We are in another middle east quagmire, harming civilians, and committing war crimes under the orders of a Republican child rapist felon – maybe by chance
Is it 2003 again?!
“Military helicopter intercepted Iranian drone”
Heroic, you forgot “heroic”.
“Military helicopter intercepted heroic Iranian drone”
Keep up the good work Iran!
The article is making a big deal about the huge price disparity, which I get. But on the other hand, this is basically true about all missiles. As a rule, missiles are cheaper than the vehicles you destroy with them.
I’m sure you could find a few exceptions, but in general missiles are much cheaper than aircraft, and a “kamikaze drone” is just a guided missile.
You’re right AND The big deal about drones is they are even cheaper and easier to make than missiles.
The point is more that even wars come down to economy.
All other things being equal, (s)he with the biggest economic breath has the biggest chance of winning
Where things get less equal is when you start destroying 25 million dollars of your opponent at the cost of 25 thousand for yourself.
This means, again all other things being equal, and assuming that you can continue making these kills, that your opponent needs an economy a thousand times larger than yours to be able to continue this in a sustainable way
This is in part also why Ukraine has been so successful against Russia, they found ways to cause millions of dollars worth of damage to Russia with relatively tiny budgets. Also, Ukraine’s focus is on crippling the Russian economy while Russia is still using the “let’s murder and terrorize their entire population” strategy from WWII which hasn’t worked out well for them
The math works out in the Drones’ favor I think. $25M/$35K -> a 1:714 ratio of helicopters to drones, on a dollar-to-dollar basis. So… I’d say “by probability” instead.
This is the primary reason the us military budget should go from 1.5 trillion to 0.5 trillion. If we shifted to drone dominance the cost would go way down, we’d have a stronger military, and we could use that extra trillion to pay down debt, fund more healthcare, share profits with US citizens, the list of possible amazing things is huge.
Will we do this? Maybe eventually but not while we have big strong dumbass in charge.
We’ll find a way to do it, but only at the expense of the middle class.
Will we do this? Maybe eventually but not while we have big strong dumbass billionaire business titans in charge.
World needs less weapons, not more, cheaper ones (making human life even cheaper). Find a better list (healthcare is fine, like civilized countries have). Maybe some soft power helping others, oh, wait, mad king…
If it took Russia so long with far smaller military budget, for USA it would take an existential war, so abundance of funds is sort of a defense social contract. Things cost 5x what they could, but they get designed, produced, procured, maintained and combined into a system.
Unless there’s some political struggle where the old military industry supports one side and the other needs a new military.
We just need an alternate industrial base real quick.
The Apache was deployed because its sensors could detect and shoot down drones. There is no way it was downed by a drone.
It wasn’t designed for a marine environment. This is a complex piece of equipment that most likely failed due to salt corrosion.
The USA has a long history of faking attacks to justify wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(1890)#Sinking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident#Second_alleged_attack“There is no way” is a pretty bold statement, especially when the official reports indicate that it was in fact a shahed drone that hit it.
Sensors can fail, humans can fail, equipment can malfunction. It is very possible that the drone made it past the helicopter’s defensive systems.
Whether or not it was an accident or a deliberate attack is open for debate.
USCENTCOM has never officially said the copter was hit by a drone.
the closes they came is this.And if you read the article it doesn’t say anything about drones.
The best i can find out is the crash is still under investigation.
I worked for the army for 30 years as a civilian at redstone arsenal where the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command headquarters are. They are responsible for the apache. I never worked on the copters, but brushed shoulder with the people who did. The statements made so far are a classic case of the president wants it to be an attack, so let’s agree without lying.
Also i gave you two links to previous episodes like this. Did you read them?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(1890)#Sinking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident#Second_alleged_attackBut there have been officials who stated it to news sources.
Anyway. That’s not the point. The point is that you ruled out the possibility that it was a drone. And speaking in absolutes is a very good way to make sure you’re wrong.
I understand that people who work on the apache think it’s invincible, but it isn’t. That’s the mistake the US keeps making. They don’t understand asymmetric warfare. They have proven this time and time again, from Vietnam to now. In the current day and age, the apache is an archaic machine. It may be high-tech and have awesome firepower, but that’s the thing with asymmetric warfare: that’s not a strength, but a weakness. The US has been burning through their weapons and funds at an unsustainable rate.
On top of asymmetric warfare, cheap drone warfare has completely changed the battlefield. All bets are off. What has been true in the last 30 years is not true anymore. There are kill zones in Ukraine 20 miles wide and the Ukrainian army are using drones to kill roughly 30k Russian soldiers per month at the moment.
We’ve already seen the footage of a Ukrainian FPV drone take down a Russian attack helicopter… what makes you think it couldn’t happen to an American one? Why couldn’t one slip through an apache’s defenses?
And everyone knows the US government has been up to some morally bankrupt actions to justify their wars, but that is not what I was arguing. That being said, that part also doesn’t really make sense. Trump isn’t looking for escalation. His popularity is decreasing rapidly due to this war, even among his constituents and when the prices at the pump really go up this summer he knows he’s really screwed. He’s got the midterms coming up and all he wants is to make a deal as soon as possible. The only one who really wants to keep going is Netanyahu.
“But there have been officials who stated it to news sources.”
And those statements have been made anonymously and without credible evidence to back up the statements. It’s just spin.
Over my career I saw the truth on the ground verses the stuff that came out the mouths of the “officials” they rarely if ever matched reality. Especially when it was a politician talking.
As for the rest of your statement, there is just so much wrong in it I’m not going to spend hours swatting it all down. I’ve made a valid effort to provide some reality to the news spin. I decline to comment further.
Ahh yes, just “so much wrong”…
You just don’t have a clue what you’re talking about so don’t even know where to begin. You haven’t got an iota of knowledge or understanding about geopolitics and it shows.
What I told you is real, and no amount of “nah-uh!” is going to change that.
Thanks for wasting my time.
The Apache could also possibly have been downed by Israel to sabotage the ‘peace talks’.
Yeah right. Wtf are you smoking?
The Israel’s have no assets in that area that could bring down an apache.
It has one of the best sensor packages available, you cant just sneak up on it and shoot it.
How do you make sensors so good? Are you sensing air pressure disturbance, high frequency sound, electromagnetic radiation, … ?
I only ask because I wonder if something like a basic mounted, no internal-targeting, missile would be detected. E.g., if all routing is determined before fire, pre-loaded, and the final payload flies without emitting a signature.
At a cost difference of 1:700, I think you can afford to miss a few shots.
The drone engine is hot and traveling at subsonic speeds. Mostly it’s just the right radar and the right thermal sensors connected to the right software.
A lot of modern platforms have networked capabilities so it’s not just a helicopter and a drone. Everything in the air and ground and at sea tend to work together.
Well, it supposed to work together… I’ve been retire for about a decade. I’m sure they have moved on since i stopped paying attention.
Well done!!!
well drone, in this case
