Small UAS / Drones and related general thread - NOT Swarming ones.

View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1810980360638865514


Australia takes aim with US-made loitering munitions

AeroVironment's Switchblade 300 has a 3.69-pound (1.68 kg) warhead and 19-mile (30 km) range in its latest Block 20 variant.
www.defensenews.com

Germany to help procure drones for Ukraine, Pistorius says

The country will present a plan for NATO to buy drones “from German industry” on behalf of the Ukrainian armed forces, Pistorius said.
www.defensenews.com
 

Ukraine's FPV Drone Obstacle Course Teaches How To Chase Vehicles, Fly Into Windows

Weaving through tank hatches and chasing down trucks is harder than it looks and realistic training is key.
www.twz.com
 
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Chinese special police force anti terrorist exercise:

蜂群无人机和机器狗配合攻坚！上合组织在新疆举行联合反恐演习，中国特警也拿出“黑科技”_哔哩哔哩_bilibili

蜂群无人机和机器狗配合攻坚！上合组织在新疆举行联合反恐演习，中国特警也拿出“黑科技”, 视频播放量 501292、弹幕量 193、点赞数 16913、投硬币枚数 147、收藏人数 1175、转发人数 859, 视频作者 环球网, 作者简介 环球时报在线（北京）文化传播有限公司，相关视频：无人机“蜂群”战术无解？解放军用实力说话，蜂群无人机不香了？我国“天女散花”无人机亮相，一架更比六架强，国产“双尾蝎A”无人机完成灭火弹靶试任务，中国无人机“蜂群”作战系统亮相 ！无人机密密麻麻对地精准察打，乌国防部发视频证实在战场使用机器狗：用于侦查，具备热成像能力，世界首次！电子狗现铁饼赛场负责运回...
www.bilibili.com
 
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Interesting to learn that the drone make some use of an Ukrainian SIM card when overflying Ukraine territory and that RAM is extensively used.
 
Forest Green said:
A drone has apparently downed an Mi-8 according to Russian sources.

Ukraine Situation Report: Russians Say Mi-8 Hip Helicopter Was Shot Down By Drone

The Russian Mi-8 loss would be the first known successful drone attack on an airborne helicopter.
www.twz.com
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Unfortunately for the men on board it was bound to happen eventually with all of the attempts we've seen.

Could DIRCM systems allow for them to blind the optics on such a cheap kamikaze drone? If it can do it to the sensor on an IR guided missile it ought to be able to do it to some cheap drone camera.
 
Colonial-Marine said:
Unfortunately for the men on board it was bound to happen eventually with all of the attempts we've seen.

Could DIRCM systems allow for them to blind the optics on such a cheap kamikaze drone? If it can do it to the sensor on an IR guided missile it ought to be able to do it to some cheap drone camera.
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DIRCM might be effective against some optic packages but I bet most detectors would not identify and lock onto a UAV as an air threat. Typically threat sensors are in the IR/UV spectrum and I suspect a battery operated UAV looks like the background to those; they are likely tuned for short range SAM/MANPAD detection and UAVs put out little to none in the wavelengths sampled.
 
Forest Green said:
Drones also have extremely wideband optics.
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Depends on the drone. I think most are simple optical camera because they are civilian models, but there are also IR versions reserved for night. Certainly no FPV is wearing multi channel optics; it will be one or the other.
 
View: https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1819108731046568437

A closer look at Geran drone.

View: https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1819104877727117586
 
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Ukraine's "Baba Yaga" Drones Now Appear Capable Of Launching Guided Munitions

Making Ukraine's large multi-rotor industrial drones capable of launching guided munitions at targets behind enemy lines would certainly be a major capability upgrade.
www.twz.com

...one that has a seeker head that appears to be designed for laser guidance, although other possibilities also exist, including an electro-optical type. The weapon is marked BK-30F in Cyrillic and has what appears to be a relatively large fragmentation warhead section that takes up the middle of its body.
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GTX said:

United States Explores Possible Launches of Uvision Hero 120 Loitering Munitions from C-130 Aircraft

United States Explores Possible Launches of Uvision Hero 120 Loitering Munitions from C-130 Aircraft
www.armyrecognition.com
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I don't get why you'd want to use a C130 to deploy the Hero 120 given their range of 40km, with that short of standoff range seems like a good way to lose a C130 except if its in pervasive environments. And those type of environments allow AC-130s to operate.
 
Shoes31 said:
I don't get why you'd want to use a C130 to deploy the Hero 120 given their range of 40km, with that short of standoff range seems like a good way to lose a C130 except if its in pervasive environments. And those type of environments allow AC-130s to operate.
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One smells beancounter logic in action here....
 
Shoes31 said:
I don't get why you'd want to use a C130 to deploy the Hero 120 given their range of 40km, with that short of standoff range seems like a good way to lose a C130 except if its in pervasive environments. And those type of environments allow AC-130s to operate.
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When drug gangs and bored shitposters all have FPVs, do you really think there are environments that AC-130s can operate? (note visual target cognition is rapidly proliferating, and big flying thingy spamming tracers is not a difficult problem)

I guess there is uncontacted stone age people in the amazons
 
When I see that it's clear why FARA was cancelled. It's a different battlefield, and simply updating with reduced RCS isn't going to change a thing. Heli operations are going to require different tactics and thinking.

aonestudio said:
View: https://x.com/clashreport/status/1821082399825920188
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Russian Mi-28 Havoc Attack Helicopter Engaged In Mid-Air By Ukrainian Drone

Ukraine's use of drones to hunt for and take down enemy helicopters operating near the front is expanding.
www.twz.com
 
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shin_getter said:
When drug gangs and bored shitposters all have FPVs, do you really think there are environments that AC-130s can operate? (note visual target cognition is rapidly proliferating, and big flying thingy spamming tracers is not a difficult problem)

I guess there is uncontacted stone age people in the amazons
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I'm not certain what altitudes AC-130s typically orbit at, but the sort of cheap drones those groups could access may not reach so high. But regardless the gunship is a very specific niche aircraft and its continued utility or lack-thereof is going to be determined by developments elsewhere. If we can develop and field DIRCM capable of spoofing much faster man-portable SAMs then doing the same to fry the optics of these slower drones is certainly within the realm of possibility. It seems like the greater problem is detecting them without the big thermal signature that comes from a rocket motor. But such solutions are going to be a necessity given the threat not just to military aircraft but anything taking off or landing on a known airfield. It's the same risk the proliferation of man-portable SAMs represents but far easier to obtain. And of course, those airfields are going to need their own systems just so everyone doesn't pilot kamikaze drones into millions of dollars' worth of parked aircraft.

Forest Green said:
When I see that it's clear why FARA was cancelled. It's a different battlefield, and simply updating with reduced RCS isn't going to change a thing. Heli operations are going to require different tactics and thinking.
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As threatening to helicopters (or anything without sufficient support) as this present battlefield may be, I don't think abandoning new hardware that likely would be more adaptable to this environment was a smart choice. In my view trying to use something like FARA to work alongside and coordinate manned and unmanned assets makes more sense than giving that job to AH-64 crews who might be overloaded having to do that in addition to their primary task. More than ever before situational awareness is all-important, and designing a new rotorcraft with that in mind is probably more efficient.
 
Colonial-Marine said:
As threatening to helicopters (or anything without sufficient support) as this present battlefield may be, I don't think abandoning new hardware that likely would be more adaptable to this environment was a smart choice. In my view trying to use something like FARA to work alongside and coordinate manned and unmanned assets makes more sense than giving that job to AH-64 crews who might be overloaded having to do that in addition to their primary task. More than ever before situational awareness is all-important, and designing a new rotorcraft with that in mind is probably more efficient.
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Why would FARA crews be any less overloaded?
 
Attack helos seemed like overly expensive and vulnerable assets pre Ukraine war. It seems like the wrong time to double down. And ISR can likely be done for far less money and far less risk by unman platforms.
 
Russian Mi-8 hit by drone.
Another defeat of a Russian helicopter using FPV! Soldiers of the M2 unit of the Special Operations Center of the SBU in Kurshchyna were able to hit another Russian helicopter with your FPV. This time, the Mi-8 was hit in the tail by a drone with a powerful fragmentation warhead.
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View: https://x.com/sternenko/status/1821819139213635602

Some Replicator tranche 2 systems have already been selected, DIU head says - Breaking Defense

Doug Beck, director of the DIU, said the department has “selected some systems already,” however “there’s other things that we are still kind of finalizing.”
breakingdefense.com

Aftermath of Drone Strike on Lipetsk Airbase -- Over 700 Glide Bombs Destroyed in Ammo Dump​

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