The rise of South Korea’s weapons business • Hacker News Board

Re: The rise of South Korea’s weapons business

#61

Post by laughing_man » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 10:20 AM UTC

epistasis wrote: post #23

dredmorbius wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afghanistan and Vietnam didn't beat their adversaries through advanced military technology, but by the shear capacity to absorb unholy amounts of damage and injury. Arguably Iran is in a similar position, though its Shahed drones and ballistic missiles did prove capable of reaching out and touching others within the theatre (1,000 -- 2,000 km range), and that these systems were resilient against attempts by its adver…

Iran did supply Russia with Shaheds long before the current US attack on Iran, so they were at the fore front of drone technology (though if I recall correctly the design had evolved through time over adoption from other countries, perhaps originating in Germany?) Which makes the US refusal to interact with, learn from, or adopt Ukrainian tech all the more frustrating. There are 13 US fighters that would likely still…

The Shahed is an almost identical copy of an American drone the Iranians managed to force down in Iran by spoofing its GPS. The American drone was, in turn, a product of mostly Israeli technology.

I don't know why anyone would think the US isn't paying attention in Ukraine. This is all classified stuff, and we won't know what the US government is doing behind the curtain for decades. I might add that Ukraine relies heavily on the US-built medium range Hornet drone.

Re: The rise of South Korea’s weapons business

#62

Post by laughing_man » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 10:27 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #11

jonnybgood wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s just Russia using Iranian drones, but that was already happening. This war with Iran is not really an endorsement of Iranian weapons. The US didn’t stop its offensive because of Iranian weapons. We already knew the effectiveness of one way attack drones just from looking at their employment in Ukraine. The US counter-UAV industry might start seeing some exponential growth. There’s a lot of lessons learned for th…

The Ukrainian counter-UAV industry is already seeing huge growth. The Gulf oil states attacked by Iran are buying.[1] Strong counter-UAV defense requires an entire integrated low-altitude air defense systems. The US systems the Gulf states have purchased are high-altitude oriented, useful against incoming aircraft and some missiles. They have long range radars, but not enough of them in the right places for finding l…

Volume is the real threat from drones. Any competent air defense system can shoot down a drone, which is much, much easier to shoot down than a conventional cruise missile, which is in turn much easier to shoot down than a ballistic missile. But you can't task interceptors that cost $200k to shoot down drones that cost $20k for very long. Even if they all hit, and they won't, you'll quickly exhaust your magazines.

In Ukraine both sides are choosing very carefully when and where to expend expensive interceptors, and I think as time goes by we're going to see a lot more passive defenses, i.e. sandbags and bunkers.

Re: The rise of South Korea’s weapons business

#63

Post by IAmBroom » Mon, Jun 22, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

laughing_man wrote: post #61

epistasis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran did supply Russia with Shaheds long before the current US attack on Iran, so they were at the fore front of drone technology (though if I recall correctly the design had evolved through time over adoption from other countries, perhaps originating in Germany?) Which makes the US refusal to interact with, learn from, or adopt Ukrainian tech all the more frustrating. There are 13 US fighters that would likely still…

The Shahed is an almost identical copy of an American drone the Iranians managed to force down in Iran by spoofing its GPS. The American drone was, in turn, a product of mostly Israeli technology. I don't know why anyone would think the US isn't paying attention in Ukraine. This is all classified stuff, and we won't know what the US government is doing behind the curtain for decades. I might add that Ukraine relies h…

Technically true, but IRL we have a government where legions of key people in every aspect have either been outright eliminated, or replaced with sycophants and wildly corrupt profiteers - on a scale the US hasn't seen, perhaps, ever. Teapot Dome and Boss Tweed still had a largely competent executive branch, and an engaged legislature.

POTUS is widely considered to be in the pocket of, or under leverage of, Putin; other decisions are dictated by his unhinged, flighty, and purely emotional reactions.

The USAF is rife with Evangelist Christian bias, a problem that precedes the Orange Idiot. To restate: the branch of the military that should be benefitting the most from the tide change in aerial warfare is obsessed with public displays of religious conformity instead.

Ideally there are swift, barely detectable undercurrents of change upgrading our military focus by the elite powers atop the power structure, but in practice we have armed soldiers guarding a paint job on a public water pool.

Edit: Interestingly, ITT the Shahed has been claimed to be based on US tech, a basis for US Tech, based on German tech, and completely outdated.