest, only accessible by foot, i.e. soldiers need to carry everything on them. Having frequent drone deliveries would make a big difference IMO.
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I don't want this to become a thread discussing the product catalogue of DJI.

This is a photo op demonstrating a primitive and exploratory concept using a commercial, off the shelf consumer drone whose application for this mission is suboptimal at best, and even superseded by other more capable commercial off the shelf drones from the same company.
I have nothing against the concept of using multi-copter drones providing tactical resupply.
But this specific demonstration using this specific drone type is not a good example of a drone that can be implemented at scale among the service.

Yes, payload, ruggedness and resistance to jamming are all capabilities I expect to be somewhat more extensive in a more mature system than this.


We should not be making excuses and bending backwards to consider niche applications where the use of a Matrice 600 might be just a low enough bar to be kind-of-possibly-just-a-bit viable.

The more that people want to defend it, the more that I feel it deserves to be ripped into and have all of its flaws and limitations criticized, which really is not fair for this drone or the PLA who had done this photo op and the very basic demonstration that it is.


As I wrote in my last post:
Yeah, it looks odd.

Let's move on.
 
tankphobia

tankphobia

Senior Member
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Abominable said:
Not nitpicking on your post, we see a lot of wacky PLA concepts posted on here, but this is one of the ones I think would be very useful.

I'd imagine positions on the LAC are very remote and difficult to supply. Some of the footage I've seen looks like the base camp at mount everest, only accessible by foot, i.e. soldiers need to carry everything on them. Having frequent drone deliveries would make a big difference IMO.
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Regarding your point about LAC resupply, I think commercial drones like these are not really designed for high altitude usage, so payload/range will be severely limited, that's why in my original post about this topic I suggested that UGVs would be a more appropriate usage for this application.
 
by78

by78

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by78 said:
WingLoong-2H was recently used in large scale cloud seeding operations to combat local droughts and high temperatures.
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Tengden/Tengoen TB001 has also been used in recent cloud seeing operations.

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