km actually. But miles works, because ‘maximum wange’ is hard to pin down. The world record for a hobby RC plane is huge - one flew across the Atlantic, 1,888 miles. A quadcopter in South Korea managed to stay aloft for 12 hours.
The quadcopter that dropped the cluster of grenades looks similar to this one:
$1749. It can carry 3.3 kg, and fly for 30-60 minutes, depending on payload.
For actual drones, there are a whole bunch of them available for $5,000-$15,000 that are typically used for aerial survey, pipeline inspection, etc.
This one can carry 2.5kg for 3 hrs. That would translate into a range of probably 150km if you want it back, or 300km if you don’t mind losing it. A switchblade 300 would fit under one of them, and would have an additional 10km of range on its own. $12,000, but still only 1/10 the price of a single Excaliber shell.
Now, a Switchblade 300 or a hand grenade aren’t going to do THAT much damage to infrastructure, but if you drop one on a fuel storage tank or an expensive AWACS plane, or target an important VIP, they’re fine.
I’m not completely sure. The Switchblade is advertised as being both controlled but with autonomous targeting, and it can talk to other drones and get rargeting from them.
But yeah, it would probably require some electronics mods to make this work. There are other small autonomous guided munitions that could be used though. Or you could just load the big drone with 2.5kg of explosives and kamikazee it. It’s basically then a long range guided bomb for 1/10 the price of a guided artillery shell that has 1/2 the range.
Another great thing about them is that they are almost certainly cheaper than anything that could shoot them down. So even if they are getting shot down you are winning.
And it seems to me that these sorts of drones are a weapon that Russia is inherently incapable of deploying. The sort of innovation, improvisation, and autonomy that goes into making things like this are precisely what Russian culture shuts down, and if the culture needed to innovate like this were more common in Russia, it probably would have led to someone other than Putin being in charge in the first place. You can’t order a unit of 100 convict soldiers to weaponize toy drones, not even if some of those convicts happen to be the sort of electronics nerds who have the capability to do it.
The Saiga 12 is a Russian 12 gauge semi auto shotgun with ten round magazines or 25 round drums.
It might be wise to create shotgun teams, like the US BAR teams of WWII.
Shotguns might be effective for those little quadcopters dropping hand grenades while hovering. In the videos posted online you can often see Russian soldiers shooting at them. Of course we don’t know how effective that is, because we’re not seeing video from the ones shot down.
But the bigger, high flying drones like the one I just linked would be impervious to shotgun attack. And even as a Kamikaze they would be almost impossible to hit. A 2m wingspan airplane going 150 km/h in a dive is a nearly impossible target with a rifle or shotgun.
@Chronos: I wouldn’t discount the technical ability of Russian hobbyists and technologists. There’s a thriving industry of RC aircraft and drones in Russia. Hobbies are a big deal in oppressive countries. And Russia is best buddies with China, where almost all these drones from from.
But what Russia lacks is a military that will allow this kind of innovation from the bottom up, and there’s no room in the big war plans of the generals for people to build balsa airolabes and strap improvised bombs to them. Not invented here, not an idea that came from the top, so not allowed.
Is Elmer Fudd wielding the shotgun or flying the drone? I’ve seen him with a shotgun, it usually ends badly for him.
I suppose that Russia could do this in theory, but real life over the last year tells us it’s not going to happen. The odds that this would be the one item that they could ship to their troops without messing up is about zero. Even if they could buy them off the shelf, I don’t think the numbers they need are there. Making field expedient drones from parts is also not going to happen. Between poor maintenance and shoddy construction (and self sabotage) even their front line equipment is below par.
Frankly, I think even the idea to move shotguns to the troops isn’t going to work. Rifle ammo is already coming from China. Shotgun ammo is going to be produced far below military needs. And we know how good Russia has been at ramping up production on anything.
I apologize for getting … off target here. But a nephew of mine uses a drone to explore possible places for oil rigs/exploration. Instead of hiking out to look around. He drives, looks and says, Hmmm… And launches the drone.
Only one I’ve ever flown myself. Got it back and landed it not 10 feet from myself. Was… interesting.
They have a military shotgun I described above.
Given the state of their other ordnance, you are probably correct, but I see no reason why they would not produce shotgun ammunition. As you point out, it may be decaying in crates in warehouses.
Russia at least does have the tech base to produce shotgun ammunition. It might still end up embezzled and grifted away to nothingness, but the technological capability is there.
That too. Dictatorships cannot afford a military where NCOs and enlisted/conscript troops have information and autonomy. They might just organize against their despotic leaders.
Plus, dictatorships tend to believe that top-down planning and control are actually smart ways to organize complex things. Screws them over every time.
Are shotguns something unusual in other parts of the world? Probably my Americanism is showing here, but shotguns are common as dirt in my neck of the woods
Also, a bunch of untrained Russian conscripts firing into the air at flitting drones is going to result in other problems, as all that shot going up is going to eventually turn around and come back down with force.
I’ve seen him with a shotgun, it usually ends badly for him.