We often hear about "secret" aircraft, chosen to be secret by the govt to not disclose capabilities to potential enemies. However this is clearly disclosing capabilities. Is it just because it's a private company, wouldn't part of their contract with the govt. to keep their new weapons a secret?
Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
121–130 of 259 posts
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, but why hasn't there been a WW3 yet?
We’re currently at the start of WW3, as NATO vs BRICS escalates. The waste of the US military in Iraq, the defeat in Afghanistan, the failures of domestic spying and PSYOPs dividing the nation, and the failed war in Ukraine has precipitated a state of weakness where rival countries are jockeying for position in both the Middle East and SE Asia. China is openly waging irregular warfare against the US, killing 100,000+…
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Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
The US army has helped stop the russians from killing me and my friends in Ukraine. The russians launch missiles and drones at civilians, like me. Last October, I was sitting at my kitchen table, writing Haskell and working on my startup, when outside my kitchen window the local air defence successfully blasted a Shahed 136 out of the air. Both the missile trail and the cloud from the explosion hung in the air for se…
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Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to be pretty out of touch (or just dishonest) to think that russia’s war against Ukraine has anything to do with Naziism. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/02/pro-kremlin-ne...
Russia’s war in Ukraine is about NATO being on their doorstep and the failure of negotiated peace. That doesn’t change that the US trained and armed Banderites in Ukraine.
To be fair, in hindsight I can see why Russia felt threatened by NATO after Ukraine jumped from its lap feb 2014. But framing the Maidan events as some sort of US sponsored Nazi coup seems a bit of a tangent.
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#125Where is the UK/EU equivalent of Anduril? Seems this "neo-defense" revolution is a US only phenomenon.
Loads of stuff like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hornet_Nano
The defence industry in the EU is just is less ra-ra jingoism mixed with SV hype in comparison.
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#126I’ve been watching a bunch of these videos where they war game realistic and pretty far fetched battle scenarios https://youtube.com/@grimreapers?si=lvRNWBee9RfnkxBI . They’ll cover stuff like a Chinese carrier group vs a US carrier group using slightly futuristic weapons. What often decides the outcomes of battles are the accuracy of ships’ air defenses and how many missiles they have onboard. Shooting down superson…
I thought they were focusing more on lasers for carrier defense?
They who?
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#127It feels like someone copied this company verbatim out of a cyberpunk world and pasted it in our world. Everything is cyberpunk, down to the name, logo, design style and products. Unbelievably cool, but it also terrifies me.
It's a weird vibe to see a defense product like this marketed like a consumer product
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#128So the emergency services use-cases seem obvious and straightforward, but rare. Can't be that big of a market for that, at least for repeat customers. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'd figure that those emergency services organizations would buy 2-3 and keep one in the field and the balance in inventory. The armed HE variant, that one does not seem that straightforward to me because I don't quite see how this is b…
I think this is probably targeted at taking out Shahed style drones at low cost.
At low cost :D :D :D
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#129ATM the biggest problem for LRAD is cost, you fire a $12K Patriot missile to intercept what is either a $40 million jet or a $300 drone. This is revolutionary.
$12k Patriot missile? You are off a couple whole orders of magnitude.
Maybe it’s a Black Friday deal.
At that price, even I would buy one!
Re: Anduril announces Roadrunner, jet-powered VTOL drone
#130This is technically very impressive, but...
It performs the same job as a sam or aa gun, at a much increased price I would bet. And why is there a need to return to base? Then it needs to be refueled. You can also see when launched it sheds some covering, so returning to base does not mean it is operational again, it needs to be reset.
And that is in general the problem with US armament systems these days. Very impressive but way too expensive.