Holien

Sounds like Perun is listening 
 

Children are always innocent. Simple.
Not their fault where they are born.
I strongly suggest you pause your posts on this topic.. 
I have deep respect for you and understand your pov but IMO it's not something for this thread.
I will PM you tomorrow.
 

Deleted, no need to feed more off topic matters 

Folk listen to Steve, let's keep this on track...
Please.

Children are always innocent. Simple.
Not their fault where they are born.
I strongly suggest you pause your posts on this topic.. 
I have deep respect for you and understand your pov but IMO it's not something for this thread.
I will PM you tomorrow.
 

I suggest it's not a good idea.
A targeted response against those responsible rather than creating any more terrorists by killing innocent people. 
Bombing people to the stone age has already escalated this to a level that was uncalled for..

I suggest it's not a good idea.
A targeted response against those responsible rather than creating any more terrorists by killing innocent people. 
Bombing people to the stone age has already escalated this to a level that was uncalled for..

You do realize that this is basically the same propaganda that Putin uses?
And that is the seed of how war crimes happen.

I suggest it's not a good idea.
A targeted response against those responsible rather than creating any more terrorists by killing innocent people. 
Bombing people to the stone age has already escalated this to a level that was uncalled for..

I suggest it's not a good idea.
A targeted response against those responsible rather than creating any more terrorists by killing innocent people. 
Bombing people to the stone age has already escalated this to a level that was uncalled for..

Drone wars - UKR FPV intercepts Russian recon drone similar to DJI Matrice-30
 

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-thanks-germany-new-patriot-system-critical-time-2024-04-13/
 
Germany will transfer a Patriot battery and additional missiles to Ukraine "immediately" (so, soonish).

IEA Warns Attacks on Russia Plants May Disrupt Diesel Market
The flurry of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s oil refineries risks disrupting global markets for petroleum products, the International Energy Agency said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-12/iea-warns-attacks-on-russia-refineries-may-disrupt-diesel-market
Really? We are deeply concerned. 
Alas, today's night UKR drones couldn't reach Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Rostov oblast - local authorities claimed four drones were shot down/supressed. One fell down on territory of refinery, but didn't cause any significant damage

It's became knowingly Russia used new missiles to hit Trypillia thermal power plant in Kyiv oblast two days ago. Recently it was considered were launched cruise misiiles Kh-101 type only, but now remains of Kh-69 were found. 
 

Kh-69 it's a deep modernization of "air-surface" Kh-59M missile, turned it into compact mid-range cruise missile similar to Storm Shadow. Kh-69 in first time was introduced in August 2022 and on Dubai Airshow in 2023. The missile has GLONASS/GPS guidance and DSMAC. GLONASS antennas unit "Kometa-M" is shielded in lower semi-sphere for better protection from EW systems.
Kh-69 has a range 290-400 km and carries 310 kh warhead (so at least 100-120 kg HE). Most bad feature for our AD is extreme low altitude flight profile. The missile can fly on 25-70 m which makes it too hard target for timely spotting by radars. Kh-69 developed for perspective Russian fighter Su-57, but probably Su-30/34/35 also may carry this missile.
It's known about three episodes of Kh-69 usage: Feb 7 2024, Feb 18 2024 (launch from Su-57, but missile hit the empty place in the field) and Apr 11 2024 (Trypillia thermal power plant was destroyed)    

Probable Kh-69 layout in Su-57 fighter

This. The war in Ukraine is getting people thinking about it but the first terrorist attack on a city conducted by heat seeking, pattern recognition driven autonomous drones is going to galvanize the entire West.

So just spitballing:
A platoon of M1A2 Sep V3 come in around $100M to just buy the platforms.  To this add logistical costs (fuels, parts and repair tail).  Force generation costs - training areas and exercises. Force projection costs (strat to op lift reqrs).  Pers costs - 16 crew, plus logistics, plus admin overhead.  And weird intangibles like route and bridge repair in training areas.
This all scales up very quickly.  A fully autonomous UAS swarm Bn may need a staff of 16 and a logistics tail but is not going to weigh roughly 300 tons that has to be transported and fueled.  Even at 1 million a pop, a hundred fully upgunned and militarized fully autonomous drones are starting to look pretty damned competitive against current “beyond-Night One” systems.

Saw this quote from Tim Snyder and thought it fitting to this discussion. It seems to me, Mike Johnson is looking ahead.

The more I think about this, the more I am wondering if it is tied to the potential missile attacks to be made on Israel and the potential for that region to get very messy very quickly.
That whole region is a tinder box and the Biden team are trying to keep a lid on it with no help from the extremists in control of Israel.
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68788110
Well the uckers were eventually going to get through...
I hope our friends in Ukraine are OK and at least summer is on the way...
Wind Turbines and Solar with extra Grid connections to Europe are I hope on the cards for you.

When EU parliament is doing better than the House of Representatives, I hope Speaker Johnson looked at the eclipse without protection. What a ridiculous mind boggling genuinely bad look for the Republican Party, Congress and the U.S. At this point, a pure Ukraine bill should be able to pass. The fact it cannot, despite a majority of republicans, democrats, a bipartisan majority in Congress, alongside a majority of the American people, due to one man, the speaker, and I suppose, one presidential candidate, how can any ally of the U.S have faith in us? I mean, let’s be blunt, support for Ukraine is bipartisan and popular and not a fringe position. The fact that despite this, we are unable to pass the bill will not reassure any American allies, nor our enemies, nor neutrals to trust us.

But here and good news. After despearted interview of UKR Foreign Affairs minister about "Patriots", something moved in Eurpore
 

Russians today's morning conducted next strike on Ukrainian power infrastructure and natural gas storages complex near Stryi city in L'viv oblast (Kinzhals were launched there)
As result of attacks Kharkiv again has a lack of electricity, several substations hit in Odesa, L'viv, Zaporizhzhia, Khasrkiv oblasts. Alas, thermal power plant in Trypillia, Kyiv oblast  - destroyed. 
Statsistic of today's attack:
20 Kh-101 cruise missiles - 17 intercepted
6 Kinzhals - no interceptions (at least 4 on L'viv oblast)
12 S-300 - no interceptions (all on Kharkiv oblast and Kharkiv city)
4 Kh-59 - 2 intercepted (all on Zaporizhzia oblast)
40 Shakheds - 37 intrcepted
Unkile 2022-2023 power infrastructure strike campaign, when Russians mostly attacked large substations and transformer sites on territories of power plants - direct strikes on generation objects where relatively rare, that now they concentrated on destroying exactly of generation capabilities and alas have success in this. Mainly using S-300, Kinzhals and Iskander-M missiles, which unreachable for our AD
Result of Russian attack in Trypillia - burning thermal power plant, which mainly generated the energy for southern part of Kyiv oblast and part of Cherkasy amd Zhytomyr oblasts. Reportedly Kh-101 strike, but other sources say that were Shakheds. By the way this thing hit and set on fire the turbines.
Meanwhile US officials: UKR strikes on Russian refineries may affect global energy situation. Ukraine should concentarte on military targets.
Russian energy infrastructure is a civilain target...
And wow - Republican senator asks her why UKR shouldn't strike on Russian infrastructure if Russia strikes on Ukrainian, but she continues own bla-bla-bla about "Ukraine claimed own high democracy standards and we concerning about strike on civilian infrastructure"
Not surprising
Dr. Wallander was President & CEO of U.S. Russia Foundation which promotes US investments in Russia.

 
Just some craziness from MAGA:
Ukraine wages a war against Christianity
 

EU parliament pulled a "Republican" and refused to pass the budget by the EU council until funding for 7 Patriot batteries is found.
512 to 62 votes.

Loving the drone party on the thread the past day, thanks for contributing everyone!
I noticed the IEEE blog also got in on the action. Don't think anyone posted it yet, so here we go: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ukraine-hackers-war
It takes a bit of patience to wade through the usual tech blog PR hype-fest, and there isn't a whole lot of new information for people who have been following this thread, but it does go into some more depth on the technologies being used in drone communications and EW, including mention of encrypted video and other topics we were discussing last week.
The "meta" of this war spilling out into tech blogs is interesting to me. It feels a bit different from previous wars I've lived through. Not because this is really the first "hackers war" (cyberwar has been a reality at least since Stuxnet), but because this time it's out in the open. Instead of shadowy figures employed by three letter agencies, it's soldiers in trenches who are hunching over laptops, which I think makes the conflict feel more personal to white collar folks who normally wouldn't see anything they identify with in pictures from the front lines.

This sort of narrative reminds me of WW1 generals who also thought the airplane was a fad.  First off Russian glide bombs need to carry so much HE because they are inefficient and imprecise.  A whole lot of HE is not necessarily a good thing.  For example, if I have 10 enemy in a build I can use a large 500lb HE munition to drop the building.  The energy it takes to get that heavy munition to that building is significant, costly and has a high ISR signature.  If I have 10 micro-drones with a .45 cal round that will not miss, that simply fly into the building and kill all 10 enemy, I am using far less energy and cost to deliver the same effect.  I am using precision and processing as an offset.
So the Russian AF lobbing large glide bombs is not a sign that “big booms are back baby!”  It is a sign that 1) Russian ISR is still fairly low res, 2) Russia does not have a lot of higher tech precise munitions and 3) we should really be worrying about air denial for Ukraine because if that fails then a whole lot of this is largely academic.
As to “someday soon C-UAS will make this all go away and we can go back to Grandpa’s war” - there is a lot of hand waving on “someday C-UAS”.  Yes, counters will be developed but they will likely reshape the battle space in doing so.  For example, let’s say we invent a nifty micro-smart missile or laser that can blast those pesky UAS out of the sky, even when they are in swarms.  “Huzzah!  Now that is over with, let’s roll out the tanks and do this Persian Gulf style…USA.USA!”
Well except for the part where we have operationalized a technology that can find and hit a flying target the size of a bird with a very small munition at crazy scales.  What do we suppose the impact of that technology is going to have on conventional ground units?  That level of ISR alone means nothing can move without being picked up for kms.  Individual infantry are screwed, vehicles may as well be battleships.  The changes such technology would bring would be f#cking profound.
So there is no going back after this with or without UAS.  Unmanned, plus ISR, plus processing power, plus miniaturization, plus cheap production are all conspiring against our entire current theories of warfare. They have been for decades while we tried to ignore them.  So we can do “hope and denial” or we can can see the shift for what it is and adapt.