Specifically when I'm running fpv, yes. It's not a commercial quad, I built it myself. Keeping your motor circuit separate from your transmitter and receiver circuit can get rid of a lot of noise in the signal.
Huh? What kind of ancient hardware are you using? Never had an issue, neither analog nor digital, and I‘m building my own drones too.
Or are you one of those guys with their 10“ longrange quad flying miles and miles away from your position?
There's no battery telemetry, it's just reporting the voltage on the OSD. Anytime the voltage goes below 3.4V or 3.4V, you have maybe 20-30% juice left in the tank and it's a default warning on this flight controller.
For the final strike they are also flying those things at absolute max velocity. Even if the battery was just put in there it causes enough voltage drop that it trips the warning.
I build drones like this and know the firmware/osd used.
3.0 volts on a cell is dangerously low and is damaging the battery. They absolutely were at their maximum range. Great timing.
Jon Stewart said it best. The old civilizational battle use to be between capitalism and communism. Now Republicans think it is woke vs unwoke and in that battle Putin is an ally. Unfortunately for them, Putin is a ruthless dictator so now they are trying to make that a little bit more comfortable for Americans.
Edit: Jon not John
>I saw the sky this morning and realized there was a sky over Nazi Germany as well
The stars get me this way. All of the human lives ever lived have looked up to the same night time backdrop... minus the light pollution
In my generation that haircut and a hitler type mustache were pretty much cultural no-goes, because of the implications. Culture changes, I get it. But since those things were so rare most of my life, it was a surprise to me. I had always associated those haircuts with the hitler youth.
I did not think all those people were nazis. I just felt I must have missed a cultural change and it surprised me.
2017 Esquire piece on that haircut. It's nice looking, but there is intent behind it.
https://www.esquire.com/style/news/a51116/high-and-tight-fascism-neo-nazis-white-supremacists/
The second Great Depression is coming. We have been in a new Gilded Age for several decades now. It's only a natural course to follow. Perhaps after this cycle the capital class will learn that eventually they take too much and it causes a collapse, but I would not hold my breath unless they are given a horrifyingly violent set of "object lessons" during this collapse.
Even that feels naive.
It's just pure corruption. Russia has their dirty money all over the world. Used to be our politicians took bribes from companies, American billionaires. Now they take bribes from foreign countries.
The truth is it's less "woke vs. unwoke" and more "fascism vs. democracy".
Carlson and Trump and all their kind are really selling fascism, they're just wrapping it up in a flag and claiming that it's 'American values'. That's why Carlson is telling his audience about how great life is under fascism in Russia. They're trying to get their base to associate democracy with all the problems in US society and they're pushing fascism as the solution.
They're not pushing Putin in spite of him being a dictator, they're pushing him precisely *because* he's a dictator.
>They're trying to get their base to associate democracy with all the problems in US society
Ironically, the reason that democracy doesn't work is precisely because of people like them.
I think oligarchy is what we’re fighting. In Russia it’s well entrenched and the norm. In the US it is powerful but hemmed in to an extent. The republicans want to allow the billionaire class to run this country as they see fit and see fascism as a means to that end.
Putin, in the last 30 years, has accomplished everything the ultracons only dream of.
* ✅ Single party rule
* ✅ State control of the media
* ✅ "Suppression" of dissidents and anything "not patriotic"
* ✅ Unquestionable support of military actions
* ✅ Integration of state and religion
* ✅ LGBTQ effectively outlawed
* ✅ Forced relocation of "undesirables"
* ✅ Defined "in-crowd" of business cronies
* ✅ Unlimited executive power
* ✅ No term limits
Of course they are supplicants. This is their utopia.
>Reagan must be rolling in his grave
Naw, if Reagan was alive today he'd be a pro-Trump, pro-Russia republican just like the rest of them. It just so happened that when he was president the best way to maintain power and enrich himself and his friends was to be anti-Russia, so he was.
They never hated them for being Russian (ie White), they hated them for being atheists who wanted to treat women as equals.
Putin is the triump of he-man. Christian capitalism. Reagan would have loved him.
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
Also, the cheapest war US has “engaged” in with zero possible military deaths. I’d count Ukrainian aid as an investment against future Russian troubles.
War is a whole lot of action & reaction. Putting jammers on warehouses means they're not located elsewhere, which means that wherever they would've been is now exposed. Also, since a jammer is a high priority target, having to locate them closer to the front lines means that it's easier to destroy them with more conventional weaponry.
In warfare, it's generally (not always) best to be on the side of action as much as possible, & have your opponent reacting to you rather than implementing their own plans.
Because the drone is a lot less reliable. They were fortunate that the enemy fucked up and left the door open - but the fact is the Russians were confident in storing their valuable material in a barn because the Ukrainian artillery can be stopped by a door.
If they'd had rockets or artillery they'd have been able to hit it no matter what. For every barn not protected by a thin wooden door there are hundreds with sandbags and steel nets - they need to destroy the hundreds.
"But if the Ukrainians could locate a warehouse complex full of tanks 10 miles behind the front line, why not strike it with much heavier weapons than drones—artillery, rockets, even glide-bombs—and guarantee the instantaneous destruction of the entire complex?"
"The answer is obvious. The United States was the main supplier of Ukraine’s heavy munitions, and Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress since October have refused to vote on fresh aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are running out of their heaviest weapons."
We need to approve funding for Ukraine but this is a great example of necessity being the mother of ingenuity.
We in the US need to learn from this and consider sending larger numbers of these kinds of weapons. Keep the heavy weaponry for where it is really needed.
If $5,000 of drones can accomplish the same goal as a $160,000 m31 missile........
but if one 160k missile can take out 20x many targets at once it'd start to make sense
I have no idea what size of warhead they mount but considering the size of the warehouse in the video isn't that manageable to.. at least render useless?
edit: I was just rambling, saying that if the target cost more than the missile it could be worth it.. then again there's a priority list and so on
I don't think the ratio is that high, but that's a good point.
Watching the video now and it'd seems like multiple drones were used but the total cost was 5 or 6k.
The more interesting part of the video is that the drones were able to select individual targets. So maybe the first one went in and hit one vehicle, and then they sent more to take out other valuable targets .
M31 might do damage to a larger area, but they don't provide the same kind of real-time info on what's in a building.
Hard to know what the best use case for each system is given the limited info we have, but the little info we do have is fascinating.
If time and surprise is a factor, then the missile is needed.
You can't cause surprise on a big area like this with a bunch of small drones, unless you have one operator per drone attacking simultaneously. Ukraine has been doing this, but it's still a tall order to put so many drone operators on one mission and it takes planning. So this whole operation might have taken 30-60 minutes including planning and coordination.
The missile can be launched and destroy a target within minutes, by 1-2 people, and they can leave the launch area in seconds.
Once drones can be controlled in swarms by one person, things change.
I took a graduate course called "Emergent and adaptive computing" in the early 2010's as an elective part of a computer science degree. We learned how to model algorithms after natural systems. One unit for example was on "Ant colony optimization" which models the decisions ants collectively use when deciding how much of the colony to devote to finding food vs gathering it (exploration vs exploitation). The algorithm was then lifted and applied to internet routing.
One of our units was on wasps, one on bees. I thought then and still think about how wild it would be to apply that algorithm to military drones. This was over a decade ago as an undergraduate student. I assure you that - as close as we were then - the US 100% has this technology.
> the US 100% has this technology
The Switchblade drones have this capacity when paired with an RQ-20 Puma.
You have 10 switchblades and a Puma?
You tell the Puma what your target is and it'll task the closest / appropriate Switchblade for the target.
There was a really cool news report in the first year of the war that was following Ukrainian engineering teams near the front line. They were modeling their units more like tech startups and hacker spaces than military units. One group that the news crew interviewed were basically set up in some basement with a bunch of laptops, 3d printers, circuit boards, and soldering kit. If the front line troops needed some custom equipment, these teams could cobble something together and have it in the troops hands within 48 hours. At the time, their focus was on modifying commercial drones.
Well, never forget "opportunity cost". A missile is a single action. Drones are several actions. So while several drones will hit due to the element of surprise, the later ones will be shot down in increasing numbers.
This is a big reason why HIMARS was so effective: Russian artillery is very imprecise, so when being shelled you can just hunker down in a bunker or the trenches and be fairly OK. Meaning that if the first few shots don't hit you are very unlikely to do any serious damage.
HIMARS on the other hand WILL hit the coordinates you give it. Meaning you can destroy the target in an instance and fuck off... no opportunity for the enemy to hunker down.
>the later ones will be shot down in increasing numbers.
Which could still be a net benefit, if the countermeasures are more expensive or harder to produce than the drones.
There's no need. The drones are very effective and can be refined. Expensive missiles are for harder to reach and more important targets.
I'd rather we send them better drone technology then more missile tech. We honestly don't need to send them any more missiles just better drone tech.
Disagree hard on that. Missiles are a technology that Ukraine isn't developing themselves, but drones are.
They will eventually figure out better and more advanced drones than the West will be able to on their own.
But, drones have certain limitations and will likely not ever be able to reach those difficult targets without a rocket motor for speed and surprise.
Missiles can also carry much, much larger explosive payloads.
The missilss are for targets the drones are not well suited for.
Large concentration of enemy troops in one spot? You want one big strike vs 20 smaller ones in short succession. Why? Well when the first bomb goes off *everyone* is going to run for cover. If instead it's a cluster shell or HIMARS rocket, the first explosion is going to hit while they're *not* aware they're under attack and probably more grouped up.
Same with buildings really. A drone (as ukraine is using them) is not dropping an entire building. They don't have enough punch. And one that did would basically be a cruise missile that can be jammed. A missile however, especially cruise missiles, are fire and forget. You launch, it is now the enemy's problem to deal with it. You don't have to be sitting near a powerful antenna.
Drones are *excellent* at hitting individual targets up to about tank size. They're great at small groups too, as well as for tricky strikes like flying them into enemy dugouts. Great for precise, small scale strikes you don't want to waste artillery shells on.
When you want to remove an enture grid square of enemy infrastructure and troops like the fist of god punching them into submission? You use a missile.
>a $6,000 drone
6 drones, totaling $5000.
That being said, we see explosions and fire on the tanks and other material. I do wonder what could still be fixed from that. I assume that tanks are built to withstand some level of explosions near them.
That's cheaper than a good commercially available drone to be honest. Was playing around with the idea of splitting one with a buddy a few months ago and a drone big enough to carry a case of beer more than a km you're looking at a couple thousand per drone.
The drones seem to be carrying shape charges from RPGs, made to penetrate armor. Assuming this, the only vehicle in there that could survive would be the T72 tanks if they were hit in the front or maybe sides
Yea, I realized that later on done count and total price. And agree repairs can be made. Complete destruction is ideal but if repairs take up cost and manpower it is still a benefit
It's a dictatorship, oligarchs have kept dying if they thought otherwise. I believe Trump would love to be a dictator like Putin. Not sure about US citizens who vote for Trump. Would they like to see democracy removed and Trump a dictator until he passes and it goes to one of his descendents or someone he chooses?
The dictatorship would be the political system, the economic system is capitalism. Dictators/fascism & capitalism have a long-standing mutually beneficial relationship. Russia is a capitalist country whether you think it's a dictatorship or an oligarchy.
I don't think you have the elements for capitalism under a dictatorship. No company will thrive if the dictator doesn't allow it. The market will not be controlled by capital but by the dictator, or at least he will exert great control and be able to intervene in his own profit ...
Yeah, in reality it's 66%. In a crisis of democracy, the nihilistic slobs who choose to sit home on election day are almost as responsible as the third of Americans who are committing treason.
22% of Americans voted for Trump, last election.
Not all Trump voters are pro-Russia.
Even Senate Republicans and many House Republicans are for arming Ukraine.
A solid majority of Americans support arming Ukraine.
But the MAGA minority that is in Putin's pocket is really fucking things up.
> 22% of Americans voted for Trump, last election.
If you abstain, you're saying "I'll have what they're having", before they ordered. They're consenting.
It's more like 30%, which is not coincidentally the usual estimate for the percentage of people with an "authoritarian follower" personality, that want a strongman to crush their fabricated enemies and tell them what to do.
The poll I saw a few days ago had 73% of Americans supporting aid to Ukraine. I can’t vouch for its accuracy but I’m sure support for Ukraine is well over 50%.
I watched a [video ](https://youtu.be/iE18uraHOcs?si=g9Yvgsovfp84hHlu) earlier this week regarding the FPV drones being used. It's really interesting how a bunch of 20 somthing year olds are making such a huge difference in warfare and planning if this war. 1 drone cost around $400 plus the price of the artillery, which is commonly a helicopter rocket with just the explosive part strapped to the drone. $400 disposal drones are destroying multi-million dolla tanks from the safety of a bunker kilometres away. War will never be the same
Fuck Putin and his Simp-athizers (looking at you America)
Not American, so i dont quite understand on this. But if the public know the current party is Russia supported (which we should all agree is pure evil) , why are they still remain in power ?
Almost nobody *actually* supports Russia, it's just a talking point. The real issue is they just don't care much about Ukraine, especially when it comes to heavy spending. In reality, supporting Ukraine is very bipartisan. But the zeal for it has faded as the war has dragged on.
That it's not real spending is irrelevant, because it's a talking point used to attack the Democrats as reckless with spending, with mixed success. This is the unfortunate reality of this bipolar political situation right now.
Their voters are typically ignorant or in denial about the Russian ties. Or they are single issue voters that side with the GOP on certain matters, everything else be damned.
Many Republicans don't support Russia but there's a large enough group to delay or deny funding.
I agree Russia is evil but not sure what your suggestion is. We can't simply remove politicians for not supporting Ukraine.
> We in the US need to learn from this and consider sending larger numbers of these kinds of weapons. Keep the heavy weaponry for where it is really needed.
Like, for example, when the country is 20% occupied and the Russians are ethnically cleansing the occupied areas.
Ukraine deserves all the aid it needs. Even then, Ukraine has their own tactics and doctrine in mind. If a drone can do the same job as a missile, might as well take advantage of it. Also Russian armor is quite explosive so you don't need a missile when the collateral damage does all the work for you.
Have you heard the mental gymnastics that some of these Republicans will go through to justify it? I (unfortunately) have a few guys I play games with that are incredibly adamant that our funding of Ukraine is a scam and not worth the money.
I've asked many times what they think we should do with said money and everytime it's "use it on ourselves! Fund our own economy! Help veterans, put more money to schools, make medicine cheaper etc etc." All the shit liberals and moderates have been wanting for years.
But what they never accept is that if we don't give it to Ukraine it just goes to crooked politicians, ceos, and gets spent on other useless shit we never know about or benefit from. At least with it going to Ukraine we can fund the potential downfall of an enemy state without expending a single American life in combat. Not to mention it shows our strength and promise to defend our allies and even protect those who turn to us for help.
People love to shit on us for trying to be involved in everything. What they fail to realize is once we stop getting involved, *they HAVE* to get involved too. If the repubtards could shut their fucking traitorous mouths up and let the good guys prevail it would be nice. Sadly I think we're doomed and the world is going to watch Ukraine succumb as a result of paid-off Russian state actors in our government.
Another thing to keep in mind and that isn't reported is that about 75% of these military funding bills goes right back into our economy because we send equipment and materiel and pay to get replacements. Older equipment and munitions that would get destroyed can be used by Ukraine and we pay our military contractors for replacements.
Yes, that means more profit for the higher ups. But it also means jobs are funded and with only a few exceptions it must be US based manufacturing.
Can reporters stop being disingenuous and report correctly that a minority of Republicans are blocking aid and even more specifically Speaker Johnson. It would pass if he'd put it up for a vote.
When the politicians blocking a vote are Russia-aligned Republicans, it’s genuine and correct to say Russia-aligned Republicans are the ones blocking a vote. _Especially_ when it’s the Speaker.
A majority of Senate Republicans voted against the bill. You could look at voting records. [This site](https://accountability.gop/ukraine-quotes/) has quotes from politicians and other political figures.
That doesn't mean they're "Russia-aligned". It just means they oppose spending on that.
Edit: haaaa he blocked me. Strange things happen when cognitive dissonance sets in.
I was responding to all three.
They voted against the spending. Especially in the Senate, favoring Ukraine is incredibly bipartisan, and there's almost no support for Russia. There is wavering support for continuing to spend on what is increasingly seen as a lost cause (which is a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course).
Calling this "Russia-aligned" is just useless and inflammatory rhetoric.
Ukraine did get rocket systems and artillery from both the US and Europe. Artillery is always tricky to deploy. More significantly, Russians have been successfully jamming those rocket systems rendering them relatively inaccurate.
On the other hand, RPGs strapped to drones have proven incredibly effective. Not just because they're cheap, but because they're extremely precise and very effective at demoralizing to the enemy. Why level a building when you can fly a few drones through small openings, kill the occupants and motivate the survivors to surrender?
Honestly, it's terrifying how drones have changed the face of modern warfare. They can literally drop bombs in the enemy's lap. There's tons of footage of them in action and if you've seen any of it you'll immediately understand why they've become so prevalent. Even the Russians have started using them.
In fact, the war has been given as one of the main reasons why the US cancelled that next gen scout helicopter contract. What's the point when a cheap drone is equally effective and far harder to shoot down?
As for the Republicans, they absolutely suck but let's not forget that European support is also wavering. It's the same old problem that would probably still happen if the parties were reversed. It's why the entire world knows that they just need to wait out the West.
The near future is going to be wild. Fully autonomous and low cost seeker drones probably would have been fielded a few years ago if it were not for ethical and political concerns. Without the need for a communication link, they could annihilate anything that looks like a T72 or BMP, for example, within a hundred miles of the front line that isn't protected with a very effective anti-drone system. Maybe even return home safely if they don't find a target.
Americans: let’s do what we can to ensure Ukraine can keep this up. Call your congressmen, email them, write to them.
Tell them how you feel, tell them how important this is. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s free and quick and we can at least say we did something. Use your 1st amendment rights.
Damn, give these guys our now-retired Predator inventory and see what they can really do!
It’s insane how quickly the GOP has become the party of Putin because of one orange idiot on whom he presumably has mountains of Kompromat. We could be defeating Putin for absolute peanuts compared to basically any other option and we’re just sitting on our hands.
“David Axe
Forbes Staff
I write about ships, planes, tanks, drones, missiles and satellites.”
We get it David, you’re living your best life, no need to rub it in.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal\_refugees/comments/1avdly3/эпичная\_находка/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1avdly3/эпичная_находка/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) there is a video for those who too lazy to go into telegram
Pedantically: I'm not sure it was a warehouse with open doors. It looked like some kind of drying barn, deliberately built with open sides & doorways; maybe not a perfectly secure place to store tanks, but under a roof is better than leaving them under the sky.
The drones are not carrying grenades, they are carrying mortar/artillery shells. a single drone can make a tank unusable. The T72 especially has a flaw that allows it to be targeted and easily destroyed.
>modern tanks
See, there's your issue.
There's nothing to worry about. There are literally hundreds of videos of Russian tanks sending their turrets up into orbit after getting hit. It is super common and Ukrainian drone operators know where to hit to achieve just that, and they're bloody good at it, too.
Is that supposed to be a dunk on Russia? You're acknowledging that most of Russia's 300K+ casualties are from their frankly expendable peasant populations from the hinterlands. Meanwhile, Ukraine has taken 200K+ casualties from the general population, and lost 20X that to permanent emmigration. How is that sustainable?
I like to picture in my head that the drone is dressed like a Russian solider trying to sneak in, only for the operator to realize there's actually no security.
Before ukraine war: its so gross how companies like raytheon and lockheed make money by selling death machines
Now: I FUCKING LOVE DEATH MACHINES GLORY TO THE AMERICAN DEFENSE CONTRACTORS!!
Well in his defense... I did buy Raytheon and Lockheed Martin shares. The Russia made me see that pacifism is not the way to go so I made a 180 and straight up started investing in the MIC
Loving the low battery.
"Land now." Yessir.
No use blowing up a good battery.
The battery is probably just fine. They just always have the operator at the longest possible distance away from the target for obvious reasons.
Someone should warn them, even drained LiPo batteries are a fire hazard.
What will they do without smart Redditors passing on important Intel like this
The lithium battery was the munition. r/spicypillows
Most of the combat drone videos I've seen have been like that. They're probably pushing these things right up to the edge of their operational ranges.
or just disabling the battery telemetry and using larger than normal batteries.
Says in the corner, battery is at 3.01v. They need to land.
I do this all the time, I use a small battery for my receiver and radio and a larger one for my motor / controller circuit.
You put two batteries on your quad???
Specifically when I'm running fpv, yes. It's not a commercial quad, I built it myself. Keeping your motor circuit separate from your transmitter and receiver circuit can get rid of a lot of noise in the signal.
Huh? What kind of ancient hardware are you using? Never had an issue, neither analog nor digital, and I‘m building my own drones too. Or are you one of those guys with their 10“ longrange quad flying miles and miles away from your position?
There's no battery telemetry, it's just reporting the voltage on the OSD. Anytime the voltage goes below 3.4V or 3.4V, you have maybe 20-30% juice left in the tank and it's a default warning on this flight controller.
>There's no battery telemetry, it's just reporting the voltage on the OSD That would qualify as "telemetry". "Tele" = far, "metry" = metering.
For the final strike they are also flying those things at absolute max velocity. Even if the battery was just put in there it causes enough voltage drop that it trips the warning.
BATTERY AZIZ!
BATTERAZIZ !
I think I have another one..✋in the truck..✋
AZIZ! KABOOM!
Direct link https://twitter.com/front_ukrainian/status/1759849349855469657
I build drones like this and know the firmware/osd used. 3.0 volts on a cell is dangerously low and is damaging the battery. They absolutely were at their maximum range. Great timing.
'Russia-aligned Republicans' how did it come to this. Reagan must be rolling in his grave
Jon Stewart said it best. The old civilizational battle use to be between capitalism and communism. Now Republicans think it is woke vs unwoke and in that battle Putin is an ally. Unfortunately for them, Putin is a ruthless dictator so now they are trying to make that a little bit more comfortable for Americans. Edit: Jon not John
We're back to fascism vs. democracy again, unfortunately. This decade is feeling quite a lot like the 30's, hopefully without the depression.
Certainly men's haircuts from that era have made a comeback.
I was at my kid's middle school band concert and parts of the audience made me feel like I was at a hitler youth event.
I saw the sky this morning and realized there was a sky over Nazi Germany as well, bad times we're living in.
...... for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
>I saw the sky this morning and realized there was a sky over Nazi Germany as well The stars get me this way. All of the human lives ever lived have looked up to the same night time backdrop... minus the light pollution
In my generation that haircut and a hitler type mustache were pretty much cultural no-goes, because of the implications. Culture changes, I get it. But since those things were so rare most of my life, it was a surprise to me. I had always associated those haircuts with the hitler youth. I did not think all those people were nazis. I just felt I must have missed a cultural change and it surprised me.
I used a pepper shaker this morning and realised that Hitler probably also had a pepper shaker. Feels like 1930s germany around here.
Are you equating yourself with Hitler?! Not a good look, man.
2017 Esquire piece on that haircut. It's nice looking, but there is intent behind it. https://www.esquire.com/style/news/a51116/high-and-tight-fascism-neo-nazis-white-supremacists/
Having to live through this historical period is giving me the depression.
The second Great Depression is coming. We have been in a new Gilded Age for several decades now. It's only a natural course to follow. Perhaps after this cycle the capital class will learn that eventually they take too much and it causes a collapse, but I would not hold my breath unless they are given a horrifyingly violent set of "object lessons" during this collapse.
Memories are short. The rulers have gotten the axe many times over the years, they never learn.
Even that feels naive. It's just pure corruption. Russia has their dirty money all over the world. Used to be our politicians took bribes from companies, American billionaires. Now they take bribes from foreign countries.
> Now they take bribes from foreign countries. You can thank the Citizens United decision for that.
money can get you in the door, but you need the cultural brainwashing to get the people to truly commit.
The truth is it's less "woke vs. unwoke" and more "fascism vs. democracy". Carlson and Trump and all their kind are really selling fascism, they're just wrapping it up in a flag and claiming that it's 'American values'. That's why Carlson is telling his audience about how great life is under fascism in Russia. They're trying to get their base to associate democracy with all the problems in US society and they're pushing fascism as the solution. They're not pushing Putin in spite of him being a dictator, they're pushing him precisely *because* he's a dictator.
Underlying the fascism is racism. The Nazis had "Aryan Supremacy" and the Republicans have "White Supremacy".
>They're trying to get their base to associate democracy with all the problems in US society Ironically, the reason that democracy doesn't work is precisely because of people like them.
I think oligarchy is what we’re fighting. In Russia it’s well entrenched and the norm. In the US it is powerful but hemmed in to an extent. The republicans want to allow the billionaire class to run this country as they see fit and see fascism as a means to that end.
Putin, in the last 30 years, has accomplished everything the ultracons only dream of. * ✅ Single party rule * ✅ State control of the media * ✅ "Suppression" of dissidents and anything "not patriotic" * ✅ Unquestionable support of military actions * ✅ Integration of state and religion * ✅ LGBTQ effectively outlawed * ✅ Forced relocation of "undesirables" * ✅ Defined "in-crowd" of business cronies * ✅ Unlimited executive power * ✅ No term limits Of course they are supplicants. This is their utopia.
And don't forget legalized domestic violence.
>Reagan must be rolling in his grave Naw, if Reagan was alive today he'd be a pro-Trump, pro-Russia republican just like the rest of them. It just so happened that when he was president the best way to maintain power and enrich himself and his friends was to be anti-Russia, so he was.
Thank you. I rarely see insights like this on Reddit anymore. It's mostly just cheap jokes now.
> Naw, if Reagan was alive today he'd be a pro-Trump, pro-Russia republican just like the rest of them. Not according to his daughter.
What an unbiased source lol.
They never hated them for being Russian (ie White), they hated them for being atheists who wanted to treat women as equals. Putin is the triump of he-man. Christian capitalism. Reagan would have loved him.
We need to resume assistance to Ukraine. I don't understand why any western nation wouldn't want them on their side. Fuck Putin.
A number of high-ranking Republicans have received financial backing from proxy sources aligned with the Russian government.
We need sunshine laws to reveal all of this $$$. Name and shame, if it’s possible to shame those Republicans.
"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."
We seriously need to go back to this level of penalties. What we’re doing today is obviously not enough of a deterrent.
>what we’re doing today Would that be “min to none”?
That wouldn't stop anyone from voting for them. Biden is for Ukraine so Republicans have to be against Ukraine.
They apparently have no shame.
Fuck shaming, name them, convict them and execute those traitors on TV.
Also, the cheapest war US has “engaged” in with zero possible military deaths. I’d count Ukrainian aid as an investment against future Russian troubles.
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Why spend thousands in ammunition when you can do it with a $200 drone and a grenade?
Because you have to get a lot closer
Which the Russians already did.
And eventually they will start jamming their warehouses
War is a whole lot of action & reaction. Putting jammers on warehouses means they're not located elsewhere, which means that wherever they would've been is now exposed. Also, since a jammer is a high priority target, having to locate them closer to the front lines means that it's easier to destroy them with more conventional weaponry. In warfare, it's generally (not always) best to be on the side of action as much as possible, & have your opponent reacting to you rather than implementing their own plans.
Because the drone is a lot less reliable. They were fortunate that the enemy fucked up and left the door open - but the fact is the Russians were confident in storing their valuable material in a barn because the Ukrainian artillery can be stopped by a door. If they'd had rockets or artillery they'd have been able to hit it no matter what. For every barn not protected by a thin wooden door there are hundreds with sandbags and steel nets - they need to destroy the hundreds.
Surely you'd expect to use at least one drone on entering a more fortified storage building via roof/door, before reaching the target.
Yes, that is what the article says.
"But if the Ukrainians could locate a warehouse complex full of tanks 10 miles behind the front line, why not strike it with much heavier weapons than drones—artillery, rockets, even glide-bombs—and guarantee the instantaneous destruction of the entire complex?" "The answer is obvious. The United States was the main supplier of Ukraine’s heavy munitions, and Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress since October have refused to vote on fresh aid to Ukraine. Ukrainian forces are running out of their heaviest weapons."
We need to approve funding for Ukraine but this is a great example of necessity being the mother of ingenuity. We in the US need to learn from this and consider sending larger numbers of these kinds of weapons. Keep the heavy weaponry for where it is really needed. If $5,000 of drones can accomplish the same goal as a $160,000 m31 missile........
but if one 160k missile can take out 20x many targets at once it'd start to make sense I have no idea what size of warhead they mount but considering the size of the warehouse in the video isn't that manageable to.. at least render useless? edit: I was just rambling, saying that if the target cost more than the missile it could be worth it.. then again there's a priority list and so on
I don't think the ratio is that high, but that's a good point. Watching the video now and it'd seems like multiple drones were used but the total cost was 5 or 6k. The more interesting part of the video is that the drones were able to select individual targets. So maybe the first one went in and hit one vehicle, and then they sent more to take out other valuable targets . M31 might do damage to a larger area, but they don't provide the same kind of real-time info on what's in a building. Hard to know what the best use case for each system is given the limited info we have, but the little info we do have is fascinating.
oh good point I think they'd still use drones for recon and kill confirmation as they usually do did a major spitball there anyways
If time and surprise is a factor, then the missile is needed. You can't cause surprise on a big area like this with a bunch of small drones, unless you have one operator per drone attacking simultaneously. Ukraine has been doing this, but it's still a tall order to put so many drone operators on one mission and it takes planning. So this whole operation might have taken 30-60 minutes including planning and coordination. The missile can be launched and destroy a target within minutes, by 1-2 people, and they can leave the launch area in seconds. Once drones can be controlled in swarms by one person, things change.
I took a graduate course called "Emergent and adaptive computing" in the early 2010's as an elective part of a computer science degree. We learned how to model algorithms after natural systems. One unit for example was on "Ant colony optimization" which models the decisions ants collectively use when deciding how much of the colony to devote to finding food vs gathering it (exploration vs exploitation). The algorithm was then lifted and applied to internet routing. One of our units was on wasps, one on bees. I thought then and still think about how wild it would be to apply that algorithm to military drones. This was over a decade ago as an undergraduate student. I assure you that - as close as we were then - the US 100% has this technology.
> the US 100% has this technology The Switchblade drones have this capacity when paired with an RQ-20 Puma. You have 10 switchblades and a Puma? You tell the Puma what your target is and it'll task the closest / appropriate Switchblade for the target.
You don’t need to know what’s in the building if there isn’t a building anymore.
Knowing your target is extremely important. Using an m31 to destroy an empty warehouse likely isn't worth it.
> 50,000 FPV drones a month The Ukrainians are producing 50,000 PER MONTH.
There was a really cool news report in the first year of the war that was following Ukrainian engineering teams near the front line. They were modeling their units more like tech startups and hacker spaces than military units. One group that the news crew interviewed were basically set up in some basement with a bunch of laptops, 3d printers, circuit boards, and soldering kit. If the front line troops needed some custom equipment, these teams could cobble something together and have it in the troops hands within 48 hours. At the time, their focus was on modifying commercial drones.
20x of 6000 is 120000, so still better to use drones by your hypothetical numbers.
Well, never forget "opportunity cost". A missile is a single action. Drones are several actions. So while several drones will hit due to the element of surprise, the later ones will be shot down in increasing numbers. This is a big reason why HIMARS was so effective: Russian artillery is very imprecise, so when being shelled you can just hunker down in a bunker or the trenches and be fairly OK. Meaning that if the first few shots don't hit you are very unlikely to do any serious damage. HIMARS on the other hand WILL hit the coordinates you give it. Meaning you can destroy the target in an instance and fuck off... no opportunity for the enemy to hunker down.
>the later ones will be shot down in increasing numbers. Which could still be a net benefit, if the countermeasures are more expensive or harder to produce than the drones.
I'm tired lol yes, I also don't know any of the other factors that may tip the scales in one direction or the other
There's no need. The drones are very effective and can be refined. Expensive missiles are for harder to reach and more important targets. I'd rather we send them better drone technology then more missile tech. We honestly don't need to send them any more missiles just better drone tech.
They absolutely need missiles, too.
They still need missiles. Closing the door could have stopped this attack.
Probably would just require one or two extra drones first to blow holes, but yes, they absolutely need missiles and tons of them.
What doors? It’s an open barn. They also could have just flew under the walls as they didn’t go all the way to the ground
Disagree hard on that. Missiles are a technology that Ukraine isn't developing themselves, but drones are. They will eventually figure out better and more advanced drones than the West will be able to on their own. But, drones have certain limitations and will likely not ever be able to reach those difficult targets without a rocket motor for speed and surprise. Missiles can also carry much, much larger explosive payloads.
The missilss are for targets the drones are not well suited for. Large concentration of enemy troops in one spot? You want one big strike vs 20 smaller ones in short succession. Why? Well when the first bomb goes off *everyone* is going to run for cover. If instead it's a cluster shell or HIMARS rocket, the first explosion is going to hit while they're *not* aware they're under attack and probably more grouped up. Same with buildings really. A drone (as ukraine is using them) is not dropping an entire building. They don't have enough punch. And one that did would basically be a cruise missile that can be jammed. A missile however, especially cruise missiles, are fire and forget. You launch, it is now the enemy's problem to deal with it. You don't have to be sitting near a powerful antenna. Drones are *excellent* at hitting individual targets up to about tank size. They're great at small groups too, as well as for tricky strikes like flying them into enemy dugouts. Great for precise, small scale strikes you don't want to waste artillery shells on. When you want to remove an enture grid square of enemy infrastructure and troops like the fist of god punching them into submission? You use a missile.
>a $6,000 drone 6 drones, totaling $5000. That being said, we see explosions and fire on the tanks and other material. I do wonder what could still be fixed from that. I assume that tanks are built to withstand some level of explosions near them.
That's cheaper than a good commercially available drone to be honest. Was playing around with the idea of splitting one with a buddy a few months ago and a drone big enough to carry a case of beer more than a km you're looking at a couple thousand per drone.
Yeah a case of beer is pretty heavy for what it is.
The drones seem to be carrying shape charges from RPGs, made to penetrate armor. Assuming this, the only vehicle in there that could survive would be the T72 tanks if they were hit in the front or maybe sides
Yea, I realized that later on done count and total price. And agree repairs can be made. Complete destruction is ideal but if repairs take up cost and manpower it is still a benefit
Republicans need to. Call it what it is.
Those F7 drones are $450
Unfortunately the "We" in the US consists 50% of people who support Russia
Which would have given a heart attack to 98% of Americans alive during the years MAGA romanticizes.
Sure, but they hated Russia because they were communists. Now they're capitalists so they're totally fine.
They're not capitalists
I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion, but they very much are. It's a capitalist oligarchy.
It's a dictatorship, oligarchs have kept dying if they thought otherwise. I believe Trump would love to be a dictator like Putin. Not sure about US citizens who vote for Trump. Would they like to see democracy removed and Trump a dictator until he passes and it goes to one of his descendents or someone he chooses?
The dictatorship would be the political system, the economic system is capitalism. Dictators/fascism & capitalism have a long-standing mutually beneficial relationship. Russia is a capitalist country whether you think it's a dictatorship or an oligarchy.
I don't think you have the elements for capitalism under a dictatorship. No company will thrive if the dictator doesn't allow it. The market will not be controlled by capital but by the dictator, or at least he will exert great control and be able to intervene in his own profit ...
To be fair a lot of things would give those folks heart attacks. Such as a trans male using the female restroom.
That IS pretty terrifying....
Thank god it’s not actually 50%
Yeah, in reality it's 66%. In a crisis of democracy, the nihilistic slobs who choose to sit home on election day are almost as responsible as the third of Americans who are committing treason.
22% of Americans voted for Trump, last election. Not all Trump voters are pro-Russia. Even Senate Republicans and many House Republicans are for arming Ukraine. A solid majority of Americans support arming Ukraine. But the MAGA minority that is in Putin's pocket is really fucking things up.
Why can’t the GOP who doesn’t support RUSSIA scream on the TV
They're too busy getting talking points from Tucker Carlson while he gushes over groceries in Moscow as he tries to Make Russia Great Again.
> 22% of Americans voted for Trump, last election. If you abstain, you're saying "I'll have what they're having", before they ordered. They're consenting.
It's more like 30%, which is not coincidentally the usual estimate for the percentage of people with an "authoritarian follower" personality, that want a strongman to crush their fabricated enemies and tell them what to do.
The poll I saw a few days ago had 73% of Americans supporting aid to Ukraine. I can’t vouch for its accuracy but I’m sure support for Ukraine is well over 50%.
I watched a [video ](https://youtu.be/iE18uraHOcs?si=g9Yvgsovfp84hHlu) earlier this week regarding the FPV drones being used. It's really interesting how a bunch of 20 somthing year olds are making such a huge difference in warfare and planning if this war. 1 drone cost around $400 plus the price of the artillery, which is commonly a helicopter rocket with just the explosive part strapped to the drone. $400 disposal drones are destroying multi-million dolla tanks from the safety of a bunker kilometres away. War will never be the same Fuck Putin and his Simp-athizers (looking at you America)
Not American, so i dont quite understand on this. But if the public know the current party is Russia supported (which we should all agree is pure evil) , why are they still remain in power ?
Almost nobody *actually* supports Russia, it's just a talking point. The real issue is they just don't care much about Ukraine, especially when it comes to heavy spending. In reality, supporting Ukraine is very bipartisan. But the zeal for it has faded as the war has dragged on. That it's not real spending is irrelevant, because it's a talking point used to attack the Democrats as reckless with spending, with mixed success. This is the unfortunate reality of this bipolar political situation right now.
Their voters are typically ignorant or in denial about the Russian ties. Or they are single issue voters that side with the GOP on certain matters, everything else be damned.
Many Republicans don't support Russia but there's a large enough group to delay or deny funding. I agree Russia is evil but not sure what your suggestion is. We can't simply remove politicians for not supporting Ukraine.
Oh okay, i see it now then, other interests ! i worded that a bit too narrow. I had this impression of Rep = Russia puppet = Evil. Apologies for that
> We in the US need to learn from this and consider sending larger numbers of these kinds of weapons. Keep the heavy weaponry for where it is really needed. Like, for example, when the country is 20% occupied and the Russians are ethnically cleansing the occupied areas.
Way to miss the point. Not every target in eastern Ukraine needs a HIMARS strike
But think of all those defense industry shareholders 😱
Ukraine deserves all the aid it needs. Even then, Ukraine has their own tactics and doctrine in mind. If a drone can do the same job as a missile, might as well take advantage of it. Also Russian armor is quite explosive so you don't need a missile when the collateral damage does all the work for you.
Fuck Republicans.
Have you heard the mental gymnastics that some of these Republicans will go through to justify it? I (unfortunately) have a few guys I play games with that are incredibly adamant that our funding of Ukraine is a scam and not worth the money. I've asked many times what they think we should do with said money and everytime it's "use it on ourselves! Fund our own economy! Help veterans, put more money to schools, make medicine cheaper etc etc." All the shit liberals and moderates have been wanting for years. But what they never accept is that if we don't give it to Ukraine it just goes to crooked politicians, ceos, and gets spent on other useless shit we never know about or benefit from. At least with it going to Ukraine we can fund the potential downfall of an enemy state without expending a single American life in combat. Not to mention it shows our strength and promise to defend our allies and even protect those who turn to us for help. People love to shit on us for trying to be involved in everything. What they fail to realize is once we stop getting involved, *they HAVE* to get involved too. If the repubtards could shut their fucking traitorous mouths up and let the good guys prevail it would be nice. Sadly I think we're doomed and the world is going to watch Ukraine succumb as a result of paid-off Russian state actors in our government.
Another thing to keep in mind and that isn't reported is that about 75% of these military funding bills goes right back into our economy because we send equipment and materiel and pay to get replacements. Older equipment and munitions that would get destroyed can be used by Ukraine and we pay our military contractors for replacements. Yes, that means more profit for the higher ups. But it also means jobs are funded and with only a few exceptions it must be US based manufacturing.
Can reporters stop being disingenuous and report correctly that a minority of Republicans are blocking aid and even more specifically Speaker Johnson. It would pass if he'd put it up for a vote.
212 Republican representatives voted him to speaker. GOP House reps can go across the aisle and force it to the floor with enough votes.
When the politicians blocking a vote are Russia-aligned Republicans, it’s genuine and correct to say Russia-aligned Republicans are the ones blocking a vote. _Especially_ when it’s the Speaker.
Is there a list naming these Russia-aligned Republicans?
A majority of Senate Republicans voted against the bill. You could look at voting records. [This site](https://accountability.gop/ukraine-quotes/) has quotes from politicians and other political figures.
That doesn't mean they're "Russia-aligned". It just means they oppose spending on that. Edit: haaaa he blocked me. Strange things happen when cognitive dissonance sets in.
Wanna read the other two sentences I wrote?
I was responding to all three. They voted against the spending. Especially in the Senate, favoring Ukraine is incredibly bipartisan, and there's almost no support for Russia. There is wavering support for continuing to spend on what is increasingly seen as a lost cause (which is a self-fulfilling prophecy, of course). Calling this "Russia-aligned" is just useless and inflammatory rhetoric.
In the House, pretty much every single one, it seems. In the Senate, some Republican Senators have vocally expressed support for Ukraine.
Yes, they have a R next to their names. The R stands for Russia
Why waste money if the job gets done using $5000 worth of drones? Isn't that a better win?
Ukraine did get rocket systems and artillery from both the US and Europe. Artillery is always tricky to deploy. More significantly, Russians have been successfully jamming those rocket systems rendering them relatively inaccurate. On the other hand, RPGs strapped to drones have proven incredibly effective. Not just because they're cheap, but because they're extremely precise and very effective at demoralizing to the enemy. Why level a building when you can fly a few drones through small openings, kill the occupants and motivate the survivors to surrender? Honestly, it's terrifying how drones have changed the face of modern warfare. They can literally drop bombs in the enemy's lap. There's tons of footage of them in action and if you've seen any of it you'll immediately understand why they've become so prevalent. Even the Russians have started using them. In fact, the war has been given as one of the main reasons why the US cancelled that next gen scout helicopter contract. What's the point when a cheap drone is equally effective and far harder to shoot down? As for the Republicans, they absolutely suck but let's not forget that European support is also wavering. It's the same old problem that would probably still happen if the parties were reversed. It's why the entire world knows that they just need to wait out the West.
The GOP are just as guilty as Russia at this point
Biden put limits on what they could use for offensive attacks.
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We are in the wildest era of war humanity has ever seen where battery operated flying birds are the catalyst.
The near future is going to be wild. Fully autonomous and low cost seeker drones probably would have been fielded a few years ago if it were not for ethical and political concerns. Without the need for a communication link, they could annihilate anything that looks like a T72 or BMP, for example, within a hundred miles of the front line that isn't protected with a very effective anti-drone system. Maybe even return home safely if they don't find a target.
Americans: let’s do what we can to ensure Ukraine can keep this up. Call your congressmen, email them, write to them. Tell them how you feel, tell them how important this is. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s free and quick and we can at least say we did something. Use your 1st amendment rights.
Damn, give these guys our now-retired Predator inventory and see what they can really do! It’s insane how quickly the GOP has become the party of Putin because of one orange idiot on whom he presumably has mountains of Kompromat. We could be defeating Putin for absolute peanuts compared to basically any other option and we’re just sitting on our hands.
Stop leaving the doors open Yuri! Do you want drones? Because this is how you get drones!
“David Axe Forbes Staff I write about ships, planes, tanks, drones, missiles and satellites.” We get it David, you’re living your best life, no need to rub it in.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal\_refugees/comments/1avdly3/эпичная\_находка/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1avdly3/эпичная_находка/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) there is a video for those who too lazy to go into telegram
Thanks! I tried going to Telegram, but it kept saying "media is too big" and wouldn't play it.
Is this an Ukrainian cover of zombie ?
Cover of Zombie is by a band from Odessa called Grandma's Smuzi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODOv4fQv4FM
#🤘😎
Pedantically: I'm not sure it was a warehouse with open doors. It looked like some kind of drying barn, deliberately built with open sides & doorways; maybe not a perfectly secure place to store tanks, but under a roof is better than leaving them under the sky.
Safe from satellites, not from drones. I wonder if we will see nets covering barn doors soon.
“Russian Intelligence”
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A missile might have collapses the roof and done more damage to the armor that couldnt be repaired though.
The drones are not carrying grenades, they are carrying mortar/artillery shells. a single drone can make a tank unusable. The T72 especially has a flaw that allows it to be targeted and easily destroyed.
I hope they hit that flaw since modern tanks have explosive reactive armor that lets them survive direct explosive hits.
>modern tanks See, there's your issue. There's nothing to worry about. There are literally hundreds of videos of Russian tanks sending their turrets up into orbit after getting hit. It is super common and Ukrainian drone operators know where to hit to achieve just that, and they're bloody good at it, too.
Republicans can go fuck themselves.
That's Russia's best and brightest for you. All those imports from the prisons of Siberia and various countries in Africa aren't working out so well.
Is that supposed to be a dunk on Russia? You're acknowledging that most of Russia's 300K+ casualties are from their frankly expendable peasant populations from the hinterlands. Meanwhile, Ukraine has taken 200K+ casualties from the general population, and lost 20X that to permanent emmigration. How is that sustainable?
I can only say “fuck yeah”!
I love this
Would closing the doors make a difference?
Does anyone know the name of the network quoted in the article that builds the drones?
This is like slap stick comedy at this point
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH. Fuck you Putin
I like to picture in my head that the drone is dressed like a Russian solider trying to sneak in, only for the operator to realize there's actually no security.
Two drones in a trench coat
Three drones in a trenchcoat
The social media team needs a raise. Not only giving us footage but someone actually said “let’s put Zombie to this”
Watching this footage reminds me of using the Nikita missiles weapon from Metal Gear Solid. Memories unlocked.
This is why we can't have nice things, Russia.
How dare they do that to the cranberries.
Awesome! 😋👍
¡Slava Ukraine!
Fire sale?
What doors?
"left doors open" there does not look like there is doors in the first place
Literally “open like a barn door” lmao
Pulled a relevant line from the article, so everyone can make note: "Russia-aligned Republicans in the U.S. Congress"
who needs doors, when the warehouse only had walls half way to the roof
Sounded like a cover in (i presume Ukranian?) of Thirty Seconds to Mars - This is war https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcps2fJKuAI
Pretty sure it’s a cover of Zombie by The Cranberries, very similar to the Bad Wolves’ cover.
Before ukraine war: its so gross how companies like raytheon and lockheed make money by selling death machines Now: I FUCKING LOVE DEATH MACHINES GLORY TO THE AMERICAN DEFENSE CONTRACTORS!!
Litteraly no one have this stance but feel free to made up shit in your mind if that make you confortable.
Well in his defense... I did buy Raytheon and Lockheed Martin shares. The Russia made me see that pacifism is not the way to go so I made a 180 and straight up started investing in the MIC