Posted on 06/23/2026 3:31:50 PM PDT by Libloather
The unsettling swarm of drones that a downed US pilot in Iran said moved in a bizarre “jellyfish-like” formation indicates the Iranian regime has devoted significant resources to beefing up its drone program — so it can counter the conventional battlefield tech of its rivals.
“They are adapting faster than us,” Brett Velicovich, drone expert and founder of Powerus, told The Post.
“Iran has spent years developing capabilities designed to offset the overwhelmingly conventional advantages of the United States and its allies.”
The unnamed F-15 pilot, who was rescued April 3 after hiding deep in enemy territory in the Zagros Mountains for more than a day, described a “minefield of drones” hovering in the air — which he surmised could have helped Iran shoot his plane down.
Velicovich said it was possible the injured pilot — who was badly concussed — might not have been seeing straight when he observed the swarm, but said what he saw could have been a so-called “mothership” drone.
Motherships, Velicovich said, are large drone aircraft capable of relaying communications or orders to other drones connected to them. Motherships are “a relatively normal way of warfare” in battle zones like Ukraine, he added.
The mothership goes way up in the air to provide an overview, sometimes connected to a tether, “then if it sees something out of the ordinary, it’ll drop a smaller drone like a [First-Person View drone] to conduct strikes” or surveillance drones to get the lay of the land.
Smaller drones can also be strung together using technology like Starlink or a mesh network, which Velicovich said Iran has the capabilities to do, and are commonplace on the battlefield in other war zones currently raging around the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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“Shahed drone costs them $30K”
Ukraine shots down about 95% of the Shahed clones Russia sends, and they don’t use two Patriots per Shahed to do it.
“we were able to hit 97% of all Shaheds”
“we have more than 150 Ukrainian companies who are producing interceptors.”
“we have more than 2,300 different Ukrainian companies that are building weapons.”
My personal opinion: Ukraine right now has the most advanced drone and anti-drone systems in the world. Necessity is the mother of invention. Also, Anduril is there.
Ukraine uses very cheap drones to shoot down (sometimes knock-down) Shahed clones.
It was rumored that Ukraine offered to help with anti-drone technology, but the US turned them down. It is further rumored that more than 60% of our Patriot stock is depleted, which is why the Arab nations of Persian Gulf pushed PDJT into a cease fire.
The pressure from the Arab nations, plus the credible threats to Strait of Hormuz shipping is what caused PDJT to declare a cease fire and negotiate an MOU that immediately lifted the naval blockade on Iranian oil, immediately lifted some sanctions, and promised Iran complete lifting of sanctions plus $300 billion in reparations if they sign a nuclear deal.
Along the way, PDJT forgot all about their missile program, their funding of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and other proxy terrorists. He forgot about regime change and human rights and his promise of “Help is on the way.” He forgot all about Abraham Accords.
My opinion: so long as IRGC remains in power in Iran, negotiations are a fools errand. PDJT needs to form a global alliance among the remaining western democracies that still cherish western value. Then, take out the IRGC once and for all, come what may.
Read my profile on information the MSM won’t give you about the rulers of Iran.
The USA is the last significant remaining country of Western civilization.
Imagine. Fleeing in the back of a pickup.
There’s a tale.
This is a pivotal time in human history. We are at risk of slipping into another 1,000 years of dark ages if we don’t get our act together. We need to do this for our future generations.
France and England are already run over by Moslem immigrants. But I am sure that there are European people and nations that appreciate the west’s gift to humanity: Reformation, Renaissance, and Enlightenment.
Civilization is being run over by Islam, and Russia and China are fanning the flames. That’s short-sighted and unwise, IMHO.
But I sincerely believe if we could flip Iran, then pan-Iranism could extend from the Persian Gulf into multiple Central-Asian republics that were part of the Persian Empire, and still speak Persian and celebrate Persian culture. This will be a diagonal firewall that will extend deep into Asia.
How powerful is pan-Iranian culture as a counterweight to Islam? Watch below:
An Iranian maestro in Europe leads a full symphonic orchestra as they perform Persian romantic poetry from Rumi. The lead singer isn’t Persian. She isn’t even Iranian. She’s Uzbek. Sorry, no English subtitles, so you will likely get bored, but skip ahead a couple of minutes and watch 20 seconds to get a feel for it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H5jDcN2cGQ&list=RD9H5jDcN2cGQ&start_radio=1
Honestly, I don't think we can stop it. We were able to elect Trump. But all that is doing for us is to buy time. That's it.
We're about to throw a hail mary with no time left on the clock.
No wonder Elon Musk is in a hurry to build that human-habitable base on Mars.
Bfl
Chinese drone formation for sure. IRGC just tested it for the Chinese. Chinese were piloting this drone formation. Part of the IRGC-CCP alliance to oust the USA, to become controllers of oil flows from all the Sunni oil producers. Trump and his administration are well aware this.
yup Turkey is extending influence into the Turkic nations of Asia.
China
The hits were luck.. there’s several write ups from over the years.
Iranian missile had poor accuracy
Analysts at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies examined the Iranian strike on the Nevatim Air Base some 65 kilometers south of Jerusalem in the Negev Desert. They believe Iran used its Emad missile, a variant of the country’s Shahab-3 missile built from a North Korean design.
Assuming Iran targeted Israeli F-35I fighter jet hangars, the James Martin analysts measured the distance between the hangars and the impact zones of the missiles. That gave an average of about 1.2 kilometers for the “circular error probable” — a measurement used by experts to determine a weapon’s accuracy based on the radius of a circle that encompasses 50% of where the missiles landed.
That’s far worse than a 500-meter error circle first estimated by experts for the Emad. Iran separately advertised the Emad to potential international buyers as having a 50-meter circle.
Many projectiles were shot down in attack
The U.S., the United Kingdom, France and Jordan all shot down incoming fire. The Americans claimed to have downed 80 bomb-carrying drones and at least six ballistic missiles. Israeli missile defenses were also activated, though their initial claim of intercepting 99% of the projectiles appeared to be an exaggeration.
U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, told the AP they assessed that 50% of the Iranian missiles failed at launch or crashed before reaching their target. That raises further doubts about the abilities of Iran’s missile arsenal.
See post 16 and 34.
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