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Comment on Killer drones pioneered in Ukraine are the weapons of the future

Don’t take my word for it but my understanding is that your average FPV drone is much more rudimentary than a camera drone like Mavic. It’s basically just a battery, 4 motors, a camera, antenna and some flight controller chip. There’s no GPS or return to home feature as far as I know. I don’t think many of these are even able to hover on their own but require constant input from the pilot.

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tal@lemmy.today ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know if that’s true or not – at least some of them definitely do, but maybe some don’t – but those capabilities are cheap enough that they can afford to have them there if it’s what it takes to make the drone work in the presence of electronic warfare. A dumb artillery shell in the US is, from what I can dig up, about $800. The DJI drones are rather cheaper than that.

To put it another way:

faac.com/…/killer-instinct-how-many-soldiers-actu…

During World War II it was estimated that 45,000 rounds of small arms ammunition was fired to kill one enemy soldier. In Vietnam the American military establishment consumed an estimated 50,000 rounds of ammunition for every enemy killed.

thegunzone.com/how-much-does-5-56-nato-ammo-cost/

On average, the price of 5.56 NATO ammo ranges from $0.40 to $1.00 per round.

By comparison, the drone is probably pretty cost-effective. If having a GPS chip is important to make it usable, cost isn’t going to be a barrier.

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- eleitl@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Dumb artillery shells are more 6000-8000 usd in the West.
  
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  - tal@lemmy.today ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    googles
    
    twitter.com/…/1580582881767718913?lang=en
    
    A regular 155 mm shell costs around $500.
    
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    eleitl@lemmy.ml ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That’s what it costs in Russia and North Korea. In the EU the costs are as I cited. And there are no production capacities at the volume required. China stopped exporting the specific type of cotton used for cordite production. Nitric acid is expensive and hard to get.
    
    You can print billions of banknotes easily. You cant do that with millions of shells.
    
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    skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    GLSDB is cheaper than regular GMLRS rocket. ramjet 155mm is prototype. there’s another obscure 155mm ammunition called vulcano that basically packs smaller HE sabot round in 155mm, trading off payload for range, ramjet takes it even further
    
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    skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    not when there’s a shortage
    
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