allardjd 1,853 Posted January 12, 2018 Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 First-Ever Drone Swarm Attack at Russian Military Bases http://www.sciencealert.com/swarm-home-made-drones-strike-military-base-first-attack-kind-russia-uavs I can't say anything about the veracity of this but there are photos. Thirteen UAVs launched against two Russian bases in Syria, none of which did any damage - allegedly. It sounds as if several presumably expensive Pantsir-S (SA-22 Greyhound) SAMs were expended in defending against the attack. This is a great example of asymmetrical warfare - using something cheap to force the expenditure of something expensive to defend against it, or even to defeat something expensive/valuable. It's not unlike how naval aviation rendered capital warships pretty much obsolete in WWII. The UAV shown in the photo looks pretty rough - just typical radio-controlled model airplane airframe/engine technology, but the article claims they were GPS-guided with a potential range of something like 100 KM, which suggests that they were more sophisticated than the one shown looks. The ordnance shown looks to my eye like small mortar rounds - maybe something like the L9A1 51 mm. It's hard to judge but the bombs/missiles shown don't appear to be improvised. My guess is that they are some kind of manufactured standard munition that was adapted to the UAVs. On second thought, I guess that does make them improvised weapons, but my point is that it's manufactured ordnance, so not all THAT improvised. John Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted January 12, 2018 Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) Looks like those bomb jackets or at least the fin asseblies are 3d printed. There are 3d files available online for pretty sophistcated RC airplanes you can print at home...they could have attacked the base with 3d printed p-38 fighters if they wished too. Technology is a double edged sword for sure...militaries have been spending billions of bucks ramping up their UAV programs...and that tech is being used aganst them for pennies now. edit: just realized why the attack had such shitty luck... As evening fell, the Russia air defence forces detected 13 unidentified small-size air targets Edited January 12, 2018 by Captain Coffee 1 Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 6 minutes ago, Captain Coffee said: Looks like those bomb jackets or at least the fin asseblies are 3d printed. Possible, but might also be molded plastic components of a manufactured ordnance round. Making man-portable ordnance lighter so the doggies can carry more of them is one of the current priorities of most militaries these days. The noses of the drone weapons, presumably the fuses, certainly look manufactured. Your point is valid, however. The most sophisticated and potentially expensive thing there would be the GPS guidance. Airframe, engine, fuel system, batteries and ordnance wouldn't amount to much money, and someone sharp with electronics and computers could probably adapt a hand-held GPS, a smart-phone or similar device to feed into the control servos. I don't expect these drones were intended to have pin-point accuracy. It is said that a Tomahawk missile can be programmed to fly into a specific window of a specific building if that's what you want it to do. These things were probably not of that caliber, but still potentially destructive. You probably don't need pinpoint accuracy in a swarm attack against, say, a non-bunkered ammunition dump, a fuel dump or a refinery or a chemical plant, or even the outdoor parts (switchyard and transformers, mainly) of a power plant. A bunch of randomly-placed light mortar round or grenade-sized devices scattered around the premises would probably be enough to cause a catastrophe of some magnitude. John Link to post Share on other sites
brett 2,310 Posted January 12, 2018 Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 I'm calling bulldinkies on this whole thing. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted January 12, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 20 hours ago, brett said: I'm calling bulldinkies on this whole thing. Could be. I haven't seen it reported anywhere else. I wouldn't necessarily accept any of this at face value just because there's "science" in the web address. We've learned to become somewhat skeptical these days when "science" is claimed. John Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted January 12, 2018 Report Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) 31 minutes ago, brett said: I'm calling bulldinkies on this whole thing. As if information coming out of Russia might not be reliable... And..considering potential Boris and Natasha's might be involved, I'd call it BullWinkles, not dinkies. Edited January 12, 2018 by Captain Coffee another damned joke... 1 Link to post Share on other sites
J G 927 Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 It's an interesting concept. You could end up with what amounts to a guided cluster bomb. Link to post Share on other sites
Captain Coffee 2,030 Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 What concerns me about this kind of thing is that commercially available drones have a return to base/GPS location feature... Which I am guessing with some computer Monkey Business could be reset to a different location. Like a target for example. I also assume that navigation system can be taken out of a toy drones and put into a fairly large remote control aircraft with a pretty good range. So that it can be already pre-programmed and ready to go and able to travel several miles from say a box truck with dozens of them loaded inside. I almost bought a toy drone the other day that had an HD camera, and that return to base feature... It was on sale because of some cosmetic damage for around $15. Basically, terrorist drone navigation systems are available for a dime-a-dozen these days if they have a source for the circuit boards and components. If not, they are available for $150 a dozen... still peanuts. It's almost as if the corporate greed that causes the rush to get every new tech on to the market shelves as fast as possible.... Tends to not look ahead very far to anticipate problems that might result. I have similar concerns about self-driving cars and robots of course. Link to post Share on other sites
dodgy-alan 1,587 Posted February 5, 2018 Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 Whatever it was, it's gone now...... Error 1016 Ray ID: 3e866991529b6b79 • 2018-02-05 14:03:18 UTC Origin DNS error What happened? You've requested a page on a website (www.sciencealert.com) that is on the Cloudflare network. Cloudflare is currently unable to resolve your requested domain (www.sciencealert.com). What can I do? If you are a visitor of this website: Please try again in a few minutes. If you are the owner of this website: Check your DNS settings. If you are using a CNAME origin record, make sure it is valid and resolvable. Additional troubleshooting information here. Cloudflare Ray ID: 3e866991529b6b79 • Your IP: 2a02:c7d:32dc:fd00:822:b00:b898:e1ad • Performance & security by Cloudflare Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 Try it again, Al. I just clicked the link in the original post and it still works for me. John Link to post Share on other sites
J G 927 Posted February 9, 2018 Report Share Posted February 9, 2018 Origin DNS error is something to do with your service provider I think. Its an error that occurs when your DNS cant be resolved and so incoming data cant be routed to you, at least that is how I understand it. Link to post Share on other sites
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