Why doesn't the US Army deploy personal killer drones to do battle? The Ukrainian rednecks can do it with off the shelf drones on the cheap. Is it because Lockheed hasn't figured a way to make trillions on the idea yet?

submitted by IkeConn from self.AskSaidIt

all 9 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]Musky 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

Relevant article: Every. Single. Drone. Fighting In Russia's War Against Ukraine

I didn't price them all but the cheapest I saw was the Chinese made Autel Robotics EVO 2 Pro for $2500. It can basically spy or drop a couple grenades. Still seems simpler and cheaper to just shoot a guy if you can rather than have these issued to every soldier to drop grenades on the enemy.

The more capable drones cost 10s of thousands or even millions. It's not just the cheapy ones being used.

I guess why we don't use drones like Ukraine does is that Ukraine didn't have to pay for the ones they use, and that our tactical requirements so far haven't necessitated or even perhaps provided a clear advantage to using the cheap drones in lieu of existing capabilities. And we already do use the pricey ones.

I am sure we will see more adoption in the future. Ukraine is a testing bed for US arms. Pentagon generals are probably ecstatic they get to test weapon systems out on Russia finally without having to risk world war. We'll learn from what the Ukranians paid for in blood and adopt and evolve a future strategy from that.

[–]IkeConn[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Soldiers cost a shit load of money to outfit and train. Even more if they are injured or killed. A $10,000 drone is still cheaper than a human and many times they can be fixed.

[–]Zapped 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Just think about some of the systems we're not being told about, whether used in Ukraine or not. The tactics the U.S. would use were not working with Ukraine because of the entire information network (as well as supply lines) that is not available to Ukraine. And, some of the drones the U.S. has that are not advertised would seem like alien spacecraft to most people.

[–]jet199 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The thing is Hamas was using aerial drones to drop bombs when they did their viking raid so I wonder if the opposite is true and they are the cheap option. Maybe the reason the west isn't using them (that we know of) is they are quite easy to take out once you know you need to look for them and so only work in the short term.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/videos/news/hamas-takes-cue-from-ukraine-war-blows-up-israeli-tank-with-drone-dropped-munition-watch-101696704955648.html

Of course I could be wrong and Hamas could have had a billion doller arms shipment from someone they are covering up.

[–]Musky 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Drones are effective against tanks because tanks are typically more lightly armored on top, and you also have the advantage of not requiring line of sight as you would for a soldier firing a RPG so there's better survivability.

Not sure when the last time the US had to go up against tanks of any significance.

[–]jet199 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

The last fatty riot

[–]TheMaharishi 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

If terrorism was real and not just a spy agency tool. There would be a drone attack on the white house every week.

[–]jet199 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

American doesn't have the same issue with terrorism as Europe and Asia as they integrate everyone to be proud of being an American citizen rather than saying it's best for people to keep completely different cultures and identities in the same country.

[–]Site_rly_sux 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

You are describing the US "switchblade".

When the war started, the US special ops were using the model 3 and just switching to the 4.

America sent the model 3 to Ukraine and received a bunch of data in return. Now they're on the model 6.

https://www.avinc.com/lms/switchblade-600

What you are describing, is absolutely happening.

Besides Ukraine, no army has learned as much from the war as USA (and I include russia). Poland in second place.

The war has totally overhauled American military thinking.

The marines totally ditched their tanks and went all in on himars-style launchers, for example. That's a huge overhaul