The War in the Ukraine

what's the deal with the plane crash? official line is a bird strike, pro-ukr say it's a russian SAM, others that it's a manpad or some convoluted plot with drones. literally none of them fully make sense lol

cqxt11 said:

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what's the deal with the plane crash? official line is a bird strike, pro-ukr say it's a russian SAM, others that it's a manpad or some convoluted plot with drones. literally none of them fully make sense lol

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Definitely not bird strike, not with those holes.

cqxt11 said:

what's the deal with the plane crash? official line is a bird strike, pro-ukr say it's a russian SAM, others that it's a manpad or some convoluted plot with drones. literally none of them fully make sense lol

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The official line isn’t a bird strike. They gave a suggestion as per the article. That isn’t their official stance on what happened with the airplane at the current moment.

HighGround said:

Drones and warfare are evolving very quickly in this war. Tactics and counter-tactics are being developed, tested, and adopted every few weeks.

China would be served better to simply wait until the conflict is over to see whether FPV drones are worth adopting. The circumstances in the Ukraine War may not apply to China at all, and if they do, China has the technology and resources to engineer and deploy a much more elegant solution. Drone swarms with software that largely eliminates the need for an FPV pilot would drastically cut down on the manning requirements for an FPV drone battalion.

In Ukraine, drone companies take quite a bit of money and manpower to actually deploy, for both sides. It's not something you necessarily want to copy. Rather, China should think of how to achieve similar effects with fewer men, and more/better equipment.

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Also, if anything, highly jam-resistant AI drones with minimal to no man-in-the-loop mechanisms will absolutely be pursued as we have seen via the loyal wingmen programs and viral civilian drone swarm projects. So while FPV drones can be a decent stop-gap for combat operations and force on force training by high-end militaries, it will sooner or later be obsolete. However, poorer countries and armed groups will benefit from the employment and purchases of FPV drones.

The one thing that we should definitely take note is the simple and cheap manufacturing of the drones close to the frontlines. Both Ukraine and Russia showed how they can manufacture some drone parts via 3D printing in mobile workshops. This could help simplify the logistics necessary to supplement a drone unit and perhaps even other combat arms as well.

Russians take Zagryzovo in the Kharkhiv region.


Russians continue to encircle Velikaya Novoselka. The Makarovka bubble has collapsed as well.


The last residential areas in Kurakhovo has been captured by the Russians.


Specialized buggies with a mount of six AK rifles are used to take down Ukrainian drones.


Molniya FPV drones from the Vega unit takes out Ukrainian firing positions towards the Pokrovsk sector.


Abandoned Ukrainian tank gets finished off by drones of the Stavropol Paratroopers.


D-30 howitzer of Group Center at work.


FAB strike on Ukrainian position, area not disclosed.


A Ukrainian pickup delivering fresh ammo in the Kursk region gets hit by an FPV drone of the Ireland unit.


Ukrainian Stryker and the shelter next to it are destroyed by drone strikes. Kursk region.


FV103 Spartan taken out by drone strike from the Ivanovo paratroopers. Kursk region.

LawLeadsToPeace said:

Also, if anything, highly jam-resistant AI drones with minimal to no man-in-the-loop mechanisms will absolutely be pursued as we have seen via the loyal wingmen programs and viral civilian drone swarm projects. So while FPV drones can be a decent stop-gap for combat operations and force on force training by high-end militaries, it will sooner or later be obsolete. However, poorer countries and armed groups will benefit from the employment and purchases of FPV drones.

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The heavy employment of fpvs and standoff munitions have also made frontal assaults incredibly expensive. FPVs and now fiber optic controlled drones allow dispersed small teams to hold large swarth of the front against artillery and air superiority.

We have seen repeatedly large armoured assaults supported by artillery beaten back by small groups of entrenched infantry supported by fpv teams in the rear. At some strong points like Vuhledar Ukraine managed to hold the rubble against Russian assualt for almost two years, I think that's a good testament to how effective drone directed artillery along with fpv support can work in evening lopsided equipment disadvantages.