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

A slightly old but comprehensive article detailing Ukraine's drone industry.

https://www.chinatalk.media/p/how-ukraine-build-drones

This recent article also talks about drone operations on the front lines:

https://www.chinatalk.media/p/wartalk-ukraines-forward-drone-line

This quote is a bit depressing but highlights the issues with dealing with the threat of constant drone attacks and other dangers on the front lines:

"It’s extraordinarily difficult. You can imagine how much it ages you, because you’re so tense for so long at a time and there’s no rotation. The psychological and physical effects are going to be really long-term problems for these guys."
 
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The saudis looking to build their own Shahed-136 clone,the Skywasp.
photo_2026-05-26_00-17-28.jpg

https://www.semafor.com/article/05/25/2026/us-saudi-venture-to-build-shahed-drone-clones-in-riyadh
 
The Military Show has recently put out a video concerning Ukraine's increasingly effective "Slaughterbots" which are, well, slaughtering Russian soldiers en-mass:


Ukraine’s battlefield is changing fast. Viral footage of an AI-assisted “slaughter bot” drone targeting a Russian soldier has sparked fear across the front lines and raised serious questions about the future of warfare. In this video, we break down the terrifying rise of EFP-equipped FPV drones, facial-recognition targeting systems, and autonomous AI weapons that could redefine combat forever. How deadly are these new drones, and can Russia counter them before it’s too late today globally?​
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This sought of reminds of the mid-1990s SF/Horror film Screamers:

 
Next time there is an outrage when civilian trucks get targeted .->

unmarked ukrainian civilian truck launching kamikaze drones.
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Mr.T said:
Next time there is an outrage when civilian trucks get targeted .->

unmarked ukrainian civilian truck launching kamikaze drones.
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To state the obvious, Russia has killed Ukrainian civilians indiscriminately for the whole of its invasion - and specifically targeted them and civilian infrastructure as well (e.g. maternity hospitals, border cities and settlements are constantly harangued by Russian quad units with their "human safaris").

The bare confirmed minimum loss of civilian life in Ukraine since 2022 is 15 thousand, though no accurate count exists from the temporarily occupied territories and their overrun cities. We only roughly know how many are unaccounted for and have satellite image evidence of mass graves. The death toll at Mariupol alone could easily double that, as per HRW and others:

https://www.hrw.org/feature/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol/counting-the-dead

There have been far too few outrages about these as it's a constant, everyday reality for people who are just adjusting to the circumstances, determinedly withstanding them and somewhat inured to this inexcusable behavior. You're attempting to justify all that and all that's to come based on your image? We've got a long, long, l-o-n-g, way to go until this is settled properly.

To state the obvious.
 
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UpForce said:
To state the obvious, Russia has killed Ukrainian civilians indiscriminately for the whole of its invasion - and specifically targeted them and civilian infrastructure as well (e.g. maternity hospitals, border cities and settlements are constantly harangued by Russian quad units with their "human safaris").

The bare confirmed minimum loss of civilian life in Ukraine since 2022 is 15 thousand, though no accurate count exists from the temporarily occupied territories and their overrun cities. We only roughly know how many are unaccounted for and have satellite image evidence of mass graves. The death toll at Mariupol alone could easily double that, as per HRW and others:

https://www.hrw.org/feature/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol/counting-the-dead

There have been far too few outrages about these as it's a constant, everyday reality for people who are just adjusting to the circumstances, determinedly withstanding them and somewhat inured to this inexcusable behavior. You're attempting to justify all that and all that's to come based on your image? We've got a long, long, l-o-n-g, way to go until this is settled properly.

To state the obvious.
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BS it there is one thing that stands out in Ukraine war is extremely low civilian death tool compared to any modern war let alone in relation to military casualties.

Compare Russian strikes civilian ,death tool to Israeli or US , war that is in 5th year with civilian death tool maybe 3x that caused in couple of weeks by Israel and US , Not to mention what you have seen in Gaza is off the charts.

Most massive strikes of the war on Ukraine fatalities in single digits ,Israel quite often racks up death tools well past 100 per day , and US not much less started iran war with killing 160+ kids
 
Mr.T said:
BS it there is one thing that stands out in Ukraine war is extremely low civilian death tool compared to any modern war let alone in relation to military casualties.

Compare Russian strikes civilian ,death tool to Israeli or US , war that is in 5th year with civilian death tool maybe 3x that caused in couple of weeks by Israel and US , Not to mention what you have seen in Gaza is off the charts.

Most massive strikes of the war on Ukraine fatalities in single digits ,Israel quite often racks up death tools well past 100 per day , and US not much less started iran war with killing 160+ kids
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That's only because Ukrainians evacuated frontline towns and cities rather than forcing the people to remain in the buildings whilst Russia levelled them. And air raid shelters are provided for the masses in cities, not just the elite or warfighters. Compare with these situations involving Russia where that wasn't the case:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999–2000)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1994–1995)

So let's not compare apples and oranges.

Oh and cluster warheads on a city?

https://twitter.com/x/status/2061738600346063012
View: https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2061738600346063012?s=20
 
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Combat-Master said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2061354765712265269
View: https://x.com/DylanMalyasov/status/2061354765712265269?s=20
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China Brings Stealth Technologies to Market

Shenzhen-based Star-Navi has begun selling XRAM-C radar-absorbing coating for drones, aircraft, and naval platforms. The material comes in 1, 5, and 10 kg packages and is applied using a standard spray gun.

The coating is designed to reduce the radar signature of a target. According to the manufacturer, the material provides a 3 dB reduction in reflected signal in the 8–12 GHz frequency range and at least 3.5 dB in the 2–6 GHz range. In practice, this translates to a reduction in reflected signal power by approximately half.

The coating thickness is 0.4–0.6 mm, and its weight is no more than 1.1 kg per square meter of surface area. This is important for drones, as every gram of added weight reduces range, payload capacity, or flight endurance.

An adhesion strength of at least 10 megapascals ensures that the coating will remain attached to the aircraft fuselage even during thermal cycles and mechanical vibrations that occur in flight, and the company's stated heat resistance of 250 degrees Celsius for 100 hours without deterioration of performance takes into account elevated temperatures.

The line of materials includes three options for work against different types of radars:

• XRAM-C105 - against X- and Ku-band radars, including many guidance systems and anti-drone systems;

• XRAM-C112 - against S- and C-band surveillance radars used for airspace control;

• XRAM-C113B - a universal solution with broadband coverage in the C and X bands.

Any UAV manufacturer or even a military unit can treat an already finished drone with the coating immediately before use.
 
Forest Green said:
That's only because Ukrainians evacuated frontline towns and cities rather than forcing the people to remain in the buildings whilst Russia levelled them. And air raid shelters are provided for the masses in cities, not just the elite or warfighters. Compare with these situations involving Russia where that wasn't the case:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999–2000)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1994–1995)

So let's not compare apples and oranges.

Oh and a cluster warheads on a city?

https://twitter.com/x/status/2061738600346063012
View: https://x.com/NOELreports/status/2061738600346063012?s=20
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What ?

So either there is indiscriminate killing of civilians like what Israel does , then upps the game with double triple tap strikes preferably on to kill anyone trying to help

or there is not ,

You are literary comparing apples to oranges , front line combat vs air raids.

When it comes to air raids on Ukraine they have extremely low civilian casualty count compared to Israeli or US air raids .

*Ukraine like most of former east block has shelters and subways for large numbers of people. Soviet cold war legarcy ,nothing Ukraine built recently. Old building codes required shelters so you even got a permit to build.


That is how Falujja,Mosul ,Raqqa looked after US 'liberated' them (irony Trump hosted head of AQ and ISIS in WH, so folks whom these cities were liberated from ) ,no different than how cities being fought over end up in Ukraine.
US and Israel use cluster bombs and white phosphorus all the time in ME.

2026-06-02_15h05_25.png
 
Way you can look at Jet powered Shahed-238 rationale is to reduce engagement window ,mostly against FPV interceptors ,but in some ways Iran is not facing much in terms of manually flown interceptors like Sting , so does not make economic sense to use jet powered Shahed-238 when Shahed 136 will do

I think Geran 4 and Shahed -238 are dead ends . End up costing same as some off these new ghetto cruise missiles and way less able to pentrate AD coverage.

Small simplified cruise missiles will take their jobs ,after they pick up enough parts from JASSM-ER they will make a ghetto variant of it at similar cost as Shahed 238 .

''Quds-1 has a range of 800 km. The second-generation Quds-2, which corresponds with the Iranian Soumar (also known as Hoveyzeh) missiles, has a range of 1,350 km. The range of Quds 3 was not mentioned by the Houthis but is believed to be longer than Quds 2, as the missile diameter is larger, thus capable of carrying a larger fuel tank and warhead. These missiles are based on an Iranian derived from Soviet-era air-launched Kh55 cruise missiles acquired from Ukraine in the late 1990s. The range of Quds-1 is assumed to be 700 km, with Quds-3 achieving three times that range.''

Quds-2-725.gif
 
Agreed, once you put a jet engine and a multi element ECM resistant GPS guidance system on this type of airframe I think you’ve just spent your way into an inferior FAMM like munition, without a lot of the capabilities the later brings. I suspect Russia is going this route because it required the least development time and the most reuse of existing resources and labor, but the cost : performance ratio seems greatly inferior compared to downsizing cruise missiles and accepting lower capabilities from that direction. In particular I would think the Geran plane form rather draggy for high subsonic speeds.
 
Geran is draggy and jet powered ones are not much faster than prop driven one.

Reasonable expectation is sub 400km/h , i would say in practice 350km/h or less.

I have worked on Aerial targets so have some first hand experience in Shahed 131 sized craft and we kinda start with a delta so you can take off without rocket booster just catapult , but then you quickly end up at limits , and that is with much much thiner airfoils than geran. Commercial RC jet engines used in these and aerial targets are extremely inefficient compression ratios of 6-9 are not uncommon , that is like pre WW2 jet engines . We have issues keeping the mission endurance in aerial targets, fuel is more than half of the weight at MTOW.

Same engine and payload in a cruise missile type will fly cca 50+% faster burn same fuel per minute but also cover 50% more distance on same fuel.

Geran as a whole was a stop gap measure to get things in use ASAP

Geran 5 probably does not cost much more than Geran 4

GERAN-5-1-1024x574.jpg

Karrar is also likely cheaper than Shahed 238
Iran-Drone-Karrar.jpg

S8000 Banderol is more expensive simply to standards and complexity added being an aerial launch
s8000-banderol-missile-01.jpg

But i suspect S-71K and similar will be ultimately where Ghetto design ends up ,but milspec aerial weapon cost much more purely because it need to be made to much higher standards. You can't have ghetto causing issues to an expensive aerial plaform that carries it.
2026-06-02_21h13_37.png

Note how many of these gheto cruise missiles are relatively low speed designs , has more to do with engines than anything else
 
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Mr.T said:
What ?

So either there is indiscriminate killing of civilians like what Israel does , then upps the game with double triple tap strikes preferably on to kill anyone trying to help

or there is not ,

You are literary comparing apples to oranges , front line combat vs air raids.
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Mr.T said:
When it comes to air raids on Ukraine they have extremely low civilian casualty count compared to Israeli or US air raids .
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Gaza and Grozny are approximately the same size, so the comparison is fair, both are frontline. Kyiv is hundreds of km from the front.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grozny

Additionally, Gaza happened in response to an attack on Israel. Ukraine did not attack Russia, it was the other way round. And Grozny happened because Putin blew up some apartments in Moscow in 1999 and blamed in on the Chechens, who had no reason to do it in 1999 already having independence at that point.
Mr.T said:
*Ukraine like most of former east block has shelters and subways for large numbers of people. Soviet cold war legarcy ,nothing Ukraine built recently. Old building codes required shelters so you even got a permit to build.


That is how Falujja,Mosul ,Raqqa looked after US 'liberated' them (irony Trump hosted head of AQ and ISIS in WH, so folks whom these cities were liberated from ) ,no different than how cities being fought over end up in Ukraine.
US and Israel use cluster bombs and white phosphorus all the time in ME.

View attachment 814294
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3 cities vs every area Russia has rolled through across frontline several hundred km across, plus cluster warheads on cities.

Anyway, enjoy your economic forum.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2062086377815040429
View: https://x.com/United24media/status/2062086377815040429?s=20
 
Guys, cut the politics. It is not that kind of forum. You troll the comments section of literally any news publication to have these kind of arguments.
 
As some shower themselves with good news, bad news is also sometimes needed.
The answer I will receive here will more than likely be a no, does Ukraine have a UAV site like lostarmour that has "recordings" attached?
Here is how much these drones have been used.

Lancet: 4,796 recorded strikes.
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FPV drones: 52,176 recorded strikes.
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Rubicon: 31,234 recorded strikes.
1780801241866.png

Limits of long-range drone use is the communication distance between the UAV and UAV operator which will get resolved for them later.

Most of their long-range drone products.
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At the end of the day, lostarmour lancet recordings keep going up, I do wish Ukraine had a similar website so we could compare UAV results. No sarcasm I do like all the fancy new UAV projects and promises they are to fulfill, but I like to see hardline evidence that they are as good as they claim to be.

Edit: There are indeed a lot of 100km+ UAV projects for Europe, Russia, Ukraine and the US but the battlefield dictates more of a lesser range like 20kms which still can target logistics in a war.
https://twitter.com/x/status/2063395037606822164
 
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The iranian navy deployed a previously unseen jet powered version of the omid drone,the shahid dana,in the anti-shipping role along with ghadir ashcms in the sea of oman on the 5th of june.
7369d24cZjozNTE3MjM3LmpwZ3xmdWk6ODM5OTN8bDplbnx2OjE.jpg

%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%87%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81_%D8%B9%D9%86_%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9_%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A9_%D8%A8%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA_%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-780x470.jpg
 
It would appear that attempts by the Russians to fool Ukrainian drones with zebra-stripe dazzle camouflage not only doesn't work on AI-controlled drones they may as well paint giant bullseyes on their trucks, from Wes O'Donnell:


Russia is painting military trucks in bold black-and-white zebra stripes to fool Ukrainian AI targeting systems. The idea traces back to WWI dazzle camouflage, a real concept with a real history. The problem is that dazzle was designed to confuse a human periscope operator calculating torpedo geometry, not a machine-vision model trained on tens of thousands of truck images.​
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In this video: why the torpedo problem and the object-recognition problem are completely different problems, the four narrow circumstances where the paint might actually do something useful, and the brutal irony that makes this backfire; the moment Ukraine gets a few images of zebra trucks, the AI doesn't get confused. It learns a new rule: zebra equals target.​
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Sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...nbkSV3S_vHmDxQ/edit?usp=sharing&v=AzWlrsrnqU0
#Ukraine #UkraineWar #History #Russia #AIWarfare #Military #DazzleCamo #DroneWarfare #FPVDrone #MachineLearning #Camouflage
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I definitely am not assuming a pro Ukraine channel has all the answers. But I also suspect reprogramming target algorithms to engage zebra print is not especially difficult.
 

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