41–50 of 100 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect we're going to see a big resurgence in anti-aircraft guns, like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flakpanzer_Gepard .
Of all shapes and sizes. I can imagine a robot M16 attached to a drone spotter might be effective against the sort of small drones that are hitting tanks in Ukraine.
Plus, even if you detect it, it's coming towards you at a speed of 100+ kmph with the intent to crash into you and detonate the payload. Any missile you use is way too expensive relative to the price of the drone. So what to do?
I say this bec the drone footage coming out of Ukraine is shocking. I saw a video of a drone just following a soldier for 30 seconds while the soldier was trying to run away from it. The drone crashed into the soldier and exploded. That is absolutely black-mirror dystopian stuff.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Maginot line in France has become synonymous with a useless measure of defence providing a false sense of security though. It's a combination of several things. First military hardware is a lot more expensive. A ww2 tank was a big piece of iron with a diesel engine in it, a modern tank has a ton more tech, all produced in small series (imagine the cost of the iphone if only 1000 were manufactured a year). That's…
>The Maginot line in France has become synonymous with a useless measure of defence providing a false sense of security though. ... which has absolutely nothing to do with bell-cot's point in invoking it as a counterexample to France's current production ability.
From what I heard about the SMART-L [1] radar around 1990, it could spot reflective objects the size of tennis balls at a distance of about 100Km. I guess with modern electronics and DSP, a much smaller system must be able to detect drones with ease. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART-L
I read the article but couldn't find any mention of how a radar detects drones? A drone is much smaller than an aircraft, can be confused with birds and can have 0 communication with a command & control station due to AI. So how can anything detect it? Plus, even if you detect it, it's coming towards you at a speed of 100+ kmph with the intent to crash into you and detonate the payload. Any missile you use is way too…
If they're already being produced they do work for their intended purpose, Thales doesn't fuck around
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect we're going to see a big resurgence in anti-aircraft guns, like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flakpanzer_Gepard .
Of all shapes and sizes. I can imagine a robot M16 attached to a drone spotter might be effective against the sort of small drones that are hitting tanks in Ukraine.
I read the article but couldn't find any mention of how a radar detects drones? A drone is much smaller than an aircraft, can be confused with birds and can have 0 communication with a command & control station due to AI. So how can anything detect it? Plus, even if you detect it, it's coming towards you at a speed of 100+ kmph with the intent to crash into you and detonate the payload. Any missile you use is way too…
The other thing is those drones are mostly made of plastic, have no hot exhaust. Every time Ukraine is glad they shot a $50k drone with a $1m patriot missile I wonder where this war can possibly go.
I read the article but couldn't find any mention of how a radar detects drones? A drone is much smaller than an aircraft, can be confused with birds and can have 0 communication with a command & control station due to AI. So how can anything detect it? Plus, even if you detect it, it's coming towards you at a speed of 100+ kmph with the intent to crash into you and detonate the payload. Any missile you use is way too…
You're making a lot of wrong assumptions, drones can be any size, nobody's talking about missiles to shoot them down, not all drones are kamikaze, &c. If they're already being produced they do work for their intended purpose, Thales doesn't fuck around
Re shooting them down, if you can't shoot them down, whats the point of detecting them? And a drone being kamikaze only matters IF you can shoot them down. Because then it's a race between the drone rushing to kamikaze vs you shooting it down.
I will admit that I am just speculating here because I have a strange interest in militarized drones and little technical knowledge.
PS : Defending your position by saying that a company doesn't fuck around is not a very good argument.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If France were to be at war with a nation knocking on our borders, our policy nowadays is to fire a nuclear-tipped ASMPA missile as a warning shot . We do not rely on our conventional forces or anyone else to safeguard our sovereignty should it escalate to that. Our army and arms industry have suffered heavy cuts for thirty years after the end of the Cold War, prioritizing quality over quantity, but we've kept what w…
I suspect the doctrine of nuke as a warning shot is less effective today when a small group can launch, either for own purposes or as a proxy for another state, a large group of drones to strike with speed and precision the targets 1000+ km away. With that threat type nuking is not an option and we are back to traditional defense. My 2c.
Unlike any other country with nukes, we do have a last-chance warning shot option in our policy. An ASMPA missile from us means thus far and no further. It's fired from a Rafale fighter rather than a ballistic missile submarine, which means the order can be reversed at the last minute if needed and it hopefully carries the message across before the adversary's early warning systems light up like a Christmas tree with French ballistic missiles.
We do have a problem of scale with our conventional forces, which have been cut down to the bone and are stretched thin operating at capacity. Unlike the Germans, we're using our army to conduct expeditionary forces around the world and have little on hand to spare because we refuse to compromise too deeply on our long list of capabilities to fight wars and have a bad habit of not storing up enough.
It will take a long time to bulk back up, but Ukraine has been a wake-up call that is taken seriously by our policy makers.