Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany (currently) isn't even in the top 5 for military drone manufacturing. The ranking of number of military drones produced per year goes Ukraine (millions), China (millions), Russia (hundreds of thousands), Iran (hundreds of thousands), then the US (tens of thousands), followed by Turkey and Israel (mid-thousands). German manufacturing is in the low thousands per year. This is a major national security issue, Ge…
Attack Germany, see what happens.
Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world
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Re: Germany has become the largest ammunition producer in the world
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's going to be both, and it's because of physics. At this moment, the best way to put kinetic energy into an enemy is sticking some quantity of explosive on them. You have a few ways of going about this. Two we consider today: 1) a chemical charge launches a block of explosive ballistically at a closing range of mach 2-5, 2) a complex assembly of plastic/rare earths/silicon/PCBAs flies over to the enemy at somewher…
But artillery only has a short range, less than 50-60km. Ukraina is bombing trucks with FPV drones at that range now. So you'd need serious anti-drone capabilities to get the artillery close enough, and good luck if you have it sitting around deployed for any lenghth of time.
Unless the target is low risk/value, or on the move AND low value, or (most likely) you have truly bananas amount of drone magazine to burn through. Laser mesh networks I think are also being tried, but again, that's a bunch of drones.
Another downside of fiber is the same downside as laser sighting - there is an arrow painted on the ground back to your position. The fiber is no viz to your eyeball, but not to dynamic filters on your drone's EOIR. That will get back to counterbatteries or enemy fiber drone - and if their first arty shot is a guided arty (tube or rocket) you don't get the warning of ranging "framing" shots. The WW2 experience mindset couldn't be a worse metaphor here.