New Chinese Drone Threat

Mover and Gonky discuss new Chinese drone tech that has many worried. www.businessin...
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The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement.
Views presented are my own and do not represent the views of DoD or its Components.

[@cagdascevrim69]

When American Air Force fighter pilots are saying it’s a scary time….it might just be a scary time.

[@HeatMyShorts]

I appreciate that Gonky mutes his mic when he coughs.

[@thinkingbill1304]

In 1913 few people had any idea of what to do with airplanes, tanks & machine guns. By 1918 things were clear....mostly. In 2024 we are around "1914" still. Stand by!

[@kd5you1]

Its just like the drones in the TV show Dark Angel. Those had cameras, face recognition and machine guns. With the way things are going, it wouldn't be too hard to make that a reality.

[@worldwanderer91]

Black Ops 2 is the future

[@paperburn]

Laser Close-In Weapon System is in development right now. LCIWS.

[@sundragon7703]

And the proximity fuze R&D folks are jumping for joy.

[@JonWMeyer]

I wonder if something like flak might be a cost effective weapon against drone swarms. At the weights and sizes of some of these drones, I doubt they have much armor.

[@ronald8673]

Supposedly shells with magnetic particle dispersal payload is being tested along with blanket rf scramblers.

[@everypitchcounts4875]

MQ-25 can carry 2 LRASM. XQ-58 Valkyrie can store an undisclosed amount of switchblade-300, switchblade-600, altius-600 or altius-700 in its weapons bay. Imagine how many perdix micro drones it can carry. 3 F-18 fighters were able to carry 103 during testing.

[@blacklake13]

Honestly, the Chinese thing doesn't sound particularly different from one of the larger drones that deploys a number of smaller drones the US has been toying with. I'd think the end effect would be pretty much the same.

[@hoghogwild]

If a single target can now break up into 6 targets, then we need a weapon that closes with the targets and THEN breaks up into 6 warheads. Think of those US cluster weapon dispensers that throws off those spinning skeets which in turn searches for hard targets on the ground. Sort of like a shotgun shell where each buck/bird shot pellet has its own precision capability.

[@fredbyoutubing]

Next episode would be a good opportunity to talk about what countermeasures are being developed.

[@alandaters8547]

Yes one drone could be designed to carry and air launch 6 smaller drones, BUT: If there is an optimal weapon payload for the original drone, the "mother" drone will have to be at least 6 times larger in order for each smaller drone to have the same payload. Unless the separation occurs far out, there may be a significant vulnerability to losing all 6 with one missile if the mother can be hit. If the dispersing drone effect is meant to create decoys, that would seem to be a more reliable threat. As for combating drone swarms, directed energy weapons are a plausible surface based defense at close and medium range, especially as drones are generally slow.

[@epectitus4873]

Id suggest logging this next to their carrier strike force and 5th gen capability. Sure, you dont pay it off, thats stupidity, but you also assess it against the PRC's record of statements vs reality

[@mtevilone]

I would think that the more enemy assets in the air, the easier to use electronic countermeasures to defeat them. That is a lot of signals bouncing around.

[@drones7838]

Prior to World War I, most armies had a Calvary unit after the industrialization of the tripod mounted machine gun. Most Calvary units were downsized to a handful of people from tins of thousands have done the same thing for the way we are going to have to work in the future.

[@dbloemer]

The challenge with such a device is payload capacity. Probably intended for attack rather than reconnaissance, which means you need a warhead. If you want to do any significant damage, it needs to be big and therefore heavy - not something a soldier could carry in their backpack. The only place i see this being reasonably used is in close ground combat, where they could act as a short range, ground launched cluster munition against an opposing army squad. Not something airborne assets would become involved with because of the short flight time. Army and Marine units OTOH need to have a defense against them.

[@hiratiomasterson4009]

Guess we need some more Gepards, just at a smaller scale for smaller drones. Ideally, may need to start looking more closely at smart airburst munitions. Other than that, patriotic pigeons with frickin' lasers...

[@AfroAviator626]

Star Wars clone wars

[@warrentrout]

6? A shipping container opens and 1,000 fly out.

[@Philistine47]

One backpack drone is not going to become six backpack drones. That's not an engineering problem, that's a "fundamental principles of physics" problem - and if the PRC has found a way to get around the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy, multiplying drone swarms are going to be the _least_ of our worries. No, the big drone you start with will have to be _at least_ the size of six backpack drones, possibly more if there are connectors or a docking framework or something that gets jettisoned in the separation. Also, I'm not really seeing the benefit of splitting one big drone into six smaller, less capable drones, over (say) one big drone firing six missiles and going back home. Especially when the one big drone that _doesn't_ need to split into six independently-operating drones is going to have better range, better payload, better speed, better sensors, and better controls than the one which has to carry six copies of every single system on board.

[@RedTail1-1]

And that's the thing. People hear drone and they think quadcopter commercial drone. When they are mostly unmanned aircraft like the Reaper. I've seen too many people using thumbnails of quadcopter drones when talking about the drones Iran is sending at Israel and the U.S Navy.

[@rossherman4515]

Just based on that idea of the seed pod I suspect they are doing something along these lines > kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5ack4eLjq59bMU . This concept can be controllable in more than one axis with some smart throttle control and wing pitch control. Maybe one extra control surface. As stated by Mover, its most likely just to overwhelm AD to allow the real stuff in. If you correctly arrange those wings you can create a pretty efficient flyer. If one guy can get this right in his backyard...

[@everypitchcounts4875]

US army just ordered 600 Raytheon coyote 2c interceptor drones. Greek army recently ordered some as well.

[@warrentrout]

That's good for one day then...

[@crazypetec-130fe7]

My engineering instincts tell me it would be cheaper and more effective to build 6 small drones than to go to all the trouble and expense of building one big fancy drone that splits into 6.

[@hoghogwild]

Cheaper, yes, more effective. No. A single blip on your radar screen that suddenly breaks out into 6 blips will be more effective at beating your defenses than seeing 6 blips approaching for an extended amount of time.

[@p35seversky]

Couldn’t we miniaturize some missile systems. I mean like really tiny almost like rockets that use B or C size motors. Obviously maybe more powerful motors or modified things. Now you would have to consider effective range but say you have idk 2000 of these in one unit. I’d say cost per unit 100-500 dollars. They obviously would be a more close in weapon system and you can build slightly bigger ones for more range and still be very effective and cost effective. There essentially “Drone Sams”. The electronic warfare option is probably more cost effective but sometimes ya need a projectile to shoot at rather than the invisible electron waves.

[@graveperil2169]

Ukraine have been using carrier drones they are larger and have better coms than the small suicide drones but they can carry the smaller drones and act as a coms relay extending the range and making interference harder

[@jerseyshoredroneservices225]

When I read the title of this video I thought "Here we go again, another ridiculous claim that a Mavic 3 is going to blow up a nuclear facility" As I watched the video I was relieved to see that they're talking about the latest military tech, not consumer drones. But then my fears came to life and Lemoine segued to "Here At home" and "A kid with a backpack" apparently making a terrorists attack that requires shooting down drones. That's the kind of far-fetched conspiracy I would expect to hear from someone like Marjorie Taylor Green...😢

[@capella95]

What’s far fetched about that? The “kids with a backpack” are how a lot of tanks are being taken out right now in Ukraine. Border patrol intercepts Chinese nationals every month.

[@BBiggar02]

Seems like the answer to this problem is ECM related, dont shoot them down, just jam them and watch them fall from the sky.

[@drewski6974]

BABUSHKA DRONES

[@baomao7243]

Best comment

[@grapeape780]

EMP/Laser cannons? Idk.

[@kd5you1]

Air cannon.

[@gregorymaupin6388]

Look up the old movie Runaway Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. There’s drones but they crawl.

[@ronald8673]

If they can also release cluster bombs or bumble bee drones. Game over

[@falcon3268]

I am sorry but that claim that a single drone that can split into 6 others sounds to fantasy. I mean the only time this could happen is in video games like in Ace Combat 7. One other thing that I want to point out is that remember the unveiling of their new stealth jet the SU-57 (maybe Russias) that claims to have all of these amazing things that it can do yet it hasn't even been test flown or has large numbers. I know that we do this at our own risk but you got to realize that once this hit the Internet someone in the US government development department is going to start working on the problem so when and if they do release these things into combat we are going to be prepared for it.

[@graveperil2169]

ukraine has used larger drones expensive to carry small short range drones with the larger drone acting as a coms relay and extend the range of the cheap drones also means its more likely that the larger more expensive drone can e used more than once

[@appa609]

This is not a military asset it's a university research project with some PLA funding.

[@Gusramosferreira]

Cluster drones...

[@blacklake13]

But can the Chinese make six drones that merge together to form a big robot like the Japanese can?

[@charlesmontgomerybenny6891]

Than Gonky should definitely do a comment video on Ace Combat 7. LMAO

[@Archer89201]

Big drones carrying medium drones carrying small drones carrying micro drones

[@stupidburp]

The PLA has a vast number and variety of drones already acquired in inventory. They are experimenting with using them for different purposes and at different price points and capability levels.

[@Snoop_Dugg]

There's a lot of corruption as well, so many of them may not have the best build quality.

[@stupidburp]

They don’t need to be good quality, only cheap and effective enough for disposable use. Both sides in the Ukraine War are mostly using drones that are made in China. The vast majority of civilian drones are made in China. The US has an angle on high end drones such as Reapers but China dominates the low cost end of the spectrum.

[@Snoop_Dugg]

@stupidburp Yes exactly. I just couldn't help thinking of the term tofu dreg construction.

[@stupidburp]

Apparently some of the barracks buildings on the artificial islands they built are falling apart like typical tofu dreg apartments.

[@ProjectSerpo90]

I’ve been asking this question since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started but have not gotten a real answer. Wouldn’t something like a Phalanx CIWS or MANTIS be fantastic and way, way cheaper for taking out drone swarms than wasting a $250k missile on a $10k drone? I know the Ukrainians got some Gepards but i feel like Israel could seriously benefit from a CIWS to help take the load off Iron Dome which only has a limited number of Tamir interceptors that need to be reloaded.

[@deanwilliams433]

Phalanx CIWS is 8-18 million each. So a swarm coming from multiple direction only needs one drone to hit and it's still much cheaper. And these are $250-$500 drones that can do this. The system that shoots down the drones cannot be more than 5 times the cost of the drone itself.

[@ProjectSerpo90]

@@deanwilliams433Yes the drones will always be cheaper than the air defense system, but the CIWS or Mantis is still cheaper that firing hundreds of Tamir interceptors at $250k a piece. Israel’s defense against the Iranian attack was estimated to cost $1bil and i think thats probably a low estimate. Once the weapon is in place, surely its cheaper to fire it than interceptors, no? And if we leave cost out of it, i still think its a good idea as a last line of defense against over saturation of air defense network. We saw on 10/7 how easily Iron dome can be overwhelmed by large salvos of rockets. Maybe i’m wrong but i know personally id rather have a CIWS or MANTIS to fall back on.

[@deanwilliams433]

@@ProjectSerpo90 I don't disagree that its a better system. All I meant is that if they put it in place then it becomes the target and its still an expensive piece of equipment. I do agree a layered defense is necessary.

[@ProjectSerpo90]

@@deanwilliams433 Very true. Yeah layered air defense is absolutely necessary. Hopefully these laser weapons they are planning to field like Iron Beam are effective. If they work and can target multiple incoming projectiles in rapid succession you will have an air defense asset that’s estimated to cost $2,000/shot. Far from perfect or cheap but at least it’s way less than an interceptor.

[@2atalkandpolitics422]

While that is a legitimate threat I think it’s a lot of hyperbole coming out of China. It’s still in development phase so like our military you can develop it, but it doesn’t mean it’s gonna be fielded. It could be deemed a waste of time and resources and money and we don’t even know what we have fully for our military tech because there’s a lot of dark projects you know that are out there Weapon ready to help shut down drones, counter drone technology, etc.

[@behindthen0thing525]

Yeah yeah

[@nobodycares9579]

That we probably paid for.

[@MichaelSmith-il3wm]

🤙🔥❤️🤙🔥❤️🤙

[@garyradtke3252]

Mover is right. Just because China doesn't have a good reputation for manufacturing good consumer products doesn't mean their military high end stuff is the same. They push their consumer crap to us because they know that most people purchase according to price and not quality but when it comes to their military hardware I wouldn't just assume it's also crap. They are the ones that invented fireworks that became missiles. Besides, they manufacture all of the consumer and commercial drones for non military so it stands to reason that they have gained a lot of knowledge in the engineering of drones. It sounds like early detection and destruction is the name of the game against this type of weapon.

[@deanwilliams433]

I agree and its also not true that China cannot build high quality. Look at the tolerances of Apple manufacturing and all of that is in China. When Apple tried to build the last gen Mac Pro (trash can) in the US it could not meet the tolerances that their own China factories were doing. We need to face it, we fell behind in manufacturing at scale due to greed.

[@Quis85]

Bring the battleship back and the upgraded version of the TomCat. For the battleships take 5in guns and replace with the seawiz! I dont know im just talking mess lol 😂. But i would love to see both come back to life but more moderen version of course.

[@indy500tabasco8]

👽👽👽👽🌎👽👽👽👽