chrisl

Drones should be very susceptible to EW, given that they need a two-way connection and are sending fairly high data volumes of video.  The FPVs don't need super high resolution, particularly if there are other overwatch drones in the area, but they still need better than NTSC and the overwatch drones are all HD.  Part of why Ukraine has been so successful with them is the Russia is so limited in their EW ability.  They probably can't produce enough interference in the drones to render them useless without taking out their own comms (bad as those comms might also be).  
The next generations of drones for dealing with more capable EW systems will likely see a lot more autonomy, and also narrow field of view communication back to the controller.  But autonomy will really be critical - get them into the right zone and let them loose.  Not something that would have been suitable for most of the conflicts the US has been involved in for the past 25-30 years, where armed targets are hidden in populated civilian areas and often indistinguishable, but reasonable for a conventional war with battle lines, uniforms, and identifiable military vehicles.

Drones should be very susceptible to EW, given that they need a two-way connection and are sending fairly high data volumes of video.  The FPVs don't need super high resolution, particularly if there are other overwatch drones in the area, but they still need better than NTSC and the overwatch drones are all HD.  Part of why Ukraine has been so successful with them is the Russia is so limited in their EW ability.  They probably can't produce enough interference in the drones to render them useless without taking out their own comms (bad as those comms might also be).  
The next generations of drones for dealing with more capable EW systems will likely see a lot more autonomy, and also narrow field of view communication back to the controller.  But autonomy will really be critical - get them into the right zone and let them loose.  Not something that would have been suitable for most of the conflicts the US has been involved in for the past 25-30 years, where armed targets are hidden in populated civilian areas and often indistinguishable, but reasonable for a conventional war with battle lines, uniforms, and identifiable military vehicles.

Drones should be very susceptible to EW, given that they need a two-way connection and are sending fairly high data volumes of video.  The FPVs don't need super high resolution, particularly if there are other overwatch drones in the area, but they still need better than NTSC and the overwatch drones are all HD.  Part of why Ukraine has been so successful with them is the Russia is so limited in their EW ability.  They probably can't produce enough interference in the drones to render them useless without taking out their own comms (bad as those comms might also be).  
The next generations of drones for dealing with more capable EW systems will likely see a lot more autonomy, and also narrow field of view communication back to the controller.  But autonomy will really be critical - get them into the right zone and let them loose.  Not something that would have been suitable for most of the conflicts the US has been involved in for the past 25-30 years, where armed targets are hidden in populated civilian areas and often indistinguishable, but reasonable for a conventional war with battle lines, uniforms, and identifiable military vehicles.

Possible?  Sure.  But it probably takes a lot of luck.  The radar signature of the drone will be really small, so that's not going to be that effective for a hit.  The TOR system also can use optical tracking/guiding, but unless you can keep the drone in the crosshairs it's probably going to be hard to get a direct hit.  Even if the missile has proximity triggers, they're probably not sensitive enough that a drone will set them off as the missile approaches.

Possible?  Sure.  But it probably takes a lot of luck.  The radar signature of the drone will be really small, so that's not going to be that effective for a hit.  The TOR system also can use optical tracking/guiding, but unless you can keep the drone in the crosshairs it's probably going to be hard to get a direct hit.  Even if the missile has proximity triggers, they're probably not sensitive enough that a drone will set them off as the missile approaches.

Possible?  Sure.  But it probably takes a lot of luck.  The radar signature of the drone will be really small, so that's not going to be that effective for a hit.  The TOR system also can use optical tracking/guiding, but unless you can keep the drone in the crosshairs it's probably going to be hard to get a direct hit.  Even if the missile has proximity triggers, they're probably not sensitive enough that a drone will set them off as the missile approaches.

But the video is a lie!  There's just a still.
I did find the video over on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingas****/comments/13zicbr/a_ukrainian_drone_operator_dodges_a_russian_tor2m/
 

Biden's just carrying on a tradition.

 
 
 

Yeah, those cracks are weird and they don't quite make sense.  
Concrete (at least well made concrete) is super strong in compression and weak in tension - that's why it has rebar in it.  The steel rebar is strong in tension and weak in compression.  Together they make well-made reinforced concrete extremely tough.  
Those cracks are weird because they're parallel to the load, long, and consistent from column to column.  And they may be deep.  My best guess is that they're from thermal expansion, and the rebar structures inside them were built by guys who even the FL condo industry wouldn't take.  They look like the internal rebar structures were made in halves that were supposed to be tied together with lengths of rebar that extend from each half into the other half and are tied to the opposing structure. Except they weren't tied.  And the lengths that are supposed to extend across may not extend across.  So when the concrete temperature cycles, it develops cracks on the part that's not reinforced. The way the cracks jump back and forth at close to right angles seems to support that - it may have been weakly tied and those are the lines along which the ties were weak or missing.
Also note that those two pics are different structures - one of them has the smaller base atop the square base and the other doesn't.  Especially weird is that the smaller base doesn't appear to show any cracking at all - the cracks coming down the pillars should have extended into that, at least a little, unless it's a completely separate pour and we can't see the lines because of the photo resolution.  It might also be my imagination that you can see separate pour sections in each of the columns (sometimes the cracks zig at what appear to be the boundaries) so there could be a lot of variation in the concrete quality.  I'd guess it's mostly not too terrible, since we don't see a lot of spalling or horizontal cracks around the circumference at the points where it looks like the different pours are.
In the one that doesn't have a smaller base across the square pier, there's a little line of discoloration that might be a sign of a crack partway between the columns, or it may be nothing, it's hard to tell from the resolution.  The bases generally look structurally separate, since the cracks didn't propagate into them.  That's probably not a good thing because it could be easy separation points.
All the cracks look relatively new, since we don't see a lot (or really any) of rust around them that would indicate corrosion from exposure of the rebar to the salt water.  There are non-corroding kinds of rebar, and coatings for steel rebar to keep it from corroding, but I would have expected them to cheap out on something that's invisible in the bridge.
eta: those vertical cracks aren't a new thing, and RU may have been adding things for years to try to mitigate them:
 

I have a weird sense about that western axis.  Most are writing it off because of the river crossing requirement but there are a lot of pluses for doing the big shove here
- Russian force strength are weakest in this area because they also think the river will make it too hard
- Right flank is the Black Sea as opposed to double flanks just about everywhere else.
- Bottle up the RA in Crimea and then push left towards Melitopol makes a lot of sense.
- several MSR options that could support at least 3 axis of advance
If the UA could get across that river in several locations and sustain it, they could crash in on that front, and then do a push down from the north in the center simultaneously it would likely paralyze the RA.  

I never knew that! Probably within blocks of where I lived 88-90.  I've met a bunch of people who lived within about 3 blocks of where I lived at the same time I was there, but only met them after we'd all left.  I still stop in Somerville when I'm out there for work and want to wait for traffic to ease up.

Good guess.
I was thinking we should see if we can concocted a scenario that combines as many of the tropes as we can:
I think he will meet Putin for poison tea on the 10th floor of a hospital. As he is leaving he will loose his balance after shooting himself in the head twice and the chest six times and then fall down four flights of stairs and through a window on the 8th floor.

The Doolittle Raid didn't make much sense and did negligible damage but it rattled the Japanese public. I sense that this was done for a similar reason.

July 10th of last year, regarding why parking garages are unsuitable for ammunition storage. I managed to search it because I recalled the bon mot about a "slapdash Soviet era Trabbie hutch."

The world is pretty absurd lately. Russians invading Russia. Ukrainians releasing trailer video for counteroffensive. Putin's map that should show Ukraine not existing and instead it shows it existing, unlike Russia. Taliban attacking Iran using American weapons they took from ANA (I've already seen claims this makes them American proxy).
I do wonder if Putin's map is some kind of Orwellian loyalty test. Everyone knows it is utter nonsense but they have to play along, and dig themselves deeper and deeper.

I’m starting to wonder if that moment matters more than we realize yet. That’s beyond bad staff work and into the realm of “just give the old man something to make him happy”. And if you are one of those in the inner circle who wants to win the war you’d have to be thinking “wtf?” watching that charade.

Yet another reason to never F w BillBinDC.  He'll have your car towed.

And his current thing is parsing why Putin has not used nukes yet. He’s Gunny Kissinger.

I have to say...and this is coming from the center left...that a lot of the antifa folks in DC were completely obnoxious. The BLM folks were what we would call around here 'good protesters'. They did their thing, acted coherently and didn't randomly attack whatever for the thrill of it...the burning of the lobby of the AFL-CIO being a particularly egregious example of the tendency to burn for the fun of it tendency of some of the Antifa folks. A lot of them looked like teenagers burning off covid isolation.
But...neither one had anything like the sheer nastiness of the radical right wingers. Patches like RWDS (that stands for "Right Wing Death Squad") and Confederate flags were routine and far more common than outright Nazi regalia. People telling my neighbors with a pride flag at their house that they "will come back for you later". Or the 100 or so Proud Boys that charged a police line my kid and I were behind because they were trying to get at BLM folks on the plaza on 16th Street behind us. Oh...and did I mention the guys with the long guns that got arrested at one of my places of business?
We got to see the monster with it's mask off...because they were sure that they were going to get a pardon sooner or later as they would tell DC MPD who had to deal with them...and I would strongly suggest you all take it seriously. Out of patriotism if nothing else. Nobody benefits more from it than Vladimir Putin.

anyone who thinks we don't have a fascist problem because folks won't take down their confederate flag to put up a nazi one does not understand that in America, that confederate flag IS the nazi one.  Not specially a response to your comment Steve, but just to point out for folks that think Americans don't blatantly display fascist trappings ought to think twice.  
Getting this back to Ukraine, if I was in the UA and someone from America came and told me they were concerned about some unit in the UA having a patch that resembled a Nazi symbol I'd be scratching my head about that confederate flag I saw on TV being marched through the halls of congress on 1/6.
The History of Democracy: Fascist Movements in U.S. History | WKMS
 

The cynic/sarcastic wit in me might ask, "With what, exactly?"

Dave

Well given the Russian track record…but not what I am thinking.  GPS and inertial guidance will take care of that bridge, even if they try GPS scramble it.  Lasing the bridge via UAS is another option.  Once it gets fully in range the UA are going to blow the living hell out of that bridge (again).
No they likely can read a map as well as we can and are prepping for ferrying operations to support a defence in the Crimea.  The positions they fall back to - already dug, when the UA offensive cracks them like an egg.

Smoke reported on Crimean Bridge - road traffic and water traffic stopped. Crimean 'authorities' claim it is 'training' ...
Another smoking accident? 🤔

It would also be no surprise to me if UA pilots had started training months ago and it was only announced because some indication got out that it was happening.

It would also be no surprise to me if UA pilots had started training months ago and it was only announced because some indication got out that it was happening.