• Pennomi@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Defense Minister Ruslan Umerov said 96% of all drones fielded by the Ukrainian military are domestically manufactured. Syrsky said during 2024, Ukrainian drone producers delivered more than 1.3 million robot aircraft to the armed forces. About 85% of all Russian casualties and vehicle kills on the battlefield are scored by Ukrainian drones, Malyuk said.

    Very interesting to see the statistics. I always assumed drones were doing the most damage but it’s nice to have a number confirm this.

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
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      19 days ago

      This war is a sample of what all major conflicts between industrialized nations are going to look like from now on. Even more utterly horrific for the average soldier. Death from above at any moment without warning, fuzzy front lines, the whole thing.

      • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Probably not. It only worked so well against Russians because of how shitty their military is. A modern army with properly running vehicles and operating bases (instead of scrap heaps and open trenches) isn’t nearly as susceptible to short range civillian drones.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
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          18 days ago

          You need a small automatized AD machine gun or similar for every group of soldiers. Can be done, but requirea a huge amount of those anti-drone guns. Basically the amount of soldiers on the front, divided by ten or so.

          • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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            18 days ago

            Or just adequate cover. Or a drone jammer (something which exists and is available to civilians). Or a strategy that doesn’t leave your troops milling around in open trenches for weeks at a time. Or a reaper drone flying overhead that detects the signal from smaller civilian quadcopter which then jams the drone, locates it’s origin, ID’s the operators with thermal vision and lodges a hellfire missile up their ass.

            Again, a competent modern military isn’t going to be vulnerable to this type of tactic.

    • perestroika@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      They would prefer to have more artillery, though. In case-by-case evaluations (e.g. enemy tank formation spotted maneuvering at comparable distance), it often takes a much longer time (e.g. over an hour vs. some minutes) to neutralize the same kind of an opponent with drones, compared to smart artillery shells (e.g. BONUS).

      Also, in some weather drones don’t fly.

    • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Yeah. This entire conflict has had a certified MGS4 „War has changed” vibe to it since the very beginning.

    • slaacaa@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      That percentage is way higher, than I expected. Happy for them, but the future of warfare sure looks scary

    • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      That’s good to know because it indicates they are less reliant on the US than one might assume. They’re doing 85% of the killing with their own tools.

      • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        True, but air defense is also critical. If Russia gets total air supremacy that changes a lot.