Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 193 posts

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#171

Post by eee_honda »

rm999 wrote: post #3

Non-WSJ link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/14/saudi-arabia-is-shutting-dow...

Wow, CNBC is really going all out to propagandize here. No mention of Saudi led war on Yemen, which would obviously motivate the Houthi's to attack Aramco (the Houthi's quoted in the article even make reference to the "aggression" of the Saudi Monarchy against Yemenis).

Instead, they jump right to Mike Pompeo (on Twitter, no less) denouncing Iran and concluding that there's "no evidence" the Houthis are responsible.... ridiculous.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#172

Post by bogomipz »

salmon30salmon wrote: post #43
RocketSyntax wrote: post #20

Has there, will there ever be peace in the middle east? feels wrong to say middle east... arab world... don't want to box them in by religion either.

Just to educate, “Arab” isn’t a religion, it is an ethnic group. A majority of Arabs are Muslims, which is the religious designation. The Middle East is no more warlike than the west. Remember is only been a couple generations since World War 2, and sectarian violence has been around within the last two decades in the west.

"Arab World" is perfectly acceptable. It's understood to mean the 22 Arabic-speaking states from the Maghreb, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East.[1] See also the Arab League which represents the Arab World.

[1] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/arab-countries/

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#173

Post by jvanderbot »

badfutureahead wrote: post #127
jvanderbot wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"fly towards" doesn't scale too well with the huge speed difference. Your intercept cone is super narrow when jets travel 10x your quads speed. Then factor in altitude and this approach only works near airports, where defense is arguably easiest. where this works really, really well is with boats. Iran did this with 15m RHIBs. I work on these problems directly. Its scarey but mostly because we're not thinking about i…

With FlightRadar24 historical data you already know exactly where regular flights will be, so you just wait there. The only thing left is that the pilot will try to dodge you, but then you have automatic drone control versus human (with low visibility). I agree with you that this is a high touch attack, a kind of "drone 9/11", versus other low hanging fruits like dropping drones on peoples head.

Drones have 10 to 30 minute loiter time, and they don't reach 10k feet. You're overestimating the ability of small craft to detect, track, and even reach the operational area of large passenger jets. These things are moving at hundred or more meters per second vs a drones ... 15? By the time a vision system had enough pixels on target to detect, it would have seconds to move into position in front of it. And how exactly is it supposed to know the jets velocity and heading?

Let alone it must hit the inside of the engine to do more than become a scratch on the paint.

Still, takeoff and landing maybe ... But still this kind of visual detection, tracking, and maneuvering is harder than you think.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#174

Post by jillesvangurp »

lazide wrote: post #72
weberc2 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t the Saudis likewise shut off Iran’s oil any time they want?

They already are, through US sanctions.

Exactly. Iran has nothing to lose economically by going after Saudi oil. Before the sanctions against Iran, the status quo was OPEC as a vehicle to divide up the dollars. Everybody in the region profited from that arrangement.

Now that the sanctions are in place that former arrangement no longer keeps the peace. Iran wants in on the action and if they can't have it, they'll go after the Saudi's. They've been putting their ability to do so on display with not so subtle actions.

The US has two options here: 1) go to war with Iran. 2) find a way through diplomatic channels to make this go away. It looks like Bolton (aka. option #1) is out and Rouhani is meeting with Trump to discuss option #2.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#175

Post by snovv_crash »

yyyk wrote: post #136
droithomme wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely absurd claim. It's not expensive at all. Iran may or may not be providing technological assistance, but US amateur enthusiasts and mom and pop chinese resellers definitely are. No Iranian conspiracy here or needed. Drones are not magic genies unavailable to all but the elite. Drones, including these fixed wing models, are kid tech these days, including drones with 1000 mile ranges that can carry bombs that…

BS. Even if you magically had a 1000 mile drone (extremely unlikely even for US 'amateurs', much less wartorn Yemen), it can't do anything without guidance, which they can't provide. Everybody, but Everybody, knows Iran is responsible for this.

Guidance is easy. Throw on Ardupilot with a preprogrammed mission onto an EPP wing. 100km of range with 2kg payload is possible for under $1000.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#176

Post by snovv_crash »

SergeAx wrote: post #130

Commercially available drones are easily detectable ("a week project", as said before) and very fragile. I believe automatic anti-drone systems are now months from being deployed worldwide. It is not even necessary to be very powerful: something like airsoft gun gonna be enough.

For multirotor, sure. Fixed wing is more robust though.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#177

Post by fit2rule »

eee_honda wrote: post #171
rm999 wrote: post #3

Non-WSJ link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/14/saudi-arabia-is-shutting-dow...

Wow, CNBC is really going all out to propagandize here. No mention of Saudi led war on Yemen, which would obviously motivate the Houthi's to attack Aramco (the Houthi's quoted in the article even make reference to the "aggression" of the Saudi Monarchy against Yemenis). Instead, they jump right to Mike Pompeo (on Twitter, no less) denouncing Iran and concluding that there's "no evidence" the Houthis are responsible..…

I'm really expecting the 'no evidence' line to come back and bite Pompeo in the ass. I hope someone has the balls to ask him "where's the evidence Iran is behind the attacks - and real evidence this time, not fake national-secrecy bullshit".

I won't hold my breath though. I know that America is in the grips of war profiteers who will stop at nothing to get yet another heinous, evil, illegal war started for their profits.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#178

Post by fit2rule »

anigbrowl wrote: post #102
aazaa wrote: post #9

An unusual (and worrying) part about this incident is how drones are being used, not with an explicit military goal in mind, but rather for the purpose of economic strangulation. Like terrorist operatives, drones are relatively cheap and expendible. But unlike terrorism, which seeks to grind away at the enemy's resolve, this kind of attack attempts to deprive an enemy of the money needed to fund its operations. Like…

That is absolutely a military goal, and a far worthier one than terrorist attacks against civilians . One might note that Saudi Arabia has been economically strangling people in Yemen by basically shutting down the ports and restricting the distribution of food and medicine and knowingly inflicting a horrific famine (PBS Newshour has had especially detailed coverage of this conflict and this is one of the few context…

It should be recognised that the USA and its Coalition partners have been supporting Saudi efforts to strangle/starve the Yemeni people.

We are on the wrong side this time, folks.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#179

Post by fit2rule »

yyyk wrote: post #136
droithomme wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely absurd claim. It's not expensive at all. Iran may or may not be providing technological assistance, but US amateur enthusiasts and mom and pop chinese resellers definitely are. No Iranian conspiracy here or needed. Drones are not magic genies unavailable to all but the elite. Drones, including these fixed wing models, are kid tech these days, including drones with 1000 mile ranges that can carry bombs that…

BS. Even if you magically had a 1000 mile drone (extremely unlikely even for US 'amateurs', much less wartorn Yemen), it can't do anything without guidance, which they can't provide. Everybody, but Everybody, knows Iran is responsible for this.

Evidence: Provide some, or quit it with your BS war-mongering against Iran.

Re: Saudi Arabia Shuts Down About Half Its Oil Output After Drone Strikes

#180

Post by fit2rule »

rhegart wrote: post #42
tdhz77 wrote: post #2

The use of drones in this way by rebels makes me rethink the media image of a rebel. They are educated, lawyers, doctors, engineers.

Iran funds this. The advanced rockets by Hamas, the drones by the Houthi. Proxy war like usual. They are using Yemen for themselves uncaring of lives, we are killing so many innocent in Yemen. Life’s complicated but after the Iran deal, funding these groups by Iran increased significantly, and so did our subsequent killing of innocents.

Evidence. Got some?
Post reply on HN