#drone warfare

[captain-price-returns]

You will absolutely not be prepared for the logo that flashes at the end of this drone combat video

[kropotkindersurprise]

In case you were wondering how fiber-optic FPV drones work in practice, this shows it pretty well (these are the types of ads i get nowadays, hah). Most FPV drones are controlled by radio frequencies, which can be jammed or disrupted quite easily these days, using Electronic Warfare systems jamming frequencies in a general area, or directional drone jammers like these:

These fiber-optic drones however have an actual physical connection to the controller, so control can only be cut off by actually cutting the fiber-optic wire (or actually shooting down the drone, of course).

[enriquemzn262]

The new german Cobra 600 jet-powered interceptor drone, shown here equipped with a single Iris-T radar-guided BVR missile.

The twin-engine drone also shows space for two extra engines, most likely optional for heavier loads.

[eretzyisrael]

Israel Just Learned to Lie to a Thousand Drones at Once

The world’s worst regimes are racing to build 110,000 of them a year.

In 1940, when Britain feared a German invasion, the British didn’t build a wall, they took down their road signs. Let the invader come, and let him be lost the moment he arrives.

Hypnosis takes down the road signs of the sky.

It works like this. A ring of mobile stations goes up around whatever needs protecting, a power station, a strategic site, an air defense battery, all wired into one command center. And it’s long-range, so the drone loses its navigation before it ever gets near the place it was sent to hit. Every station speaks the one language each drone in the swarm has to listen to, the satellite signal, and IAI’s own brochure says it disrupts that signal across multiple frequency bands and constellations at once, so the drone can’t just change the channel. It does one of two things with that language. It shouts over the satellites until the drone goes deaf, loses its blue dot and wanders off on its crude internal compass.

Or it does something far stranger. It whispers a counterfeit signal, a forgery of the voice from space, and the drone believes it completely. Flies on in total confidence toward a spot on the map that was never its target.

Nothing hits the drone. Nothing touches it. It’s still up there, engine humming, warhead armed, sure it knows where it’s going. And it’s wrong.

A thousand lost drones are as dangerous as one lost drone. The swarm’s great weapon was always the sheer number of them, more targets than you have missiles, and Hypnosis doesn’t fight the drones. It fights the arithmetic.

Numbers were only half the swarm’s weapon. The other half was speed, a wave built to arrive faster than a person can decide. So Israel took the deciding away from people too. Calcalist reported that in testing, the system autonomously handled multiple threats coming at one target from different directions at once. No human touched anything.

[victusinveritas]

Welp… this is about as cyberpunk as you can get.. and not in the cool way…

Vis slashdot.

[unitedfrontvarietyhour]

And now, liberals, on to some facts about your hero, Obama.

(Pt.2)

[tomorrowusa]

Robert Brovdi has arguably done more than anybody else to revolutionize warfare in this century. As a local commander in Kherson oblast he began arming drones to be used against Russians who invaded and occupied parts of Ukraine.

Ukraine now uses its drones to strike deep into Russia. Much of Russia's oil infrastructure is now out of commission. Ukraine is now the world's leading innovator in the field of drone warfare.

Irish journalist Caolan Robertson had a conversation with Brovdi who is now the Commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Brovdi outlined the five steps which NATO countries need to defend themselves against Russia.

[justacynicalromantic]

The drone kept following him. [..] He hides under the umbrella that covers the stand, runs from one side to the other, gestures at the vegetables. Then the drone dives beside him and explodes. [..]

Premodern fanatics used to hallucinate flying devils. But few modern civilians have been chased by mechanized flying objects. Unless they live in or around Kherson.

Putin’s Human Safari Is the Dystopian Future of War

A grim new normal dawns in Ukraine.

Drones with capabilities like the ones that hit Yuri originally offered a humanitarian advantage, allowing their operators to avoid civilian casualties. Because they have cameras, the remote operator can see whether the target is really a soldier or military object, and call off the drone if it is not. But as with all technologies, the purpose can be radically altered by the users. Instead of avoiding civilians, Russian operators can now target them, as if playing a video game.

They will not be the last drone operators to do so. Although not all Pentagon procurement officers (or indeed Pentagon leaders) know it yet, nobody is prepared, technically or psychologically, for a new era of intelligent, deadly machines. Warfare is on its way to being transformed beyond recognition. Separate drone battalions are a thing of the past. Every aspect of fighting now requires drones, and drone interceptors.

How long until the rest of the world also experiences this change? Crime and terrorism will be transformed next, followed by the work of lawyers and police. Today’s bizarre dystopia, something we view in video clips coming from Ukraine, might be tomorrow’s new normal.