They're even using mesh networking now. Certainly makes planning an attack more complicated but doesn't require any (permanent) infrastructure and can adapt to being disrupted.
Of course none of the other armies are adapting to this (you know, first step, imho, would be to prove you can do this yourself. Even if you do it with esp32 that would still be valuable experience)
Ukraine has become very effective at countering the prop based drones, including shahed. The Russian adaption has been to jet powered shaheds and cheap cruise missiles (the familiar form factor) and the interception rate has gone down significantly and requires unsustainable countermeasures. These jet powered shaheds are being referred to as pseudo-cruise missiles by the people who study these things.
It's likely to be the hardest winter yet for Ukrainians based on the current dynamics.
Why does there have to be a specific exact definition of a drone ?
War is chaos at times, life is complicated, its not always black or white. You are too focused on labels instead of understanding the change. The change is everythign, cost, advantages, in effective of current technologies due to supply and more.
> Why does there have to be a specific exact definition of a drone?
The way to think about this is that it is helpful to have more nuanced definitions for the variety of munitions. They have different characteristics and requirements for countering.
When does a drone become a missile? It changes as the technology of war changes and the two sides adapt. Jet powered Gerans act a lot more like a cruise missile.
Similarly, we classify quad rotor drones with artillery shells in the drone category, used for the same effect, rather than calling them long-range fire (artillery), because they are dynamically navigable (even though some artillery shells have course correcting gps features).
I used drone because it seems a simple word to describe thee new modern weapons. THe name doesnt matter, call them whatever you like, you can even insert their product names if you wish. You can replace drone, with a list it doesnt matter, i think the point is obvious. What is more the technology of these cheap machines is changing next year there will be more.
Storm Shadow is not a drone, would you agree? So is a jet powered, large winged missile still a drone because it resembles another munition that has propellers? (this is what we see in the evolution of shahed/geran)
"drones" are easier to counter then "missiles" - an important point of distinction - and Russia/Ukraine are both building super cheap missiles, for the roles long-range, one-way drones used to fill, because the drone versions are rapidly losing effectiveness. Jet powered gerans now make up more than half of barrages by Russia.
My point in this thread is that the intercepters we burned through are important, because adversaries are now moving from the types of munitions we have called drones for the last 4 years, to munitions that look and behave a lot more like missiles. They need more expensive countermeasures than 50 cal and other cheap drones. This is important to realize when investing in defensive measures.
Drones are still a significant change to land war, but are less important in the US-Iran war or a potential conflict in the pacific. Decoys and concrete are something few talk about.
Perun's last two episodes were with Mike Koffman and on these evolving topics
Unfortunately, this is the new asymmetric nature to war - cheap cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and one way drones. Being safe got more expensive and less reliable. TBD what the countermeasures will be that change the economics.
We are seeing the Drone reset today.
Of course none of the other armies are adapting to this (you know, first step, imho, would be to prove you can do this yourself. Even if you do it with esp32 that would still be valuable experience)
Ukraine has become very effective at countering the prop based drones, including shahed. The Russian adaption has been to jet powered shaheds and cheap cruise missiles (the familiar form factor) and the interception rate has gone down significantly and requires unsustainable countermeasures. These jet powered shaheds are being referred to as pseudo-cruise missiles by the people who study these things.
It's likely to be the hardest winter yet for Ukrainians based on the current dynamics.
War is chaos at times, life is complicated, its not always black or white. You are too focused on labels instead of understanding the change. The change is everythign, cost, advantages, in effective of current technologies due to supply and more.
The way to think about this is that it is helpful to have more nuanced definitions for the variety of munitions. They have different characteristics and requirements for countering.
When does a drone become a missile? It changes as the technology of war changes and the two sides adapt. Jet powered Gerans act a lot more like a cruise missile.
Similarly, we classify quad rotor drones with artillery shells in the drone category, used for the same effect, rather than calling them long-range fire (artillery), because they are dynamically navigable (even though some artillery shells have course correcting gps features).
"drones" are easier to counter then "missiles" - an important point of distinction - and Russia/Ukraine are both building super cheap missiles, for the roles long-range, one-way drones used to fill, because the drone versions are rapidly losing effectiveness. Jet powered gerans now make up more than half of barrages by Russia.
My point in this thread is that the intercepters we burned through are important, because adversaries are now moving from the types of munitions we have called drones for the last 4 years, to munitions that look and behave a lot more like missiles. They need more expensive countermeasures than 50 cal and other cheap drones. This is important to realize when investing in defensive measures.
Drones are still a significant change to land war, but are less important in the US-Iran war or a potential conflict in the pacific. Decoys and concrete are something few talk about.
Perun's last two episodes were with Mike Koffman and on these evolving topics
https://www.youtube.com/@PerunAU/videos