Apparently Strykers, even with aplique armor, are just as well armored as most BTR-80's
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
Russian kamikaze drones "Geran" attacked Ukrainian military airfield deployment points in Vasylkiv, Kyiv region, on the night of May 18. There is no footage from the military airfield, but eyewitnesses can hear explosions and detonation of ammunition in the video. It is reported that 273 "Geran" drones were used for the attacks that day. It was previously reported that F-16 fighters are based there.
Super informative and candid interview with a engineer at a private Russian drone design and production company. Lots of reasonable and fairly unbias commentary.
Lots of informative details and random facts:
Wooden propellers are still used for large drones because they're 10x cheaper than carbon fiber while only losing 5% efficiency.
Admits Russia was late on acknowledging the utility drones and underestimated the importance drones, hence no major state owned company produces them, so the military turned to private manufacturers
Western Switchblade 300 is a joke, Switchblade 600 is more capable but insanely expensive - not worth the cost and thinks it's only been used 10 times total in Ukraine. Alleges to have recovered Boeing ScanEagle components in the lab - very low quality and slapped together. Says even Ukraine have stopped using drones from Western manufactures and started making their own.
Ukraine drones outperforming the entire western small UAV line up.
Western defense industry not fully engaged in drone warfare development, because they are focused on big ticket platforms.
Ukraine and Russian are at the forefront of drone development, Ukraine is slightly ahead of Russia because they can move faster with less bureaucracy.
China excels on components, both Ukraine and Russia buys the same drone components from China, but the edge is putting the components into new designs.
China's gap is they don't have front line experience using drones, their designs look good on paper but they need to understand what military equipment needs to be "survive being tossed out the back of a truck in to the mud, sitting in the rain for a week and then power on perfectly"
China's component industry has fully caught up to the west - quality is about equal but 20-100 times cheaper.
Export restrictions forbid China from exporting drone motors more powerful than 700 watts, the kind used by heavy drones, but countless private companies organize shipments across the land board and Russia has no problem getting such parts.
Drones are currently very fragile, all built with consumer motors, flight controllers, essentially toy components because right now there are no alternatives available. Once the conflict stops, everyone will focus on making these components ruggedized and higher quality.
Most important tech the west has given Ukraine is Starlink.
Ukraine drones dropping antitank mines was a huge problem, Russian soldiers adapted by using thermal cameras to spot the drones and shoot them down with rifles.
Lots of informative details and random facts:
Wooden propellers are still used for large drones because they're 10x cheaper than carbon fiber while only losing 5% efficiency.
Admits Russia was late on acknowledging the utility drones and underestimated the importance drones, hence no major state owned company produces them, so the military turned to private manufacturers
Western Switchblade 300 is a joke, Switchblade 600 is more capable but insanely expensive - not worth the cost and thinks it's only been used 10 times total in Ukraine. Alleges to have recovered Boeing ScanEagle components in the lab - very low quality and slapped together. Says even Ukraine have stopped using drones from Western manufactures and started making their own.
Ukraine drones outperforming the entire western small UAV line up.
Western defense industry not fully engaged in drone warfare development, because they are focused on big ticket platforms.
Ukraine and Russian are at the forefront of drone development, Ukraine is slightly ahead of Russia because they can move faster with less bureaucracy.
China excels on components, both Ukraine and Russia buys the same drone components from China, but the edge is putting the components into new designs.
China's gap is they don't have front line experience using drones, their designs look good on paper but they need to understand what military equipment needs to be "survive being tossed out the back of a truck in to the mud, sitting in the rain for a week and then power on perfectly"
China's component industry has fully caught up to the west - quality is about equal but 20-100 times cheaper.
Export restrictions forbid China from exporting drone motors more powerful than 700 watts, the kind used by heavy drones, but countless private companies organize shipments across the land board and Russia has no problem getting such parts.
Drones are currently very fragile, all built with consumer motors, flight controllers, essentially toy components because right now there are no alternatives available. Once the conflict stops, everyone will focus on making these components ruggedized and higher quality.
Most important tech the west has given Ukraine is Starlink.
Ukraine drones dropping antitank mines was a huge problem, Russian soldiers adapted by using thermal cameras to spot the drones and shoot them down with rifles.
New footage of the use of the Russian Yolka interceptor drone in combat in Ukraine. It is worth noting that the Yolka drone was also used to protect the parade that took place on May 9 on Red Square in Moscow; one of them was spotted with an employee of the Russian Federal Protective Service. The video shows the interception of the Ukrainian Lelek reconnaissance UAV by the Russian Yolka interceptor drone. The location of the shooting is not reported.
Their design is not only "good on paper" Chinese drones, the real ones, with missiles, had been used in Africa, the Middle East, recently in Pakistan and even by the Chinese military in Burma, Since 2014. they have putting their drones in South China Sea and in the Strait. China has been developing drone swarm capabilities before 2017.
Just because they don't often use them themselves doesn't mean they are not improving based on they see in the battlefield.
China not only has pretty big capabilities in drones, but also the diversity in drones, from UAV, UUV ,USV, UGV, supersonic, attack, surveilling, loitering drones, suicide drones, small drones, big drones.
IMO The Russians didn't recognized the value of drones until the war in Ukraine extended. Is ridiculous. The Chinese has been recognizing the value of drone warfare since the 2000s.
The Donbass were using drones in the civil war since 2014. In turn, this is where the Ukrainians picked this up on. When the DPR units were incorporated into the Russian Army command, the Russian Army had an instant availability of highly experienced drone trained units that fought an asymmetrical war for years. These include the Kaskad Battalion, the Sparta Battalion, the Somali Battalion, and the 1st Slavyansk Brigade. The Kaskad was the first unit to make effective use of the Lancet, which already started in the fall of 2022. Even earlier than that, the DPR units were dropping grenades on people's heads via commercial drones. They still do, even as these units have now evolved into brigades. it is no coincidence that the front that has these units, namely Group Center and Group South, both responsible with the Donbass, are among to have the most breakthroughs.
Going to add that the Orlan-10, which is a UAV that's heavily used by the Russian forces, first appeared in Syria at the late 2000s.
Going to another topic, there's some Ukrainian report that the Russians now have 40km range FPV drones. Trying to see if there's more information to verify this. From the Telegram blog of Boris Rozhin:
Colonelcassad
The enemy complains that Russian FPV drones with an extended range have begun not only to create a nightmare for the Dobropolye-Kramatorsk highway, but also to fly into Kharkov. This increase in range significantly expands the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces to influence enemy logistics, especially with the growing mass use of long-range drones. The defeat of targets in Kharkov by small drones will create a new reality for the enemy.
There's a report of a "carrot" --- FPV drone with RPG-7 --- in Kharkhiv. Others cite FPV drone appearances in Zaporozhye city.
I suspect the Russians are using a piggyback drone with a radio repeater.
Ukrainians publish photo of Geran 90kg warhead. It has an index of KOFZBCH or Cumulative Fragmentation High Explosive Incendiary.
Brutal Iskander attack at a Ukrainian special forces training camp in Shosta, Sumy region. Allegedly 70 were killed. The UAV tracked a large group of trainees marching.
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I think people are nitpicking at too many minute details and missed the general commentary. This video is mostly about small FPV/suicide drones and those directly deployed and operated by frontline infantry - since that is the domain of the interviewee.
Not really a fair comparison to the massively larger Wing Long series of drones that costs several million dollars vs these 500-50000 dollar mass produced drones at the focus of the video. Even the Chinese swarm drones we’ve seen in previous videos are launched from a dedicated platform installed on a truck, which might not be survivable in frontline environment like Ukraine without air superiority.
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footage of the strike of the Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile on the Ukrainian training base of the 1st separate territorial defense brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The training base for soldiers is located near the city of Shostka, Sumy region of Ukraine. The base was filmed by the Supercam S350M UAV. As reported in various media outlets, as a result of the Iskander-M missile strike, about 70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, including instructors, an ammunition depot and vehicles were damaged.
Exactly. If we were going by metrics of who was first the US have been using MALE strike UAVs for decades at this point in the hundreds. Yet they are behind China in tactical drones. This war has borne innovation and tactics that are only followed by everyone else.
Suicidal fpvs employed enmass was not a thing, fiber optics unjammable drones were not a thing. Neither mine laying drones nor attack and casualty evacuations via UGVs were used in practice previously to this war.
In the last 2 years tactical UAV usage has moved from sporadic makeshift battlefield innovation to more than 60% of casualties inflicted by Ukranian forces, more than even artillery.
I don't think we have seen so little people able to hold a vast amount of ground simply due to the readily available fires provided by cheap guided munitions in the form of drones.