Posted on 04/13/2023 6:51:45 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
“The 45th artillery brigade destroyed an enemy ammunition site in the area of Bakhmut.”
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1646396447686893574
You are ignoring the thread topic and spamming it with articles and links trying to hijack the thread topic.
“Disgusting tactic” you mean like decapitating POWs. Maybe Wagner commander needs some cheese….
“Former Wagner soldier recognizes killers in video of alleged beheading of Ukrainian POW”
https://kyivindependent.com/russian-opposition-media-killers/
“Russia races to pass tough new military draft rules, banning conscripts from leaving”
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to sign a new law that cracks down on draft dodging.
Lawmakers rushed the legislation through both houses of parliament this week.
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/13/1169464889/russia-military-draft-ukraine-war
@visegrad24 13h
Answering a question from @andrewderoy of Bearstone Global, the panelists the #AssetRecoveryCEE conference in Warsaw, stated which countries are helping Russia the most in circumventing sanctions:
1. Turkey
2. UAE
3. Egypt
“Russia races to pass tough new military draft rules”
@DarthPutinKGB 16h
Day 414 of my 3 day war. Draft notices will be virtual. Like my victories.
I remain a master strategist.
Reportedly (rumor), 50,000 will take part in the counteroffensive.
(from Forbes)"FPV – ‘first person view’ — drones offer a more immersive flying experience than standard drones. Other drones are flown largely by autopilot; the operator tells the drone where to go and it flies itself. In the FPV experience, the operator is in direct control of the drone. This requires far more skill, but FPV pilots can fly much faster through cluttered terrain than autopilots, and FPV drone racing is a popular competitive sport.
Two drone operators are involved in the attack. One, flying a conventional quadcopter, surveys the scene and identifies a building being used by Russian troops. The other is operating an FPV drone and wears special FPV goggles which give a clearer view from the drone’s camera and are preferred by FPV racers."
Small FPV racing drones are fast (like 86 mph), but can carry only small payloads (like a grenade).
I annoyed an Air Force drone pilot recently, I asked him if the AF had started using enlisted drone pilots yet.
At one time the Air Force not only required you to be an actual pilot but would take you off drone duty if you were off flight status.
“I asked him if the AF had started using enlisted drone pilots yet.”
I guess that flying some hi-tech multi-million dollar drone with lots of sophisticated lethal weapons over hundreds of miles through all-weather conditions might require pilot skills, but there are a lot of simple drones now that la-de-da-de, everybody can operate - man/woman, child/adult, able bodied/disabled, even Officer/Enlisted.
Necessity is the mother of invention. I’m pretty sure that if the Ukraine needs 50,000 expendable little drones piloted next month, it is going to be Enlisted folks operating them.
The other services see it as a skill and a talent and know that rank has nothing to do with it.
At least that was the situation a few years ago.
I haven’t looked into this question for years, I wonder how the Ukrainians are handling it.
@KyivIndependent 8h
Moldova’s top pro-Kremlin politician sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Moldova’s pro-Kremlin politician Ilan Shor has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for fraud and money laundering, Jurnal reported on April 13.
Here is an old article about drone drivers from 2014.
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htmoral/articles/20140421.aspx
@HenriVanhanen 10h
An important message of continuity in Finland’s position today from @PetteriOrpo (likely to be Finland’s next prime Minister, when a new Government is agreed by Parliament) at the new Parliament’s opening ceremony:
“Finland supports Ukraine. The goal is Ukraine’s victory and a just peace. We have chosen our side.”
14 military aid packages so far and more to come.
Lol had this discussion many times in my days in the Air Force. What does a degree have to do with being a pilot…. One of my friends who was an instructor pilot on C-130s had a degree in cartography. This also makes me think of how a high school diploma used to be the job applicant stack separator, then it became a bachelors, then masters…. A lazy man’s way of separating the stacks and also feeding the colleges coffers. One of my sons worked in what I called the bunker for AEP(electric company), required a degree his was in business but as he would say his degree had nothing to do with his job. The argument used to be a person with a degree was more rounded…but with what seems to be a majority of people graduating with degrees that end in studies and being indoctrinated in woke culture I would question that argument
In WW2 because of demand you had flying sergeants piloting aircraft
Especially when operating a computer console that is mastered and champions self-selected by civilians in the world of gaming.
Is one likely to find more AF career computer nurd drone flyers to sit at a desk for 30 years among 1000 computer nurds, or among 1000 twitchy ego guys who want to fly fighter jets and live life on the edge in the real world?
Real pilots won’t stay in the Air Force if they can’t fly, and having known a lot of them, I didn’t think of them as the type who would enjoy sitting at a console all day as a career, whether on duty or off duty natural-born drone flyers love doing just that.
I think the issue isn’t officer or enlisted, or having both, but that we need a separate category for drone pilots.
Drone pilots can all be officers, or all warrant officers, or all whatever it takes to make them happy, but we do need to recognize that the type of person drawn to drone flying is not the same as the type who wants to fly F-22s in combat.
Pretending that ‘Maverick’ will make a career of the Air Force when assigned to sit at a drone console for 30 years isn’t realistic, we need to hire and train drone flyers, as drone flyers, whatever title/rank we use for them, their temperament/personality has to fit what they will be doing.
My first job in the Army was FDC, slide rules and clean uniforms, I hated it and had joined the Army to do Army stuff, I had to beg to get out of that and into the more gritty stuff, there is probably a vast pool of the young who are eager to train as drone flyers, hire them, train them, send them to a school for law and decision making, call them an officer, or a Specialist, or a Warrant officer, don’t try to force Top Gun guys to like it, they will quit the Air Force.
Here is a video on drone pilots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ety7mzhcEIw
Small FPV racing drones are fast (like 86 mph), but can carry only small payloads (like a grenade).
—
The ones built by volunteers are bigger and carry more explosives.
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