Can air-to-air drones break the frontline deadlock?

[@hungrymusicwolf]

This whole drone scenario is starting to look an awful lot like air combat during ww1. Starting off as recon, slowly being used to drop small grenades / bombs at soldiers. Then slowly building into actual formal air to air weaponry/combat through small weapons.

[@Demogrunt]

Skynet and hunter killers come to mind

[@JinKee]

@@Demogrunti guess we are 30 years away at most from strategic drone forces that can kill civilisations, probably sooner.

[@torehaaland6921]

We will see fighter drone units, reconnaissance and surveillance units and bomber units in the future.

[@sc9160]

Sort of. In WWI that was a result of new warfare and limitations in technology - this is a result of limited resources necessitating use of a commercial product. The US and western nations already have military drones that are just as capable as the current manned systems.

[@anthonysouthall5544]

Always wonder what will happen to attack helicopters ... Are they now worth the expenditure and crew training... It's a challenge all round

[@resrussia]

If I remember correctly, planes began to used to attack other aircraft in response to the use of observation recon aircraft and ballons during the First World War which extends the similarity between the two wars.

[@paddington1670]

yes, at the beginning the recon planes' pilots would be shooting at each other from the cockpit with firearms, the planes themselves didnt have any weapons on them at the beginning. Pretty wild at the beginning.

[@insertcognomen]

@@paddington1670 i mean we have recon drones and bomber drones just like we have spy planes and bomber planes...the last area needed now are air superiority drones and interceptor drones

[@resrussia]

@@paddington1670 Thank you for filling in the details that I have forgotten in my old age.

[@CorePathway]

The first pilots used to wave at each other. Someone threw a brick, the other side brought a handgun and then things escalated quickly 😂

[@MrNicoJac]

Crazy how we went from literal pistol duels in the air to radar guided remote operated exploding missiles/drones in one century 😮

[@DarkestAlice]

Thank you, Anders Puck Nielsen, for your analysis. Very much appreciated. 🇺🇦 Перемоги і миру всім українцям! 🇺🇦

[@Im-just-Stardust]

Thank you Anders for posting more regularly, we mortals appreciate your content.

[@dpelpal]

500000 smoked Rushins, and they cant even take 10% of Ukraine. That's what I understood him as saying.

[@davidvavra9113]

What he said

[@technobladeleakedclips1827]

Bot

[@alangledhill6454]

The only question that needs to be answered about Anders is whether he is a self deluding fraud or a concious fraud.

[@technobladeleakedclips1827]

@@alangledhill6454 truest comment ever also i think Probably the first. Most ukraind lovers are

[@markdawson5215]

You analysis is on point, concise, and enlightening. It's heartening to see your viewership has grown to 175K viewers. I can see it expanding to ten times that. All the best to you.

[@dpelpal]

175000 people laughing at what a joke the Rushin' army is🤭

[@syryder3236]

@@dpelpalcorrect and bare minimum as we all concur

[@The_ZeroLine]

Rostov-on-drone is my favorite Russian oblast. Thanks to drones, Russia is exporting most of its oil via smoke rather than pipeline now.

[@PaddyLeggBass]

😅🎉

[@hestan723]

Underrated 😂

[@dpelpal]

Russia just joined Venezuela in P-OPEC.... _Previously Oil Producing and Exporting Countries._ 😂😂😂

[@markb8468]

​@@dpelpal😂 good one!

[@firsttyrell6484]

In other news: "India's Oil Imports Surge: Russia Hits Record High, Saudi Arabia Drops"

[@awesomehpt8938]

Ukraines ingenuity and adaptability in this war continues to impress. I reckon there are tonnes of NATO generals that have had their minds blown with how established military doctrines and tactics have just been torn to shreds over the course of this war because Ukraine has done their own thing and made it work.

[@Jack_Redview]

That’s what usually happens in war . Look at history, nothing new

[@traumvonhaiti]

NATO is a paper tiger. Yes, potentially the combined NATO military is very strong. But there's no will in the West to take risks and to fight - very much like the mighty French army in 1940.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

I'm not surprised. Ukrainian engineers and senior military personnel constituted much of the brainpower of the Soviet defense establishment during the Cold War. Apparently, the Russians have forgotten this.

[@T.efpunkt]

Very unlikely. This is a pretty conventional war, hence all the comparisons to ww1. The only difference is the higher level of tech that confines soldiers to their trenches. The root problems and solutions are all the same.

[@dpelpal]

Russia has lost this war. The entire planet is now laughing at the Rushin' army😂

[@austinfournier5445]

Echoing Bret Devereaux, it seems worth noting that weapons tech was part of the situation that created the deadlock in WW1, but not sufficient on its own; after a year or two the combatants figured out the right way to concentrate artillery to wreck a trench quite effectively. The reason this didn't break the deadlock was because the best (commonplace) communication/transportation technologies of the time were the railroad and telegraph, which both rely on connecting infrastructure the enemy isn't going to let you run through no man's land. So if the attacker got past the trench, the defender would be shipping in boatloads of troops and ammo to prevent an unobstructed advance, and the attacker's headquarter still wouldn't even know whether the first trench line had been successfully breached.

[@Abahrelgazalia]

Came to the comments to make this point, too :)

[@traumflug]

German army had radio equipment in 1907 already. This communications problem may have been more a problem of tactics rather than technology.

[@Bakes-z4c]

Make things happen faster than the enemy can respond. How Ukraine got Kharkiv’s area back and Kherson. Monash playbook 1918 . Remember, that was in the face of 1 million extra troops released to the western front (after another Russian collapse) and the Fokker Dvii for the Germans

[@traumflug]

What impresses me most is that Ukrainians do all this on a shoestring budget. Where NATO countries throw enormous amounts of money onto established companies to achieve technological advances, Ukrainians warm up their soldering irons and invite hobbyists to public competitions for finding advanced stuff. Ukrainians are more successful, btw., their $500 drones appear to outperform American $50,000 SwitchBlades.

[@Chiberia]

This is a bad take. _Because_ SwitchBlades are expensive, they are reserved for higher risk operations that need their edge. They would absolutely dominate the scenarios we're seeing videos of for low-tech drones dropping grenades and whatnot, but they won't get the chance because their cost is equivalent to their capabilities. The same way you wouldn't send an F-22 to go pop a balloon. ... oh wait.

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

​@@Chiberia Sending a F-22 to pop a balloon that's flying higher than any other fighter can reach is perfectly reasonable.

[@PerfidiousAlbion1815]

Necessity is the Mother of invention

[@56redgreen]

I have seen some interviews when asked what they prefer all the soldiers said a DJI drone over an American 100k Nano drone. That helicopter one. Industrial complex is all about maximum profit first, effectiveness irrelevant other than for marketing.

[@Philip-hv2kc]

And almost all the brilliant technical scientific minds that russia might have had have exodused themselves from russia long ago now . Hey , they crashed their moonlander but India was successful.

[@MrKbtor2]

I'm glad the Ukrainians are on our side idealogically. They'll be useful advisors if war breaks out in Asia.

[@dpelpal]

I know I wouldn't wanna fight Ukrainians! Rusha' on the other hand, their military is a total joke🤭

[@NathansHVAC]

they are a good rental army

[@dpelpal]

@@NathansHVAC Iran and China sure are using Russia, you're correct.

[@tazgecko]

I don't know about advisors. But Ukraine has indicated they want to join the west. Giving a chance, they could become the next powerhouse in the EU.

[@mesquick]

@@tazgecko Ukraine already belongs to the West my friend. You don't join the West, you are part of it.

[@W1se0ldg33zer]

It is more similar to WW1 than you think. In WW1 the Germans didn't reach their objectives then had to dig in to keep from getting countered. They lost and then it took another two fruitless years for them to realize that. Those turtle tanks are nothing more than a way to get through mine fields with tanks that can withstand them. They're using them like transports to move their disposable soldiers in to positions to draw fire in order to locate the Ukrainian positions. Then they shell them.

[@W1se0ldg33zer]

They have captured a few of those turtles and they mount ECM's on the roof and they're just made out of sheet metal. They're counting on drones being stopped by electronic jamming.

[@ndenise3460]

I am sure they could run a suborbital that when connection is lost it homes to the last photographed object, no connection needed

[@CorePathway]

Against NATO, tanks won’t even make it to the front line. Every weapons platform on the battlefield has long-range anti-tank capabilities, from the individual soldier (javelin, etc) to vehicles, IFVs, other tanks, artillery systems, helicopters, fixed wing manned aircraft, fixed wing drones, quad rotor drones, mines, etc etc etc.

[@Bakes-z4c]

Wonder what the Russian equivalent of the schlieffen plan was? Grab Hostomel, perhaps ? Like Germany in 1918, Russia has a massive rival at their back, which is inactive at present. Interesting to see how that goes

[@pogglywoggly3292]

My, my. Move over Darwin and you're millions of years time table. We're watching kite fighting evolve in real time. Look mom! No strings!

[@ibeetellingya5683]

Trench warfare with aerial drone dog fights. History rhymes.

[@judithcampbell1705]

Ukrainians are definitely showing how the things sent to them how to make them do incredible stuff. We definitely want to keep them on our side for the future. Thank you 💛 Anders

[@Bakes-z4c]

We are all stuck on one small rock. We need to look after it. Those that don’t see this need to move on to whatever fate awaits them

[@shilohlee4332]

To quote the Australian PowerPoint Man, "Assault Shed".

[@anotherelvis]

Forces News showed a video of an Ukrainian Baba Yaga drone, that brought a smaller drone along for protection. The smaller drone crashed in to a Russian kamikaze drone to protect the Baba Yaga. This is similar to fighter jets protecting bombers during WW2.

[@1971VoiceoftheMummy]

🙏🕊🌻🔱 Excellent Analysis! Ukraine is Stronger with F16's, GMLRS, ATACMS, GLSDB, SCALP EG and Storm Shadow! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes! The World Needs to Stand Unwaveringly Committed with Ukraine's Quest for Democracy and Retribution! 🔱🌻🕊🙏

[@game15098]

Сального за километр видно, ничего перечислить не забыл? А то смотри не допишешь - не поставят. Страна поберушка.

[@nunyabidness3075]

lol, a couple months ago when they used a prop plane to shoot down drones, I predicted the next thing would be drones that shot down planes. They must have already been building the things. Gotta love Ukrainians.

[@Bakes-z4c]

And yak52s! They are fun

[@jayrey5390]

Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦✊🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

[@karsten27027]

Very good analysis. However, it is chocking that it takes a war to bring about such technological advances. Do not forget, whatever is now eveloped for use in war, also will have civilian purposes.

[@andreaturbolz3542]

Always thought what a “swarm” of small drones could do on a battlefield. Suppose is not so far the moment I will see the answer

[@lalogreiner]

I mean, if the Ukranians are doing it now, the Russians will also do it next week...

[@The_ZeroLine]

Kind of important to note that this was a lancet, not a surveillance drone. And I’m guessing they ran across it by coincidence.

[@jeremyallard7015]

Anders thanks for your hard work. Drones are a great way forward, especially if they can be used as decoys as a gateway to let things through. It may be probable or possible to make them with Device Jamming Tools, as well as EMP type Devices to screw up an Adversaries Electronics far behind Enemy Lines.

[@my-yt-inputs2580]

This new Drone warfare is really highlighting the whole RF spectrum and the need for even better electronic countermeasures above and beyond just GPS jamming.

[@MartinLundström-l4v]

"AI" drones don't have to use radio communication....

[@Andreas-gh6is]

@@MartinLundström-l4v Technically, even an autopilot or waypoint following program would have been considered "AI" just ten or twenty years ago. You don't need AI for most of the things they are doing right now. And they don't have the resources to develop one, for example for "dogfighting". It's much easier and more effective to use FPV and remote control, even if the Russians can jam them. Then maybe they have to stay away from the jammers, but that's all.

[@my-yt-inputs2580]

@@MartinLundström-l4v True but to get from point A to point B they do need an outside source for navigation.

[@Bakes-z4c]

Too true, any time Ivan has had command of the EM spectrum, he dominates, with heaps of ballistic shells. This war has shown if you can shut down EM, you really slow the enemy down

[@Andreas-gh6is]

@@Bakes-z4c Nope, the Russians can't "shut down EM". At best they can jam some frequency bands, but due to the nature of physics, you can never jam or overnoise all frequencies at once. Also, the vehicles that can do that are pretty expensive. And easy targets for radiation seeking missiles. If a drone a couple km away gets confused by your EM emissions, a missile sure can track you from even further away.

[@cat_city2009]

The Russians are advancing and the Ukrainian army is stretched thin, doesn't have enough recruits and has a huge air, air defense and artillery disadvantage, and you're talking about the Ukrainians going on the offensive? You are insane.

[@Bob-nd2mr]

Anders Puck Neilsen always gets greater than 10 % Like ... 11 K Likes / 65,000 Views (11 hrs ago) = 16 % This is a high score in YT algorithm ... a Like and a Comment promotes the TRUTH one sand grain (8 bits = 1 byte) at a time.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

Air to air drones aren't really new. US have Coyore loitering munitions/drones that ram other drones but it wasn't in wide use even now. It is able to be launched from the RIwP turret on JLTVs and Strykers. Turkey also working on a fighter drone, Bayraktar Kizilelma. That is not to put down Ukrainian efforts as they didn't have these capabilities prior to the war and is now working on it. Besides like WW1, a lot of those technologies existed prior to the war but only gained appreciation once people realized it was a potential solution to the stalemate.

[@markbryant4641]

It's not realistic to look at thr frontline and say that it (the frontline/the war) is static. U is trying to push R out. R is trying to suck U into the frontline. Keep in mind that both sides are working at attrition.

[@bahram6133]

Is there actually any evidence that this is a concerted effort? To me it looks like a few coincidences being misinterpreted.

[@Princip666]

Of course there isn't. Puck is grasping at straws.

[@stevenjohnston7809]

Their latest strategy of denying Russia the ability to produce fuel seems to be a winning one. It just takes time, and while it doesn't effect their Frontline soldiers directly, it will force them to start making cope cages for bicycles and roller blades. MUGA!

[@goenzoy712]

Russia producing more fuel then UK and Germany combined So they will not run short of fuel anytime soon

[@alexpoetov3213]

They are striking mostly those oil refineries that produce gasoline, not diesel. So all their efforts has had little effect on Russia's ability to provide its army with fuel. Why're Ukr striking gasoline plants instead of diesel ones ? IDK.

[@evgeniya7853]

Do you really think that NOTHING is burning or exploding ALL over Ukraine? Seriously, gopher?

[@stevenjohnston7809]

@@alexpoetov3213 because cars use gasoline, usually.

[@stevenjohnston7809]

@evgeniya7853 nobody said that Ukraine is not suffering from terrorism, no.

[@pjhgerlach]

The side that succeeds in destroying the others logistics wins the war in the end.

[@orcahang21]

God bless 👊 Ukraine 🇺🇦!

[@georgelionon9050]

Everything interesting, except it doesn't matter how ridiculous something looks, it either works or doesn't. It's not a fashion war.

[@SteveWray]

No, it's not a fashion war. Thats why the Nazis lost the actual war...

[@MattBellzminion]

I appreciate your valiant -- if not entirely successful -- attempt to maintain a straight face when discussing the "turtle" tank. Few of us could do any better.

[@stephenbrand5661]

Another interesting technology I've seen getting media attention recently is the so called "Frankenstein tank" from Rheinmetall that Ukraine's getting from the Germans. It features a Skyranger turret on a Leopard 1 chassis, and it's a very efficient drone killer.

[@gerosa490]

Perhaps, the better WW1 analogy is the development of fighter aircraft when all sides realised that aerial observation aircraft spotting for artillery was a real problem.

[@davidramos5216]

Russia has created interesting things too as turtle tank and golf cart-style infantry troops transport 😊😊

[@gerryhouska2859]

Don't forget their air forces flying turrets and navy's submersible ships!

[@tomasvarga7993]

Focus of this video surprised me a little bit. I've seen just one drone vs drone videos from Ukraine and it is more than year ago, so I don't see it as game changer currently. I raised this question in pro Ukrajine FB group where I see most of real footage from war and I got reply just with one video and it is actually from Russian drone using net against Ukrajine one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5LNdpWtmpeLjJYsi=jwse05Ivho4kHqqo Also there are stories about attempts to gain control over enemy drones but without success. In one case they captured video stream so they could see what operator see.

[@Princip666]

You want Puck to provide balanced and unbiased information? Don't be silly.😆

[@richardsimms251]

Excellent discussion. Thank you RS. Canada

[@magnusnilsson1962]

For the algorithm.

[@T_157-40]

I would think even with Russians having strong EW capability that a joint task force of U.S./UK/France & Germany would co-develop with Ukraine advanced EW that is sufficiently friendly drone weaponized to target Russian drones and identify RU EW sites so artillery could take them out.But the task force needs to have some kind of EW armor on the new EW combat drone to not become a casualty of its own EW weapon. Sounds sci-fi but maybe. Obviously a friendly and more powerful Allied EW system on its own could help Ukraine likely sooner. Are the Allies that much further behind the Russians in EW tech?

[@pcbacklash_3261]

I don't know who's going to win the battle of the drones (though I'd have to give the technological and innovative edge to the Ukrainians), but I do know that this war is going to be studied for YEARS in war colleges all over the world. It's essentially the first war where drones were front and center on both sides of the battlefield.

[@TimJackson-zs1db]

Great content as always, Anders. Alas, the eternal pessimist in me can only see this as a temporary advantage for Ukraine. The Russians can adapt to this (at least to some extent) by some means or other. And, frankly, this Ukrainian super-weapon’s video footage doesn’t imply a great success rate anyway. Good on them for trying anyway, and it’s just possible that the clusterf**k that is Russian procurement will botch the possible effective answers while Ukrainians improve the concept.’I’m not holding my breath though ☹️. Your analogy of WW1 unfortunately holds true with respect to tanks. They were novel solutions and certainly caused problems, but they were not war winners. The Germans adapted and the war ground on for 2 years - final collapse being due to economic and political factors rather than essentially military ones. Which doesn’t say good things about how long this Putin-esque tragi-comedy could play out for ☹️.

[@levesquejean-francois3287]

This is very thin data to go on. This technology doesn't seem to really work, because we've seen so few of them intercepting other drones. Hopefully, I'm wrong. What has got me flabbergasted since the beginning of the war is the overwhelming power of a very basic and old technology, the landmine. WW1 and WW2 were existential fights that involved almost everyone. Ukraine doesn't involve "everyone" to the same extent. That's why real innovation is still a long shot in my opinion. Not every war generates innovation. AI seems also overrated. They've talking about that for 2 years. So far, pretty much nothing has been accomplished with that that I know of. Right now, it's all about if Trump is elected because only time and reliable continuous support from allies seem to be the key to the victory of Ukraine.

[@Abahrelgazalia]

Regarding WWI, it wasn't quite as simple as 'machine guns and trenches made attacking hard'. That's part of it, but armies in WWI actually had an answer to machine guns in trenches--lots and lots of heavy artillery. With enough firepower, initial attacks were often very successful. The problem was that the sheer quantity of artillery fire required to break into an enemy trench obliterated the ground behind the captured trench and made it almost impossible to bring up reinforcements or supplies or additional artillery or telegraph lines that were necessary to continue the attack or even hold onto that new trench. So the enemy--who knows exactly where their old trench was and probably has it pre-sighted for their own artillery--will obliterate it along with everyone of your guys who survived the initial attack and then successfully drive you out out with a counterattack. This goes back and forth until both sides have taken hundreds of thousands of casualties and expended obscene amounts of ammunition and the frontline hasn't moved at all.

[@HereInTheMiddleWithYou]

Turtle tank, aka Mobile Assault Shed (RuMAS)

[@beachbum77979]

I've heard them called Blyatmobiles.

[@obelic71]

yes the drone analogy is comparisable to WW1 aerial combat. For enemy observations and signaling Balloons were already used since the napoleonic wars. During the US civil war they were already commen. The first fixed aircraft were used as recon aircraft, other aircrafts were at first used to prevent shoot down those recon aircraft with hand guns. Recon aircraft had to be protected so the fighter aircraft as a type emerged. WW1 gave an incredable boost to aviation in a short time. In every big war development goes in overdrive to get just that edge over the enemy. Jus look what 2.5 years of combat in Ukraine has already changed combat today. Rules and operational books are mostly torn to shreds and written again from scratch. Obsolete seen anti aircraft systems like the Gepard and Shilka are upgraded to shield for drone attacks.

[@Bakes-z4c]

Obsolescent, still pretty useful against Shaheds. There is a gap, for tracking glide bombs, that may just be a software thing, but I would think gephard might be able hit them with the right cues

[@obelic71]

@@Bakes-z4c modern guidance and tracking systems make those close anti air suport weapons veru vital on a modern drone infected battlefield. You can't jam a protectile

[@WadeHumeniuk]

The situation seems artificially created. Ukraine does not have the full air superiority that the West could provide. Aerial bombing, control of the airspace over the Ukraine and Russia. The air superiority would allow the disruption of Russian supply lines and manufacturing. But like you have said the West doesn’t want Ukraine to succeed too much.

[@stevemcgowen]

Not enough. A real breakthrough will require air power. Drones just aren’t enough.

[@uffa00001]

If a drone goes at 500 km/h, and can be driven remotely, it can assume a zig-zag route that will make very difficult for a cheap and slow drone to intercept it. In the interception we saw, the intercepting drone was almost still and waited for the Russian drone to come near to it, or against it. If the Russian drone had made random zig-zag movements, the probability of interception would become very slim. There are three more effective solutions to throw at the problem: Gepard, Gepard, Gepard.

[@aarhus46]

Hi Anders. In this video your speach speed is very high. It would help me, if you could slow down a little bit in the next video. All the best from Aarhus, Denmark.

[@screwtape2713]

Question: Even today, modern fighter jets can be taken out by accidental bird strikes... so what happens if a fighter-bomber runs into a swarm of small, cheap drones carrying light explosives?

[@olgap.]

Can drones fly as high as fighter jets?

[@screwtape2713]

@@olgap. Kind of depends on what the fighter jet is doing, doesn't it? At maximum speed and altitude - not even close, I expect. But if the fighter jet is trying to do close air support bombing, dropping glide bombs, for example, how high do they fly? And of course, when taking off or coming in for a landing...

[@Usertrappedindatabase]

neutral, interesting, and informative. Keep it up good buddy. Hopefully we dumb humans can study history and remember why war is almost always a very stupid and costly idea.

[@Philip-hv2kc]

In Australia , from space tracking research for space junk there is an anti drone weapon being developed. Called slinger or maybe it's called slingshot.

[@jakobchristensen7055]

I come here for some insights, and I am never dissapointed. Thanks for a great channel. I realise this channel is about the war in Ukraine - but I am curious what you think of the intel, that ukranian specialforces are present around the world fighting russian forces, incl. Wagner PMC. I have read articles stating ukranian presence in Sudan and Golan. What is the purpose of this you think? And how will it influence the war on ukranian soil and how will it effect the perception of the war in Ukraine among the world leaders supporting Ukraine.

[@Emanon...]

I'm afraid this is once more a "wunderwaffe" that'll be too little, too late to provide any meaningful contribution to the war effort. Do we have anything resembling estimates for the numbers they are able to produce and deploy? Or will it be like with rest of the "wunderwaffe" a handful?

[@MrScrofulous]

The tech progress is so rapid, this is already out of date. I saw yesterday and UA is destroying turtle tanks by slowing down and loitering, waiting until infantry open an access into the turtle, fly through the access then boomski. The reduced visibility from the turtle tank will only make that easier.

[@ananamu2248]

Victims develop I telligence faster than abusers because the abusers just do the same old thing ....

[@JH-lo9ut]

A few other technological improvements that led to the stalemate in world war one are often ocerlooked. Tele communication via telegraph and telephone meant that defenders could call for reinforcements and artillery support as soon as they were attacked. The attackers on the other hand, could not call back to report any advancements, until they had laid out phone lines over no-mans land. Handheld radioswere far in the future and any communication back had to be done via flags, flares and homing pigeons. Railways kept the front lines well supplied with food, ammunition and other supplies, but the attacking army hadto carry all their supplies on their backs, crossing the torn-up no mans land on foot. Mass-produced canned foods made it possible to sustain huge armies in the same place for months and years. This had simply not been possible in a time when armies had to forage to sustain themselves. Smokeless powder and the repeating rifle were fairly new unventions that gave infantry a leg up on cavalry. The cavalry charge is way less lethal when a single rifleman can fire accurate, repeated fire against charging enemy horses, whereas in the past they would in the best of scenarios have a very short window of time to fire their single shot, before the cavalry was upon them Lastly, barbed wire. Cheap, quick to deploy over large areas and it lets a single machine gun control a huge area of the battlefield.

[@mikaelcronstam2312]

Stop calling it a Turtle tank, it's a "Jawa Sandcrawler". 🤣🤣🤣

[@dichebach]

The use of drones has rendered standard ground force configurations obsolete, necessitating a reconfiguration of modern military organization from the fire-team level up to address drone threats within the constraints of technology, time, and money. However, such comprehensive changes are unlikely because the scale required to restore previous levels of survivability and combat effectiveness is enormous, and no current regime is likely to undertake it fully. This situation parallels historical military transformations, such as the introduction of pike and shot formations that nullified the value of heavy cavalry and, along with field artillery, made offensives more costly and difficult. This led to more sophisticated fortifications ("star forts") and field defenses, including earthworks and trenches. The Thirty Years' War exemplifies this period of transformation, characterized by prolonged sieges, attrition warfare, economic strain on nations, and static front lines with limited mobility and a focus on key defensive positions. This period of protracted, indecisive warfare began to change in the late 17th and 18th centuries with the development of flintlock muskets, advancements in artillery (such as iron cannons and explosive shells), and more mobile field artillery. Additionally, the shift to line infantry tactics, professionalization of militaries, Vauban's innovations in fortification and siegecraft, and the emergence of centralized state authority and nationalism facilitated these transformations. Thankfully, the Orcs are unlikely to figure this out in time, much less to make anything remotely near the requisite transformations in their military culture and organization. But it behooves us humans to understand that we are now in a whole new world as far as military technology, organization, and warfare. If this were just an isolated incident (referencing the video of the Orc tank being blasted linked above), that would be one thing. But I've seen almost this exact same thing play out a dozen times in these videos on reddit. When a $500 toy can handily defeat and utterly obliterate a $3,000,000 machine (which is also an enormous burden on a military), resulting in a COMPLETE LOSS of the expensive machine and all associated operational personnel and for effectively ZERO losses by the toy opeators, it really is time to re-appraise and contemplate doing things differently. This vulnerability is even true to some degree for other tank designs; but teh Soviet designs with the autoloaders and ammo racks immediately under the turret are particularly vulnerable. -=-=-=-=- Ukraine clearly has a big advantage in this form of warfare right now, and I'm so glad to see so many different signs that this is deeply understood by many Ukrainians involved in strategy, planning and operations (at myriad levels of the countries war effort). By pressing this advantage to its absolute maximum, and multiplying those advantages with better methods for defeating Orc Electronic Warfare, I believe Ukraine can eventually cause so many casualties that the Orc Horde's combat effectiveness is degraded to an absolute minimum and perhaps even causing mutinies or collapse. Supporting these efforts seems to be one of the most clear cut ways Western citizens might assist in Ukraine's fight for victory

[@evgeniya7853]

Are you sure you didn't fart out of importance?

[@cowgoesmoo2]

This is the dumbest clickbait video you put up. Really? Two drones running into each other head on?

[@anotherelvis]

Do air-to-air drones need to carry special weaponry? Or are these just standard kamikaze drones controlled by a skilled pilot?

[@giltee626]

Whatever tech the Ukrainians develop I hope they keep it quiet because announcing it takes away the hero’s advantage

[@toddburgess5056]

If you want to be informed about the situation going on in Ukraine concerning the war that Russia has been waging for the last few years, listen to what Anders Puck Nielson has to say. His perspective, and analysis are spot on.

[@saumyacow4435]

One other thought. The radar systems on the F16s may have the capability to spot drones - at least for some distance. If that information can get relayed to attack drones, that might make a difference.

[@MattRios-jn1qx]

I generally like your videos but this one is wrong. The Ukraine war is NOT a stailmate

[@AB-sr9mc]

ok so the final step in this is obviously AI controlled combat drones.. which cannot be signal jammed, and are almost impossible to shoot down. it will be interesting to see how these drones will distinguish between friend and foe without some sort of electrical communication

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

Lots of Ukrainian companies are doing drones now, and I'm in contact with some of them, to improve/optimize the code (C/C++). They're also looking for more engineers and pilots of course.

[@johnnorris3409]

Writing code in C??? That's so old! I refused a job (in 2005?) because they wanted me to be a C-coder. But maybe it's still best for low level engineering type applications? Whatever works :)

[@paulmariu]

​@@johnnorris3409Fast, robust and reliable codes are needed

[@mahmoudtalebi9974]

@@johnnorris3409 C/C++ is still the most efficient language for coding on embedded platforms, and although there is competition from Rust and other new languages I doubt it can be called “old”, as in outdated. I would call it “mature”.

[@bobthompson-ec4zr]

Im in the USA, can i do some training to become a drone pilot? I like the hunter- killer drones.

[@joey199412]

@@johnnorris3409 Embedded world, microcontrollers and militech is almost entirely C in 2024.

[@bjrnhjjakobsen2174]

I read that Rheinmetal will produce anti drone arms in Ukraine and upgrade the Leopard 1 and 2?

[@rocktubtub]

Nielsen's argues that Ukrainian air-to-air drone combat capability may reduce the defender's current advantage (attacker cannot use element of surprise), implying that Ukraine could then more effectively counterattack. However, if a Russian ISR drone costs $500 and an Ukrainian air-to-air drone costs $5000, it's unclear how exchanging the latter for the former benefits Ukraine. Ukrainian air-to-air drone combat capabilities may be cost-effective against Russian loitering munitions such as a Lancet ($35k) or Shahed ($200k), but this issue (air-to-air combat may counter loitering munitions) is not part of Nielsen's argument. What are the cost implications of proposed Ukrainian air-to-air combat capability? I think air-to-air is a key development. Other anti-drone approaches are less likely to be successful, both on a physics and a cost basis (e.g. a computer-aimed machine gun emplacement is likely more costly per hit and more vulnerable to counterstrikes than an air-to-air combat drone). I'd like to see this development more fully analyzed.

[@anotherelvis]

The Russian $500 drone is a kamikaze drone. An ISR drone such as Orlan-10 is more expensive.

[@drfill9210]

I think that you didn't mention that air power was first used in ww1 for surveillance. It did precisely what the fibres are doing now- removed the element of surprise. Now with drones attacking drones, this is also mirroring ww1, and as you mentioned the static nature of the war... Let me also mention that Germany made massive progress in the first months of the war, then stake because of innovative French tactics... if you squint your brain you could say German incompetence... Basically this is ww1 with mobile phones...

[@sergelecluse0001]

Thanks for the very interesting update. Great job!! 👍

[@johndane9754]

Aw, I thought little .22 guns would be strapped onto the drones.

[@skylar2254]

Cheers Anders, from Canada!

[@Paulus8765]

Hunting drone swarms might offer another solution.

[@Rapscallion2009]

Wouldn't it be great if the entire thing devolved into drones fighting each other, with nobody getting hurt in the process?

[@SteveWray]

What happened in WW1 is that those defensive platforms were given mobility; tanks started as mobile pill boxes, you take the machine guns etc and put them on tracks so you can roll your defenses toward the enemies defenses. If turtle tanks, with ewar, can incorporate defensive anti-drone drones, this would repeat history...

[@Hans-WalterThun-np3yz]

Anders, you are one of the coolest analysts. Thank you, sir!

[@MrJugsstein]

🇺🇦🌻🇦🇺🐨 Save the stolen Ukrainian 🇺🇦 children 👫

[@chiseldrock]

Taste of when tech finally takes over.....

[@erf3176]

I'm not a huge fan of the WW1 comparison for the Russo-Ukraine one. It is somewhat accurate but the Iran-Iraq war is a bit closer given the technology. The conflict soon became static after a while and became trench warfare. There's also some interesting historical parallels. Such as Saddam being concerned with revolution spreading to his country and Putin concerned with color revolution spreading to his.

[@dalefavier2949]

Yeah, I also often think of the Iran-Iraq war. Eight damn years and almost no territory changed hands.

[@GrahamCStrouse]

Adding light machine guns to aerial drones could make a big difference, actually. You don’t need anything fancy. You just need something with decent range that can carry a lot of ammo. Back during WWII most American fighter designers relied on the hood ‘ol fashioned .50 caliber machine guns instead of heavier autocannons for one simple reason. Machine gun ammo is a lot lighter & space intensive than cannon ammo. You can a lot more machine gun rounds than cannon rounds.

[@Elbuarto]

LMGs are way too heavy for drones. A PKM weighs just over 8 kilos without a bipod and western LMGs aren't much lighter. That's way more than what most drones can carry. Baba Yaga drones can carry around 15 kilos but those are absolute chonkers and not exactly common. They'd also struggle with the recoil. One shot and you completely lose control.

[@niallodonnell7827]

An example from WW2 and the Battle of Britain might become relevant. Both the Germans and British had fighters that were only suitable for defense because of their short range. Their lack of fuel weight allowed for the optimization of other abilities involving maneuverability and such. But it cost the Germans dearly because they were on the offensive while the British didn't need the range to defend effectively. I suspect that the first hunter drones will need to be faster than their enemy and since they're fighting in Ukraine itself Ukrainians won't need the range thus giving them a potentially permanent edge in designing better performing drones.

[@maximilianrose4561]

what make anti-air drones so much more useful than conventional electronic warfare and simply using guns? do they offer such a relevant range/aim/... advantage?

[@anderspuck]

EW is a scarce resource and guns only work up to a certain altitude. The drones in question here are the ones above the level of hobby drones but not quite big enough to be brought down with traditional air defense systems.

[@myson2525]

I always thought ww1 went into the stalemate phase because you could not exploit a tactical breakthrough fast enough. ( No tanks in the early phase of the war. ) Speed of the foot soldier was the maximum speed. ( And they get tired after a while 😅)

[@ABCBCNM]

No tanks until the great stalemate (and they were slow, too), but please mind the cavalry.

[@FrankBuchholz-d5z]

The situation reminds me of the eovlution of manned areal comabt in WW1. That also started out with planes and balloons as artillery observers/spotters bevore they started air to air combat that interdicted enemy surveilance.

[@joblo341]

There are more commonalities between Ukr war and WWI. Both are the start of aviation in war. * WWI started with observation ball0ons and light 1 man biplanes for observation. * Then the observation planes got bigger to carry an observer who would at first sketch the features, then photo graph them. * Some bright boy took a pistol up so he could shoot at other, (initially) unarmed observers. * Another carried a satchel full of grenades he could drop on ground troops. * Along the way these observation planes also had the bright idea to shoot up enemy observation balloons. Great fun watching them go down in flames. * These initial efforts were DIY, unofficial. * Slowly the guns and bombs got bigger as the brass got involved. * Fairly quickly the rolls became specialties: * observation planes, unarmed or just light guns. * Dedicated bombers. * Dedicated gun platforms called fighters to shoot the insidious observers and bombers * I know the allies also tried to develop long range unmanned bombs and drones in WWI. They simply did not have the technology * even in WWII, the V1 "buzz bomb" had pitifully simple "guidance". A timer that shut off the motor. * The V2, which was a true ballistic weapon also had rudimentary gyro guidance. Ukraine has followed a very similar pattern: * observation drones * bomber "Quad copter" (and Octo Copters, R-18) with downward pointing camera(s) and various "bombs" * DIY bombers using "hotwired" landing light to trigger a release. * The first "bombs" were simple hand grenades put into a plastic "beer cup" then pull the pin. When it hit the ground, the grenate bounced out of the cup, the spoon was released and eventually the grenade exploded * since then the variety of bombs has "exploded" (pun intended), DIY triggers added to bombs, "Frankensteining" various existing triggers onto bombs (including TM-62 landmines and RPG-7 warheads) they were not designed for. * 3-d printed wings added to bombs to give straighter flight, * fully 3D printed bomb casing that are filled with explosives extracted from other muntitions (like TM-62 mines) * now the government is factory mass producing drone specific bombs of various categories (simple explosive, anti-personel fragmentation, anti-tank shaped charges, thermobaric etc etc) Now Ukraine has drones that can fly unmanned up to 1800km and come close to hitting their designated targets. You mentioned the "shell hunger" this spring past giving the russians an advantage. But there was another effect. In the late winter Ukraine announced the "million drone" initiative and created a new ministry of drones to cut red tape in producing drones. One of the things they did was create lots of standardized bombs for drones. So by this summer, the observation drones were spotting for artillery, but they were also spotting for many attack drones, FPV drones. Units that used to have one or two drones now had 40 or more to use PER DAY, as needed. This wave of drones has been reported by both sides. To the glee of Ukrainian drone units and the dismay of russians on the recieving end. Drone dog fighting started more than a year ago. The attacks on Strela and Lancet drones is a new development. FPV drones may become dedicated "fighters" attacking the russian drones. Ukr already has simple, cheap drone detectors based on cell phones. We've recently started seeing video from observer drones that have been shot at by a couple of types of russian anti-air. They come close, but miss. There can be a couple of reasons. One is that they are programmed for larger targets like helicopters and fighter planes, 2-3 orders of magnitude larger than the drone. They are guided into the "box" for a full size aircraft and miss the drone. The other reason could be that they recognize this and were designed to explode in proximity to the target. But the drones are not large enough to trigger the proximity explosion. So how about a "franken missile". Use the detectors to spot and locate enemy drones. Then fire a new anti-drone "franken missile" that consists of an existing launch motor, with a FPV drone "bolted on", like the GLSDB. When the missile approaches the target it automatically, or even manually deploys the standard small FPV drone to attack the enemy drone. Another way FPV can be used to down enemy drones. Rather than crashing the FPV into the enemy, deploy a wire or even a small net to drag behind the FPV. Then fly the FPV over the enemy drone so that they wire/net get tangled in the prop. The catch can be returned home, or dropped if it is too heavy for the FPV.

[@bosoerjadi2838]

So which side has started to dig the WW1 type tunnels?

[@jimdale9143]

The U.S. Air Force now divides the air above a battlefield into zones based on altitude. Air superiority and air dominance in the lowest zone, likely dominated by drones, will become as critical to ground advances as manned aviation currently is. Air dominance will require dominance of all the zones with a mix of assets. We could see a situation where “contested airspace” means each side dominating different zones.

[@anderspuck]

Agree. It’s a good way to frame the challenge.

[@user-ep1ks2pq5r]

🔴 the title doesn't really reflect the content does it

[@rossramsdell7584]

an end to the nazi right in the U.S. cold have an effect on the end to the stalemate too

[@steffenb.jrgensen2014]

WWI is the obvious comparison but I think each time a new technology/tactic is introduced it leads to tehchnonology/tactics countering it. But this time I think it is quite unigue, that the counter must not just be advanced, but also very cheap.

[@SteveWray]

The countering technology/tactics of WW1 was really just taking those defensive technologies and making them mobile; being able to slowly roll your defenses toward the enemies defenses.

[@nhansemark]

I'm surprised they do not put belt-fed .22LR (AP-T) MGs in a spinal mount on FPV interceptors, perhaps with some limited radar sights. Then again, perhaps FPVs are so cheap the cost-benefit of mounting something reusable like that is not warranted..

[@torehaaland6921]

They have started to experiment with projectile weapons on drones. The big problem they work on, is the recoil issue.

[@nhansemark]

@@torehaaland6921 Yah, I can imagine even a .22LR would have enough recoil for a small FPV to have designers look at the A-10 or Hs129B-3 and be like: what can we learn from this (granted the examples above were fixed wing and not rotary wing craft, I just can't think of a helicopter with an AT-gun mounted as armament)

[@Mishn0]

Is the introduction of the air-to-air drone analogous to the introduction of the tank, or is it more analogous to the introduction of the Fokker Eindecker with its synchronized machine guns?

[@torehaaland6921]

Fokker. You already have started to get ground drones that can be seen as analogue to the intro of the tank. It's still a bit early to be a full analogue. But it will get close enough pretty fast.

[@markbryant4641]

Looking at it like its Ukraine being used to fight Russia, but NATO, the EU, UK, USA and so on don't have to get directly involved. It's a war of manufacturing capabilities. When U fails, which I think it will, an unpopular opinion but anyway, the alliance will be untouched by the military battle, or war. The future you're thinking of will be the same but fought out first by machines that try to get to humans and our assets. When one side's manufacturing capabilities can't compete they'll throw humans into the battle. And then it's just a normal old war. This one is very normal. Drones are a new weapon in an old history of European wars. R will win. I will lose. EU will be hurt. USA is failing on a different level. This is just another war for them.

[@Andreas-gh6is]

I don't think it's a promising approach. For one thing, drones with remote control can be jammed. For another, those are either suicide drones or they have one "shot" each flight, maybe a low number of shots. So you basically against any attack wave you need a swarm of anti-drone-drones, each controlled by its own pilot. Those ADDs are also not that much faster than the drones they are hunting, that makes catching up quite difficult. FPV also means quite a short RF range. Better alternative, already in use in Ukraine, particularly against bomb carrying drones deeper inside Ukraine: An aerobatic trainer aircraft with a pilot and a gunner using a shotgun. Maybe upgrade to a mounted shotgun, eventually. But those planes can fly both slow enough to get a good shot at a drone, they can catch up with the drones easily, and they can shoot down many of them in a single flight.

[@drlegendre]

I often wonder how much of the innovation we're seeing in this conflict is being driven by / leveraged from the huge online hardware hacking and F/OSS communities? From everything I've seen, there is huge sympathy for the Ukrainian cause amongst these groups.

[@laurencehastings7473]

The element of surprise is paramount, however purpose and motivation are also essential. Drone warfare is a majer part of this war and so far the Ukrainians would appear to have the upper hand. They have de-centralised production and R&D. This enables them to adapt quickly and effectively. Ukrainians don't fight by the book, they write their own. Watching recent Magyar videos we can see that flying drones are now be used below tree lines almost at ground level to recce concealed locations and equipment. They also appear to be using more incendiary devices to completely burn out stationary and disabled vehicles. I'm not sure what the advantages of incendiary over explosive devices are but there must be reasons, otherwise Ukraine wouldn't be doing it. I sincerely hope that NATO commanders are observing these developements closely. We can all learn a lot from Ukraine.

[@Mrqwerty2109]

I propose that we name these air-to-air drones "Hunter-Killers" or HKs :)