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French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

politico.eu

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Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#91

Post by frozencell »

Twirrim wrote: post #15
bell-cot wrote: post #2

> Since the war in Ukraine started, the French government has urged companies to produce more weapons, faster and cheaper. > However, the reality is complicated. > "It's an ongoing process. Up until now, we were producing around 10 radars a year, now the target is over 20 a year,” Descourvieres said. If there was an actual war on, and a nation was taking both combat and operational losses - then 10 or 20 per year har…

Unsurprisingly enough, complicated technology requires complicated manufacturing capabilities and finite time to create, QA etc. These radar systems are many orders of magnitude more complicated than anything manufactured during WW2. It's not something easily scaled up.

Care to explain the components that take longer to manufacturate? Are there similar products manufactured in the US or Asia at higher scale

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#92

Post by plussed_reader »

AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #42

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…

Wouldn't the method of detection be a trade item to obfuscate until it's reverse engineered?

Seems like you're asking them to give up the farm for some PR.

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#94

Post by maxerickson »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #84
maxerickson wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My initial comment was mostly a remark on approaching it as a new problem and suggesting small arms, not a statement that I thought the existing system was optimized for all situations.

Look at the effective range of those things.

Compared to an M16 or what?

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#95

Post by rasz »

lm28469 wrote: post #45
AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #42

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

>Thales doesn't fuck around

Thales fucking around:

https://english.nv.ua/business/total-isolation-of-russia/mil...

https://www.barrons.com/news/france-s-thales-accused-of-sell...

https://stopwapenhandel.org/killed-by-thales-military-techno...

https://strikesource.com/2023/10/18/french-connections-how-f...

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#96

Post by Log_out_ »

AYBABTME wrote: post #62
lm28469 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I wouldn't be surprised if the drones they can detect are the larger fixed wings long range ones and not the FPV types. FPV drones, aside from EW and directed energy weapons, don't have any counter at the tactical scale (although fielding shotguns might help). Any counter will need to be infantry section/platoon scale to be effective, or at a minimum company level weapon system. The range of the AA countermeasure for…

Helmet trophy like systems with shotgun cartridges?

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#98

Post by TrackerFF »

lr1970 wrote: post #89
TrackerFF wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Small drones can be detected. I'm not gonna go into the specifics, but Orlan sized drones with 3m wingspan can be detected from hundreds of km. Smaller sized commercial drones, which are 1/10th of that size, can also be detected pretty well. 2) No mater how small these drones are, they are dependent on some nav and coms system. Even autonomous "fire-and-forget" drones need a somewhat robust GPS link for navigation…

> Even autonomous "fire-and-forget" drones need a somewhat robust GPS link for navigation. GPS is a satellite "broadcast" that GPS receivers listen to. GPS receivers are "passive" in a sense that they do not transmit any signals at all.

Admittedly I do not know much about drones, but the point was just that any telemetry that goes out of the drone, is relatively easy to pick up - and is how the military track drones.

At least today the vast, vast majority of combat drones are operated - and the video feed is one of the first things that get picked up from them.

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#99

Post by CatWChainsaw »

ed_mercer wrote: post #64

> Security is tight: An officer checks phones and pictures taken by visitors before they leave to make sure no industrial secrets are taken out of the facility. What a joke. What if have cloud backup? This level of half-assed checking gives me great doubt about their competency. The only way to prevent leakage is to have people leave their stuff at the entrance and go through a metal detector.

And in 20 years brain chips will mean anything anyone so much as glimpses is as good as public.

Re: French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar

#100

Post by ptero »

nradov wrote: post #80
ptero wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No small group has the resources to launch large groups of drones with a 1000km range. Those tend to cost >$100K per unit, and require significant support infrastructure.

That was true 10 years ago, but is no longer true today. All components, including body, motor and electronics are a few thousand dollars and a garage-sized machine shop is very capable.

The limiting factor is the skill to put it together, but recent action in Africa and Ukraine means the number of people who can integrate those components is rapidly growing.

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