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Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

militarywatchmagazine.com

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Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#21

Post by sco1 »

jmyeet wrote: post #15

Whatever your opinions on the war itself, this has been a fascinating exercise in how a small regional power has militarily defeated the global hegemon relatively cheaply (ie with a military budgets 1% of the size). Oh and "precision strikes" in this article is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this article. That means "targeted assassinations" and has done ever since the Obama administration [1][2]. Now these Reapers…

> Whatever your opinions on the war itself, this has been a fascinating exercise in how a small regional power has militarily defeated the global hegemon relatively cheaply (ie with a military budgets 1% of the size).

It's honestly perplexing how major powers seem incapable of learning from history. Short of nukes, bombing a country into submission has never worked. Even now the Ukraine War is here just staring everyone in the face and yet the same mistakes are being made all over again?

Iran has been preparing for this for decades, and has apparently been paying attention to everything going on in the region. What has everyone else been doing? Is it just arrogance?

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#22

Post by daveguy »

jona-f wrote: post #19
daveguy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire reason we are in this war is the current administration's ineptitude. Anyone who voted for this president should be ashamed they fell for a con.

Here's my hot take. Bush, Clinton, Obama, were all liars. Trump is actually the most honest president I experienced. Partly cause he is so bad at lying, but also cause he wants people to like him. People knew what they were voting for, he did not hide his idiocy. We won't progress if we don't fix the mistakes that led to where we are. It's not just "Trump bad".

Dude straight up lied to everyone. Most blatantly corrupt incompetent fraud in US history. Just because he's narcissist enough to not care doesn't make it better. And yeah, lots of mistakes to fix that led to McConnell / Dumpty. Mainly erosions of separation of powers. At least the other presidents you mentioned tried to stick to what they campaigned on and didn't try to light fire to the government for personal gain.

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#23

Post by verdverm »

jst1fthsdys wrote: post #20
Telemakhos wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

General Atomics no longer manufactures the MQ-9A, because they've moved on to the MQ-9B; but the US Air Force has been looking into replacing the whole program with a cheaper model that wouldn't hurt so much to lose. This just accelerates the transition already underway from higher-cost, complex UAVs to more expendable models.

The military may want those cheaper models, but will the MIC give it to them?

Perhaps not the US MIC, but the UA MIC is more than happy to

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-a...

They also have their own take on the reaper, unable to find the link today, search has become atrociously bad (over averaged on the wrong words)

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#24

Post by bobchadwick »

jmyeet wrote: post #17
scanny wrote: post #9

It would be interesting to get a breakdown of what goes into something like the MQ-9, given they were introduced back in 2007 I wonder how difficult it would be to spin up a replacement using more COTS tech to lower the price and lead time for new builds. I presume a lot goes into the satellite comms system, dealing with jamming, and certifying anything that flies. In my complete ignorance I would presume a prop-driv…

This topic comes up a lot when it comes to rockets and airplanes and it's surprisingly difficult. For example, the F5 rocket is the most powerful rocket engine ever developed and that was 60+ years ago at this point. Up until Starship, the Saturn had remained the most powerful rocket ever built. This naturally leads to the question of "why didn't we just recreate it?" There are lots of reasons why. Material science h…

So you're saying it's the same reason Sony can't make a new cassette Walkman? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49025766

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#25

Post by wongarsu »

jona-f wrote: post #19
daveguy wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire reason we are in this war is the current administration's ineptitude. Anyone who voted for this president should be ashamed they fell for a con.

Here's my hot take. Bush, Clinton, Obama, were all liars. Trump is actually the most honest president I experienced. Partly cause he is so bad at lying, but also cause he wants people to like him. People knew what they were voting for, he did not hide his idiocy. We won't progress if we don't fix the mistakes that led to where we are. It's not just "Trump bad".

I'm not sure "honest" is the right word. Trump loves to lie and make stuff up. It's just usually blatantly obvious, while Trump is also seemingly unable to keep anything secret. Maybe "transparent" is the right word. Just not on purpose

Re: Eight Newly Produced MQ-9 Reaper Drones Destroyed in Iranian Strike

#26

Post by macartain »

sco1 wrote: post #21
jmyeet wrote: post #15

Whatever your opinions on the war itself, this has been a fascinating exercise in how a small regional power has militarily defeated the global hegemon relatively cheaply (ie with a military budgets 1% of the size). Oh and "precision strikes" in this article is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this article. That means "targeted assassinations" and has done ever since the Obama administration [1][2]. Now these Reapers…

> Whatever your opinions on the war itself, this has been a fascinating exercise in how a small regional power has militarily defeated the global hegemon relatively cheaply (ie with a military budgets 1% of the size). It's honestly perplexing how major powers seem incapable of learning from history. Short of nukes, bombing a country into submission has never worked. Even now the Ukraine War is here just staring every…

"It's honestly perplexing how major powers seem incapable of learning from history."

I think you mean it is perplexing how the leaders of certain major powers seem incapable of learning from history. It seems clear the relevant advice has been available. And yes, I also suspect arrogance but the list of problematic personality traits that apply to the current situation have been exhaustively detailed all over the place...

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