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

It would appear that the US is developing its' own version of the Shaheed-136/Geran-2 drone, from Defense Updates:


Russia is using the relatively cheap Iranian Shahid drones to hit civilian as well as military targets in Ukraine.The Shahed-136 drones that Russia has rebranded as Geran-2 are packed with explosives and are preprogrammed to loiter overhead until they nosedive into a target.Its 50-horsepower engine gives it a top speed of 185 kph or 114 mph and a maximum range of 2,500 kilometers or 1,500 miles.​
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On July 20th, Russian state television aired new footage from the massive drone manufacturing facility in Alabuga, located about a thousand miles east of Moscow. The plant, which produces Shahed-136 drones, has dramatically scaled up operations over the past year—reportedly increasing output nearly tenfold. This surge in production now enables Russia to potentially launch over 700 attack drones in a single night. According to Major General Christian Freuding of Germany’s Situation Center for Ukraine, that number could climb to as many as 2,000 Shaheds per night by the end of the year.​
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Shahed-136 has been so impactful that even President Donald Trump commented on it. He said, “We're coming up with a new system of drones because drones are really … drones really seem to be taking over that war… I asked one of the companies, I said, I want a lot of drones, and in the case of Iran, they make a good drone and they make them for $35,000, $40,000.”​
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US military may soon have an answer. On July 16, the U.S. Department of Defense unveiled the Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) during a showcase of autonomous systems held in the Pentagon courtyard. The event was attended by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.​
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In this video, Defense Updates analyzes how LUCAS could enable the US military to win the drone war?
#defenseupdates #LUCAS #usmilitary
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Chapters:
0:00 TITLE
00:11 INTRODUCTION
02:12 SPONSORSHIP - NordVPN
02:46 LUCAS OVERVIEW
04:08 LUCAS IN BATTLEZONE
06:09 ANALYSIS
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Well sooner or later these folks might show up in Mexico and US

According to its information, the Mexican intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), sent a confidential memo to the Ukrainian Security Service earlier this summer regarding Mexican volunteers.

It said that some of the volunteers had joined the International Legion to gain advanced skills in the use of drones, in particular FPV drones.

The SBU then launched an investigation that affected not only Mexicans but also Colombians serving in the International Legion, particularly in the secret Tactical Group Ethos unit.

According to the publication, Ukrainian investigators suspect that some volunteers from Mexico and Colombia deliberately sought to enter training centers for FPV drone operators, bypass initial checks, and transfer the skills they acquired to transnational criminal organizations.

Several Mexicans and Colombians showed exceptional interest in learning how to operate drones, ignoring all other forms of training. Among them was a Mexican volunteer whom the SBU named Aguila-7, who joined the legion in March 2024 under the guise of being Salvadoran.

Aguila-7 completed a full cycle of training in drone courses in Lvov, where instructors noted his high level of training. He was fluent in analog transmitters, detected thermal blind spots, and anticipated radio-electronic countermeasures.

According to further investigation, Intelligence Online writes, it turned out that he was probably a member of GAFE, a Mexican special forces unit, some of whose former fighters later turned to crime and founded the Los Zetas drug cartel.

In addition, a European security source quoted by the publication said that at least three former FARC (Colombian rebel organization) fighters also passed through the International Legion with the help of Panamanian and Venezuelan documents.

The case against the suspected volunteers is being handled by the technical division of the SBU, which is subordinate to the main counterintelligence department.

"We accepted volunteers with good intentions. But we must admit that Ukraine has become a global platform for the spread of FPV tactics. Some come here to learn how to kill with a $400 drone and then sell that knowledge to the highest bidder," said one of the SBU leaders, quoted by Intelligence Online.

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Scam artists are quite pervasive in today's defense drone sector.

Q: Switching gears a little bit, talk to me about the concerns that Western nations are stealing Ukrainian tech, and that they’re also falsely claiming that products have been tested in combat. Are these real concerns? And do you have any examples of how that’s played out?

A: So there have been instances, and I am not naming names, and I don’t know that you will find anybody in Ukraine who will name names, but yes, there are Western companies that have come to Ukraine under the guise of: ‘hey, we would like to invest. We would like to partner. Can we spend a couple of days with you, learning what you’re doing?’ And I have to admit, most of this was earlier. It’s not happening as much because Ukrainians sort of realized what was going on. … And then they [the companies] would essentially disappear. And six months later, they would come out with something that was very, very similar to what they wanted to partner with a company about. There are at least four examples that I am aware of where that has happened.

Q: You won’t name names, but can you say what kinds of systems?
A: It was mostly on the drones themselves.
Q: FPV drones? Other strike drones? ISR?
A: And fixed wing, yeah.

Q: What about situations where a product is tested in Ukraine, but the testing was far from the battlefield, yet the claim is that the product is battle-tested. How big a concern is that?

A: So the biggest concern – I don’t care if anybody claims that it’s battle-tested in Ukraine. But the problem is that most of the stuff that comes into Ukraine fails, and unless these companies come in, fail, but figure out why they failed, and then figure out how to fix it before going back and saying, battle-tested in Ukraine, that’s where the danger and the problem lies. There are absolutely companies that have come in that failed, that went back and marketed it as tested in Ukraine, but we knew that it failed in Ukraine. Ukraine doesn’t care. But the problem is if there’s an MoD or a DoD that is buying tech with a made-in-Ukraine or tested-in-Ukraine [label], or if an investor is investing in something claimed to have been tested in Ukraine, but the testing did not actually lead to benefits in the product. There is a fair amount of false advertising that’s going on in that context.

Q: Can you name any names?

A: I don’t want to be sued.

Q: Can you talk in general terms about what types of products are being claimed as tested in battle, but were not?

A: It is mostly in the UAV space. So whether the small quadcopter or, maybe an octocopter that’s big enough to do replenishing – bringing stuff out to the front line, dropping things. Or ISR and to some degree longer fixed range. So, yes, most of what we have seen in terms of the stuff that seems to be most egregious is with the companies making the drones themselves. And again, it’s not that – I really want to emphasize this – it’s not that the tech is bad, or it’s they built it outside of Ukraine. They came in, it didn’t work because of the electronic warfare, because of the GPS denial, and they’re going back, and they still haven’t fixed the problem. And the problem is just going to get worse, because it continues to happen here at the front and they’re already back there selling to some European MoD.

https://www.twz.com/news-features/c...rom-ukraine-are-not-being-learned-by-the-west
 
https://kyivindependent.com/inside-...forces-brace-for-three-sided-russian-assault/
Drones plentiful enough to be used in "area fire" against bushes.

Ground mobility difficult enough that aerial drone resupply necessary.
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It appears to me that a pivotal EVTOL (with a bit more battery/hybrid) made into a drone would be very useful for logistics, troop rotation and insertion in this case, and it is not actually impossible for some to get into the war. The configuration should offer natural advantages over the copters, and if one can make it fast as well it'd be quite effective.

How is that an idea for fund raising round?
 
shin_getter said:
Drones plentiful enough to be used in "area fire" against bushes.

Ground mobility difficult enough that aerial drone resupply necessary.
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At this rate warfare is starting to feel like any number of alien movies where stepping outside and moving a little toe gets you immediately turned into raspberry juice by some little flying alien.
 
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Geran 2 drones now droping anti armor mines over supply routes from underwing pods.

And here are the videos of PTM-3 mines being dropped from Geranium-2 over roads and blowing up Ukrainian cars on them.
such a system will allow for point-to-point remote mining of Ukrainian logistics routes at a distance of tens and hundreds of kilometers behind front lines.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1954612411727585766
View: https://x.com/i/status/1954612411727585766



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PTM-3 anti tank mine​

Typicaly PTM-3 self destructs in 16-24 hours after it was armed
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Drone mining is a known quantity in the war. The development I am waiting for is igloo white style air deployed kill complex with sensors, munitions and networks.

With modern tech, everything from off route mines to off axis kamikaze drones (to terminators standing up from somewhere~) and air dropped logistics (rearm/recharge docks), command/communications (probably a starlink hub commanding smaller assets) should be on the table. Add air defense and logistics and that is mini air assault in a post infantry world....
 
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Heres something I never would`ve expected to see again,old ww2 V-1 style fixed launch sites for the Geran.
I guess that even with the russians now using vehicle assisted launch that it still wasnt enough to launch the numbers that they wanted.
I dont think I`d want to be one of the personnel at these sites as the whole thing looks very vulnerable to attack.
https://viewsfromabove.bradyafrick.com/p/russias-drone-launch-sites-built
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Ukraine has no good options for attacking these sites in a timely fashion. I would guess these sites are empty between strikes and that there’s nothing to damage but ooored concrete. But that deployment method would never work against a true peer capable of more prompt deep strikes.
 
Excerpts (machine translated, edited for clarity):
https://www.rp.pl/biznes/art42836831-ukrainie-brakuje-zolnierzy-nie-sprzetu
At the battalion level 70-80% of logistics efforts go to the supply of UAV units, and only 20-30 percent to support the infantry. Preserving the capabilities of UAVs is a higher priority for Ukrainians than ensuring the actions of linear units.

Counter battery is combined artillery and drone mission


What else is visible at the front?
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Over the past year, the Ukrainians have defended their positions using drones, artillery and infantry. However, there are currently so many Russian drones that Ukrainian units often refuse to use artillery, since unmanned vehicles are constantly circulating in the area of its deployment. In areas of the front where artillery nevertheless opens fire, a response in the form of Russian counter-battery fire occurs within one to two minutes, and over the next few minutes swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles appear in the area, which track and destroy the detected guns.
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In addition, the Russians conduct extremely effective counter-drone actions, focusing on the fight against both Ukrainian intelligence and strike drones. Since most of the Ukrainian logistics currently relies on unmanned aerial vehicles, their systematic elimination is a serious problem. At the battalion level 70-80% of logistics efforts go to the supply of UAV units, and only 20-30 percent to support the infantry. Preserving the capabilities of UAVs is a higher priority for Ukrainians than ensuring the actions of linear units.
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Where will this war be in six months?
This, of course, is very difficult to predict. Our baseline scenario assumes that the previous pattern of actions will continue, but we observe that the front is beginning to gradually "leak". The Russians have imposed a war of attrition on Ukraine, and Kiev decided to take up the challenge, which at some point could lead to a sharp acceleration of events. Perhaps we are now entering the first stage. It remains an open question whether the crash will occur or whether the Ukrainians will decide to move additional strategic reserves and specialized drone units to stop the Russian flow of unmanned aerial vehicles. The Ukrainian Command of unmanned Systems appears to be closely studying the actions of the Russians, and in the coming weeks and months, it will prioritize the destruction of Rubicon drone units and other Russian unmanned formations.
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As for the implementation of a strategic operation, the purpose of which would be to reverse the negative trend that the Ukrainians have been in for two years, there is currently no chance. The Ukrainians are too short of troops. Although, given the character and personality of General Sirsky, I would not be at all surprised if limited offensive operations were undertaken.
Could more help by the West make a difference here?
In my opinion, no. The fundamental problems faced by Ukrainians are Ukrainian problems. This applies to: the quality of command, the number of soldiers on the front line, the methods of using forces, both manpower and drones. etc. [..] The transfer of hundreds more ATACMS missiles to the Ukrainians would not change the nature of this war. After all, to recapture a town, you need infantry, supported by drones and artillery. And the Ukrainians are short of infantry, artillery is effectively defeated - Western equipment is not a panacea for all the problems of Ukraine. The main problems that Ukraine faces must be solved by the government in Kiev, and not by Western states.
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Perhaps our own David Merriman could teach some classes on aquatic drones provided they don't confiscate his R/Cs.

Lifetime supply of model making chemicals you can't get in the US any more.
 

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