61–70 of 306 posts
This is just a few dollars worth of copper and explosives. Attach it to a few tens of dollars worth of drone. (The cheapest drones are under 10 dollars now). A country could release 1000 of these and direct them at any military target, and they'll do massive amounts of damage at very low costs. Most anti-drone defences can be defeated simply with a redesign of the drone (eg. Use UWB for Comms, and have dual gyros and…
And you have just described the AeroEnvironment Switchblade 600 drone. According to Drive they haven't actually been deployed in Ukraine yet but they are on the list apparently. The smaller 300 has been deployed apparently but it doesn't carry a shaped charge, instead it carries an antipersonnel charge. More of a flying hand grenade kind of deal.
"I designed this, for, well, filling by the user. It means it can travel on airplanes and such" Presenter: "DIY shaped charges, of course " "Mmm yes" I get that he likely meant it can be shipped on airplanes and local explosives used for easier logistics, but it's amusing to hear an explosive munitions expert brag about designing something so it can be carried on airplanes. "This box, I'm pleased to tell you, is full…
This is just a few dollars worth of copper and explosives. Attach it to a few tens of dollars worth of drone. (The cheapest drones are under 10 dollars now). A country could release 1000 of these and direct them at any military target, and they'll do massive amounts of damage at very low costs. Most anti-drone defences can be defeated simply with a redesign of the drone (eg. Use UWB for Comms, and have dual gyros and…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a vid I found that seems to show a simulation of the effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVVGk2OfQQ
Great find @ 0:40. The only thing it doesn't convey very well is the older man's explanation of the copper spear curling outward on itself. From the simulation, it seems like it is just punching through and maintaining its rigidity somehow.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you have just described the AeroEnvironment Switchblade 600 drone. According to Drive they haven't actually been deployed in Ukraine yet but they are on the list apparently. The smaller 300 has been deployed apparently but it doesn't carry a shaped charge, instead it carries an antipersonnel charge. More of a flying hand grenade kind of deal.
It's all fun and games until you realize your country has no deniability about being at war with Russia.
Providing weapons has been a US-Soviet past time for the whole Cold War.
In this case, I think the US could have even moved in troops without being at war, early in the invasion. It just needs a pretext. By far the best response a week in, when Russia claimed chemical weapons, Nazis, etc., would have been to send in a multilateral force to investigate Russia's claims. It's face-saving for the Russians and ends the war.
Tensions are too high for that now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
1kg is similar to smaller warheads in the AT4 anti-tank weapon. But AT4 is not reliable, only 400mm of penetration and tanks can have 500mm or 600mm of armor. (Or really, equivalent to 500+mm once special materials or geometry is factored in). To reliably kill a main battle tank requires a larger munition. Javelin is a 8kg warhead IIRC. This is because Javelin is tandem: two warheads. First warhead destroys reactive…
You ignore that AT4 is fired at the main armor, while drone dropped munitions hit the top armor that is just a few centimeters. The impact point makes all the difference.
I think NLAW is ~500mm of penetration and top-down. Its not too hard to make a top-down weapon these days, but it does add weight to the device.
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EDIT: I'm pretty sure that you can't just "drop" a mortar or AT4 warhead reliably either. You'd want to make it into the shape of... well... a bomb. So that the "shape" of the shape-charge points in the correct direction.
Question: Is there a way to play with these things at home? Any pointers to DIY stuff?
I'm not sure I fully understood the explanation. So the copper cone is turned inside out and turns into a pointed wire that drives into the target? How is it that this wire can continue through the 1ft of steel? Is the force of the explosion flowing through this wire/tube, like liquid in a straw? And somehow it can sustain this through 1ft of steel?
Sorry to answer my own post, but I watched it again and picked up on the key idea at 2:09. The inverted apex of the cone drives into the steel, pushing the steel aside, but then the apex opens up and flows back along the outside of itself. In other words, any given part of this copper "wire" interacts with the steel only long enough to push it open, then it is replaced by new copper. From this explanation, it sounds…
Of course the shaped charge isn't a gun though and the stream of copper doesn't travel for hundreds of meters/yards. If you need to stand off from the target you'd want to mount it as the payload of a rocket and fire towards thine enemies.
EDIT: this is of course a better description:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/bu...
So the rod is traveling so fast that it and the target act like liquids, even though it isn't molten.