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

Last edited:
Last edited:
Meow, what an attractive target: plenty of manpower, plenty of specialized design, a great mix of electronics, electric and mechanical components... Wow, that is what we call a choke point. ;)
The age of fpv drones won't last a fraction longer than the one of sticks and bamboo.

It's easy for the reader to see here, as I wrote early on, how FPV drones won't be key assets in a peer conflict. (at least not the way they are engineered and built today).

The piece below is an example of this twisted assertion: add mobility, unrestricted targeting and deep field armored maneuvering and "plastic" built, cash pig a and ressource incentive, battery powered small UAS would populate more depot shelves than platoon soldiers backpacks.

There is a reason why shoulder mounted missiles haven't superseded more traditional direct fire.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2025/08/25/us-unprepared-next-war.html
 
Last edited:
TomcatViP said:
Meow, what an attractive target: plenty of manpower, plenty of specialized design, a great mix of electronics, electric and mechanical components... Wow, that is what we call a choke point. ;)
The age of fpv drones won't last a fraction longer than the one of sticks and bamboo.

It's easy for the reader to see here, as I wrote early on, how FPV drones won't be key assets in a peer conflict. (at least not the way they are engineered and built today).

The piece below is an example of this twisted assertion: add mobility, unrestricted targeting and deep field armored maneuvering and "plastic" built, cash pig a and ressource incentive, battery powered small UAS would populate more depot shelves than platoon soldiers backpacks.

There is a reason why shoulder mounted missiles haven't superseded more traditional direct fire.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2025/08/25/us-unprepared-next-war.html
Click to expand...
FPV drones are improvised tools for militaries that do not have access to high tech drone , and modern militaries trying to go FPV route are bunch of idiots. FPV drone was initaly trying to emulate Switchblade 300 an 600 effects , but as these two proved nearly useless in EW enviroment , as they were developed for GWOT ,they went the way of dodo. Modern solutions will be fixed wing and quad copter systems much like Switchblade just hardened and adapted for EW and GPS denied enviroment. Of course these will be 20-100k$ units , but folks when they think FPV think 1000$ drone took 1 million USD armored truck , folks have no clue how many drones never ever make a flight for various reason like battery being dead or contoler operator has not being compatible .........
One of the reasons why miltary drones often lack FPV preformance in terms of range and endurance is batteries used are often less high-performance but safer for long term storage and use in various climates.
 
The concept of operations and usage will evolve, but clearly light cheap munitions will expand. These will probably evolve into fully autonomous systems that bypass most EW efforts and allow for more saturation (not limited to the number of local skilled operators).
 
Coasting at the beginning of the flight is energy intensive, particularly with battery powered drones. If you launch mid-air with a bit of forward speed, the power requirements are lowered, what translates into smaller/lighter interceptors, more agile with more capable sensors and payload.
 
TomcatViP said:
Meow, what an attractive target: plenty of manpower, plenty of specialized design, a great mix of electronics, electric and mechanical components... Wow, that is what we call a choke point. ;)
Click to expand...

Yeah, when I read the post before your detailing all of those new fibre-optic cable factories I was musing as to how long it will be before they are destroyed or at the very least crippled by Ukrainian drones or maybe Ukraine's new Flamingo cruise-missile (Those missiles are HUGE and pack tremendous punch in the form of 2,250lb warhead).

Halcyon66 said:
https://www.defensenews.com/global/...snuck-into-ukraine-for-drone-training-report/
There is a new one?

Regards,
Click to expand...

I've heard over the past few months reports of volunteers for Ukraine's drone operators coming from Central and South America with ulterior motives, basically learning how to use drones and their associated tactics before going back to the drug cartels that sent them.
 
Last edited:
NMaude said:
I've heard over the past few months reports of volunteers for Ukraine's drone operators coming from Central and South America with ulterior motives, basically learning how to use drones and their associated tactics before going back to the drug cartels that sent them.
Click to expand...
It would be kind of hilarious if this actually gave the US troops stationed on the border some significant practice at fighting drones.

Turns out maybe the border deployments arent going to be waste of time and resources afterall
 
Reddington777 said:
It would be kind of hilarious if this actually gave the US troops stationed on the border some significant practice at fighting drones.

Turns out maybe the border deployments arent going to be waste of time and resources afterall
Click to expand...

It seems unlikely those units have the necessary equipment, training, or deployment scheme for that. I certainly would not want to role those dice.
 
publiusr said:
That is probably the best uses of drones. Under the USSR, trade routes were well known.
I wonder if any non-Russian targets have been struck--seeing this:
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501782442/trade-in-war/#bookTabs=1https://phys.org/news/2025-08-countries.html
Click to expand...

Rail systems are notoriously hard to put out of action. They are apparently attacking pre identified flammable trains, which is a good strategy for low yield UAVs. It would not heavily damage the rails but it takes awhile to clean up.
 
I think that question has been skipped for many years, pretty sure that side of things is never going to change.

But now they will have killer drones to add to the mix.

Again, what could possibly go wrong......

Regards,
 
Last edited:
https://aviationweek.com/defense/bu...-quadcopter-performs-first-ship-ship-delivery
LONDON—The UK Royal Navy has completed the first ship-to-ship delivery of supplies using the Malloy quadcopter uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) during the Carrier Strike Group 2025 deployment.

Five months into the eight-month deployment, the Navy finally used the autonomous platform to transport supplies from the flagship HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier to the HMS Dauntless air defense destroyer.

The Royal Navy said the quadcopter flew autonomously between the ships and was controlled by a crew on Dauntless to land safely on that ship’s flight deck. The UAS carried critical supplies, including spare parts, between the two ships.

[snip]
Click to expand...
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom