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US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

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Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#281

Post by dataviz1000 »

apparent wrote: post #278
dataviz1000 wrote: post #26

There are ~350,000,000 of us. When I read we spent $1B, I think about how I'm responsible for $3 of that. It doesn't matter considering the ~$117,550 of the national debt I'm responsible for. It palls compared to the $3,000 a year in interest towards the national debt I'm responsible for. What boggles my mind is that I make coffee at home because I'm frugal. I guess it is good the government and DoD are seeking cheap…

> There are ~350,000,000 of us. When I read we spent $1B, I think about how I'm responsible for $3 of that. Less than half are net income tax payers, IIRC. So if you pay income tax, you're actually on the hook for more $6, on average.

Another way to look at it; I'll be long gone when a child born today will be paying it. Why do you think I'm concerned about a child who I will never meet getting stuck with debt I voted to accrue?

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#282

Post by tehjoker »

peyton wrote: post #47
tehjoker wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand how any of this contributes to "defense". Sounds like "offense" to me. Just patrolling the skies over non-white countries and launching missiles at weddings. The reason the Pentagon invests so heavily in this kind of technology is our wars are so indefensible, they can't convince Americans to sacrifice blood in any quantity for other people's natural resources.

They are white [1]. [1]: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21211671-1997-revisi...

Drones fly over Gaza all the time, scaring the shit out of people and sometimes murdering them senselessly. They have done this over many countries.

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#283

Post by 4a443da9 »

yonaguska wrote: post #43
cm2012 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why Ukraine is making equivalent tech now for 1/10th the price. It's great to see.

All the drone footage is actually pretty horrific to see.

Actually nothing cheers me up more than seeing Russians being hunted down and killed by drones. Fuck them.

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#285

Post by scottyah »

mrtksn wrote: post #28

I’m no military expert by any means but US appears to be obsessed with destroying some super important target to win, like they did with killing Iran leaders only to find out that new leader replace the perished. The same with the other stuff, they have super important radar and super important ships that need to be defended and a failure creates irreplaceable loses. Iran on the other hand, just like with their super…

Wow your take is that we need to just start mass killing off large swaths of "unimportant" people? This is wild. It's also been done before in Hanoi, and made a lot of people quite angry (and the others dead).

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#286

Post by victorbjorklund »

scottyah wrote: post #200
pjc50 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

cf the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48845442 ; Ukraine has a hugely inventive and effective drone industry because it has to work . If it doesn't succeed, there is no Ukraine, and everyone involved in making the drones is dead, fled, in a POW camp, or sucked into the internal Russian displacement system away from their family. By comparison, if the US products fail, there's no real negative effe…

They can pop out defects and if things go wrong and there's friendly fire or civilian loss, it's chalked up to scrappy efforts in war. The USA does not get the same amount of leeway, saving our people is a top priority and the media harps on any mistake.

And it makes sense. If the choice is between getting killed by the enemy and loosing the war or risking that one in 10 000 launches results in friendly fire it might be worth it but it would not be for a country not fighting a war for survival.

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#287

Post by platevoltage »

CMay wrote: post #233
5upplied_demand wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I read we spent $1B, I think about how I'm responsible for $3 of that. I like to think about how providing 4-week paid parental leave would cost $2 billion annually and actually help US families. Meanwhile we have spent over $100 billion on this war.

[flagged]

There were WMDs in Iraq too right?

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#288

Post by padjo »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #232
padjo wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you imagine is going to invade the USA?

Personally? China. Is it rational, IDK. It's just the largest more capable power at this moment. (particularly their industrial base and ability to out produce weapons / soldiers)

It's not rational. China has even less interest in invading the USA than the USA has in invading China. And I think the USA's interest is effectively zero.

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#289

Post by mizzao »

pjc50 wrote: post #10
freedomben wrote: post #2

I worked on the control systems for Predators and Reapers back in the mid and late 00s, and the inefficiencies around process were enormous. Safety is extremely important, so you expect some slowness as a result, but it got pretty extreme. I remember one time having to do 6 weeks of testing around a one-line code change because a "helpful" dev fixed a small bug that had no practical impact. Yet because it changed the…

cf the other thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48845442 ; Ukraine has a hugely inventive and effective drone industry because it has to work . If it doesn't succeed, there is no Ukraine, and everyone involved in making the drones is dead, fled, in a POW camp, or sucked into the internal Russian displacement system away from their family. By comparison, if the US products fail, there's no real negative effe…

Not sure if you're alluding to this but it's analogous to the same differences between startups and big tech companies.

Startups = have few resources, product has to work or company dies

Big tech = minimal cost of failure, instead minimizing risk

And yet this mechanic is also why startups are able to innovate and bring new products to market so much faster.

Re: US seeks cheaper hunter-killer drones after Iran destroys $1B worth of Reapers

#290

Post by CMay »

5upplied_demand wrote: post #247
CMay wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> the possible events that could lead to World War 3. Iran is directly connected to all of that. If any event has pushed us closer to WW3 it is the US's decision to preemptively attack Iran. > Seems like money well spent. Based on what outcome? The regime is still intact, if not stronger. They are likely more resolute in wanting a nuclear weapon, as we almost certainly wouldn't have attacked them if they had one. The…

[flagged]
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