The War in the Ukraine

Bellum_Romanum said:

Where's the super stronk "germanic super quality drones" that these Russians ought to have been using rather than using these low quality Chinese crap copy cat drones...

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Russian drones haven't been impressive so far this war. A lot of the talk about their drone industry has turned out to be hype. Things could change though and we've started to see new drones that weren't.

Ultimately nothing Russia (or any country) produces can compete on a cost basis with a commercial DJI drone which is sold in the millions.

I think this war will change attitudes to drone design. Instead of making them bigger as has been happening, they should be smaller and essentially single bomb payloads.

I'd be requesting a military version of this:

Have hundreds of them continuously dropping bombs, mines and other ordnance with pin point accuracy all over the battlefield.

does the failed impact of switchblades not show that these kind of weapons are not exactly game changing though?
their feasibility depends on the enemy you're facing, does it not?

alfreddango said:

does the failed impact of switchblades not show that these kind of weapons are not exactly game changing though?
their feasibility depends on the enemy you're facing, does it not?

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They don’t need to be game changing. If they can relieve a lot of jobs that are slow and/or risky, then they are excellent additions to one’s arsenal. New weapons don’t need to be game changing. They just need to provide enough benefits to justify the costs, and drones definitely can do that.

LawLeadsToPeace said:

They don’t need to be game changing. If they can relieve a lot of jobs that are slow and/or risky, then they are an excellent addition to one’s arsenal.

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They help guiding artillery a lot ! Seeing all those direct hits with krasnopol artillery say that Russian UAV are quite effective.

Atomicfrog said:

They help guiding artillery a lot ! Seeing all those direct hit with krasnopol artillery say that Russian UAV are quite effective.

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Exactly. In the past, you would need Forward Observers (FO) to do that, and the after action report and corrections they provide is limited. Aerial UAV’s can do a much better job than a FO can if an EW unit isn’t actively jamming drones in the targeted area. In that case, the benefits significantly outweigh the costs.

FriedButter said:

Has Russia used a thermobaric bombs to clear out Ukrainian soldiers in sieged cities? I haven’t heard about them being used on cities under siege. Tho maybe it’s just a bad idea.

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They’ve used TOS-1 in urban areas.

alfreddango said:

does the failed impact of switchblades not show that these kind of weapons are not exactly game changing though?
their feasibility depends on the enemy you're facing, does it not?

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Maybe they are successful, I don't know. The main problems with switchblades seems to be range and the numbers provided. A frontline soldier operating a switchblade isn't doing something else. With a longer range you could assign that role to someone behind frontlines.

Before the war started I didn't think any drones would be able to survive modern ECW, let alone NATO. Turns out that isn't true and both Russia and Ukraine have been able to operate even commercial drones that can be jammed by equipment made available to police forces around the world.

They are bulky and whoever has to carry one probably won't be able to carry a rifle as well. It would suck if you were the designated anti drone person carrying that and got into a firefight.

Make a drone too big and it just becomes a slow moving target for SAMs and MANPADs as we've seen with TB-2s and Orions. Small enough and there isn't a cost effective way to counter them right now.

Another new strikes on Donetsk from the looks of it

RottenPanzer said:

Another new strikes on Donetsk from the looks of it

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There's no strategic value at shooting on Donesk... they are doing by spite or it's just that they cannot firing back ? They cannot spend forces and ammunitions on that. Only thing the are not lacking is nonsense at this rate.

Ka-52 in action.

Abominable said:

Before the war started I didn't think any drones would be able to survive modern ECW, let alone NATO. Turns out that isn't true and both Russia and Ukraine have been able to operate even commercial drones that can be jammed by equipment made available to police forces around the world.

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Commercial drones can be easily jammed. Between GPS and the frequency spectrum they use to communicate with the controller there are a lot of ways to block them.
The thing is, they are basically being used as spotters for artillery by both sides. And guess who has the artillery and EW advantage?
That is the reason more active jamming isn't used. From what I understand most jamming is confined to the Russian border.