Man vs machine
Drone interception strategies and tech, Ukraine and Russia. Trump brothers. Starlink down?
Posting videos of killed soldiers is distasteful. But luckily, there is one area of warfare were one can still find ethical glee: robots destroying other robots.
The videos of Russia’s Yolka interceptor drones taking down targets are incredibly entertaining. I particularly enjoyed this recent one, especially with the musical score. As you can see, once the Yolka has locked onto its target, it autonomously tracks it down and rams it.
Anyway, today we’ll be looking at some of the ways that Russia and Ukraine are detecting and destroying enemy drones. This is just as effective as creating and launching effective drones.
Today’s topics:
Why Ukraine’s quantitative advantage in long-range drones over Russia is somewhat misleading.
The reforms and ongoing limitations in Ukraine’s complex air defense system, and why Russia is trying to adopt something similar.
What was revealed by a recent Ukrainian testing conference on acoustic, radar, and visual drone detection technologies.
Some new Ukrainian interceptor drones, and how exactly Trump’s sons are involved (and some Israeli companies, where would we be without them). Heavy drones, water drones, what kinds of drones aren’t there.
Ukraine’s experiments in sea drones carrying interceptor drones for aerial drones. And how Russia has been targeting Ukrainian sea drones.
Some highly entertaining videos of Russians hunting (and evading) American Hornet drones. These AI-powered wunderwaffen, it turns out, are not immune to machine guns. The Russians are also increasingly deploying interceptor drone teams along key logistics routes.
Finally, what might be most important — Russia’s increasingly visible, domestically produced electronic warfare system that is capable of disabling drones running on Starlink. Ukraine’s drones, particularly its best ones, are almost completely dependent on Starlink, hence making this new development extremely dangerous.
