522
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
522 points (98.5% liked)
World News
39023 readers
2335 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
By the looks of the videos I've seen, the Ukrainians have turned small drone warfare into an artform.
They use them to find the Russians from up high and either send artillery or other drones, and seem to have designed a sport like "from how high can you drop a grenade into an open hatch?". I believe that any high, whirring sounds on the front will make Russians nervous in the future.
There was one account here on Lemmy saying that the drones cannot be heard due to ubiquitous tinnitus and the low range of high pitched noises.
That's why those soldiers never react to drones flying overhead.
Even with good hearing you can fly consumer drones high enough that no one on the ground can hear them.
That high makes them pretty difficult to see as well.
You could probably use this as a tactic to cause mayhem on the front lines.
If there's a line you are having difficulty pushing through just fly like 2 dozen cheap drones over head and soldiers may start to run just because they hear the whirring, the drones don't even have to have grenades equipped, or maybe just a few so they hear some explosions.
There is footage on Ukraine channel of a drone flying through a dense forest and making several passes over trenches through there before finding a soldier and doing a suicide run into him.
I wonder if they have so many drones that a single soldier is worth it?
It’s more than the cost of a human life versus the cost of a drone. That footage is now propaganda. Imagine you’re a Russian soldier who knows fairly little about technology. Now imagine that clip makes its way to you. Ukranians are willing to take out even a single soldier. How safe are you?
Also, that single soldier could have been a scout with some useful information. Secrets are the most expensive weapon in any war.
Human beings are expensive - munitions are relatively cheap. A suicide drone is probably around 20k - 20k for an enemy casualty is a bargain in modern wars.
And that's exactly why Ukraine is kicking ass. Paying $20k or $30k for a single enemy casualty is a pretty good deal in warfare. But these drones aren't going through some huge defense contractor, they're being 3D printed and assembled from off-the-shelf parts. Basically a little army of logistics people building hobby drones out of consumer level equipment, just with an improvised explosive like a grenade or some similar impact explosive strapped to the bottom.
They aren't even paying $20k for a casualty, they are paying $1-2k for a hobby drone and a grenade and many of them create multiple casualties.
The more expensive ones cost more, but those are the ones you see that are reusable and can drop several grenades in one flight. Those are more like $5k-$20k. Still an insane bargain even if each one only creates one casualty before it is destroyed.
The suicide FPV drones they are using are a few hundred to a thousand dollars. The recon/grenade-dropping drones, depending on model, get that expensive.
Yes, they create those FPV drones themselves and then stick a premade explosive like a 40mm HE or and RPG warhead on them. The drones are alao mostly 3D-printed.
https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/08/17/ukraine-develops-autonomous-fpv-drones-photos/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2023/04/11/the-new-company-mass-producing-attack-drones-for-ukraine/
Two recent examples, but they cost about a few hundred to a thousand dollars each.
It's worth it to force the other soldiers to take cover and slow their advance, it's worth it to control their pace.
It's also about terror, it's about sending a message.
From the clips I've seen, if this ever becomes an Olympic sport the rest of us have 0 chance.