Racing drones are used as improvised missiles in Ukraine | Hacker News Reader

Racing drones are used as improvised missiles in Ukraine

economist.com

30 pointselorant10 comments

On certain NSFW war subreddits, there is often passed around a picture that is claimed to be "this is what Ukraine suicide drones look like" that is a picture of like 7 standard racing drones with what looks like an extra large RPG round or a 105mm artillery round and no batteries. I have a really hard time believing that those tiny, smaller than a Mavic, drones can really lift and fly usefully with 40 pounds of steel and explosive strapped under them. Notably it's always the exact same picture whenever someone asks, and I've never seen any other evidence of small homemade suicide drones carrying entire artillery shells, as usually they only carry a few ounces of C4 or another explosive compound.

While possible, a normal racing drone isn't going to be able to carry more than 1lb. without major changes.

The picture in the link looks like a DJI M300 RTK (I believe), which has a payload capacity ~ 8-11 lbs, and is their major new industrial drone.

Then you haven't looked very well. There are plenty of videos of said drones at work.

I have seen plenty of FPV videos of homebuilt racing drones with wires across the front for fusing some explosive charge. I have seen another drone watch a small racing drone hit an APC with people riding on it and explode with what is probably a few ounces to a pound of C4. I have seen FPV drones supposedly carrying RPG rounds to attack lightly armored vehicles.

I have seen zero videos of racing drones not even a foot long and foot wide carrying 30 pound artillery shells. I have seen zero footage of those tiny racing drones in the air under their own power carrying a 30 pound artillery shell. I have seen zero evidence of it even being possible for a notebook sized racing drone to carry 30 pounds.

There's likely a mix of both propaganda and real videos. Critical thinking skills are needed to decide on a case-by-case basis rather than lump a range of videos into one conclusion or another.

>Last year its forces released a video of a racing drone diving through an open doorway into a building occupied by Russian troops and exploding.

They didn't link to it, but this is it:

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1553090460352135169

"Remember the slaughter it's video".

Except it is nothing like the video.

A single human operator controls a single drone. How is this any different from operating a mortar? The only difference is that the guidance kit is cheaper but let's be real, why do guided mortars cost $10k per shot in the first place? All they have is four motor controlled fins and a laser seeker. Nothing complicated.

The answer is that China produces consumer drones for a mass market audience so when people think "drones = cheap", what they really think is that importing weapons from China is cheap.

The difference between a Javelin Missile and a quadrocopter is that the Javelin is far more advanced. The technology is further along, so why is the future this "dumb" propeller based technology that makes people scared?

The mythical drone swarm relies on ignoring size Vs capability tradeoffs. It is like saying all your groceries will be delivered by swarms of RC cars. Meanwhile actual delivery robots are trolley sized and usually carry your entire purchase.

Ukraine needs a series of rapid dominance asymmetric engagements to bring this stalemate to a conclusion.

A hail of hundreds of suicide drones could be one way to demoralize the enemy.

Poison Russian soldiers' food (more than already happens), cut electricity, detonate stockpiles, cut supply lines (Russian roads and rails), and whatever else it takes to end this.

Russia is actually better in drones attack lately.

https://archive.is/ma26n

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