by Chris Black
The cool thing about these ultra-cheap suicide drones is that whoever uses them wins regardless whether they get shot down or not.
Don’t get shot down?
Well then, it hits the target and takes it out as intended.
Do manage to shoot it down?
Good job, you just wasted a $23 million missile against a cheap flying Dorito.
Russian forces have started using a new tactic to destroy Ukrainian SAMs.
Shahed/Geran drones fly towards Ukrainian SAMs and act as bait. This reveals the location of the SAM, which are then destroyed by Lancet kamikaze drones – Ukraine press director Alexei Dmitrashkovsky. pic.twitter.com/EiDOylmiTd
— MT WORLD (@MTWORLDNEWS) April 25, 2023
Iran also, in some ways their drones are more effective & cost effective than US drones. The US has now cancelled orders for the switchblade loitering munition. Meanwhile Russians are using Iranian/Russian drones daily. Shahed-136/Geran-2 in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/6kmynBNbPc
— Realpolitik (@mr_geopolitics) April 27, 2023
Missiles are expensive. Guns & cannons are both cheap & effective against the drone threat.
Combined arms ADA was a lesson Ukraine practiced…
…until Shahed strikes at its power grid pulled much of its short range air defense combined arms team to cover those assets.
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) April 26, 2023
Ukraine is on the verge of depleting their air defence missiles if they haven’t done so already, and these Iranian Cool Ranch Doritos are largely to thank for that.
It shows a good example of how much poorer nation can fight an asymmetrical war against a wealthier country and still win.
Is the west wealthier than Russia or Iran? Sure.
But not to such a degree that they can spend million dollar missiles to take out cheap Iranian drones.
No amount of Biden throwing money at the problem can overcome this.
Shahed 136 – a nasty enemy UAV that terrorizes Ukrainians • t.co/xto56Riegb t.co/dJHtk9SC02
— SIR RESISTANCE IS NOT FUTILE 🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@CliveGeorgeHil1) October 8, 2022
Iran also has 3-in-1 drones. They’ll carry a modest deployable munitions, they’ll then serve as an observation drone and at the end, they are a suicide drone with internal munitions.
Working together it’s absolutely terrifying.
I was reading about the US 80s tank called the Starship the other day.
It had the capability to fire ATGMs called Shelleleighs through the barrel.
These missiles cost around $4000 each – that made my jaw drop.
Imagine the US using sub-million dollar guided sub munitions.
Old Raytheon fuck*d things up with their greed and overdevelopment.
They got too used to suckling on the teat.