Posted on 05/12/2018 6:35:46 PM PDT by mrsmith
During my time in Mosul as a member of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, a remarkably accessible and affordable device arrived on the battlefield. As my battalion helped Iraqi forces retake the city, we encountered some of the first small drones employed in modern conflict... Two events abruptly altered the way Iraq’s most elite ground unit perceived these devices. The first was after the Counter-Terrorism Service escorted advisors from the 82nd Airborne Division to a meeting with an Iraqi Army unit in Mosul proper. During the return to their outpost, the convoy spotted an unidentified quad-copter overhead. Soon after, they faced inaccurate mortar fire from the city. Though the attack was ineffective, ISIL’s intentions were clear: to use small drones to supplement and coordinate its attacks.
The second event was more jarring. A few days after the attack on the convoy, Counter-Terrorism Service soldiers reported three rotary-wing drones hovering over a command vehicle. As the staff reported the initial information, the drones dropped munitions from altitude, killing and injuring several Iraqis. No longer could the Counter-Terrorism Service or its advisors ignore the threat posed by unmanned aerial systems. ... By observing troop movements from their aerial vantage points, ISIL fighters were able to quickly engage Iraqi forces. ISIL mortar teams, in direct communication with the unmanned aerial system operator, engaged the Iraqis’ static positions based on adjustments from the observing drone. VBIEDs drove into roadblocked Iraqi positions using the drone to navigate past obstacles. ISIL used drones to identify high-payoff targets like command vehicles, tanks, and bulldozers. The VBIED threat was less fatal than indirect fire, but the ingrained fear of VBIEDs and drones crippled the coalition’s momentum whenever a drone appeared or a VBIED detonated. ISIL would also employ the drone as armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, dropping makeshift 40mm grenades onto Iraqi positions. The fear of anything flying over Iraqi heads stunted momentum and forced valuable resources away from the advance on the ground.
“The X-MADIS features a Rada RPS-42 pMHR radar detection system, the Ascent camera system CM-202U EO/IR multi-sensor gimbal for identification, and the Sierra Nevada SkyCap counter drone Mode E-jammer. The directed energy weapon has a range of about two miles and can detect, identify, and destroy enemy drone swarms while the vehicle is traveling at a high rate of speed.”
Bibliography of drone warfare pubs:
http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199743292/obo-9780199743292-0223.xml
Fact of the day: The US military now has more unmanned aircraft crew than manned aircraft crew.
ISIL, huh?
That’s a Leftist/Pro-Muslim name for a band of religious nuts, filthy murdering-terrorists and Left wing activists.
The L in this case stands for Levant, meaning Lebanon and Israel. The Crazy Muslims want to tie their mission into expelling the Jews, and the Left/Muslim alliance—notably Hussein Obama—joined them/
Hell of a good story on the early introduction of drones into war and the response.
ISIS DYI drone.
Qalaat Al Mudiq @QalaatAlMudiq · Aug 25
#Syria: several suicide drones were shot down over #Hama province this week. Those new DIY models reportedly targeted troops & helicopters as Rebels widened their targets amidst upcoming #Idlib Offensive.
Drone vs drone
“It was an MQ-9 versus a drone with a heat-seeking air-to-air missile, and it was direct hit … during a test,” he said of the first-of-its-kind kill.
https://apnews.com/1da29d68e3cc47b58631768c1dcfa445
“DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up.
Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure.
The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.
Across the Middle East, countries locked out of purchasing U.S.-made drones due to rules over excessive civilian casualties are being wooed by Chinese arms dealers, who are world’s main distributor of armed drones.
“
https://twitter.com/sommervilletv/status/1080724993238069249
Drone battle in Mosul from Iraqi army viewpoint.
Yep, Star Wars without an onboard pilot or crew.
https://www.army-technology.com/news/industry-news/us-army-grenade-net-drones/
Army patents “net grenade” for anti-drone defense.
Close air support UAV Company in field.
As the US Army advanced in Europe in WW2 it investigates all manner of things, including what had knocked out German tanks. One surprising finding was that only a single digit percentage of the Panzers claimed as knocked out by “tank buster” rocket firing allied aircraft could be found. Prisoner interrogations confirmed that Panzer crews had been very concerned about rocket firing aircraft, but also that these prisoners admitted that few of them had actually seen a tank taken out by rockets.
That surprised the Army brass, because they had observed that Panzer units repeatedly attacked by tank busters on their way to the front were greatly weakened and generally performed poorly. Upon further review, the Army concluded that even though the tank busters kill claims were wildly exaggerated, they were nonetheless responsible for devastating Panzer units caught moving up to the front.
The rockets might not seriously damage a Panzer without a direct hit at an unlikely place and/or angle, but they were orders of magnitude more effective against the thin skinned support vehicles in the column. So even if the Panzers of a Panzer unit made it to the front, their stocks of fuel, lubricants, ammo and spare parts did not. Neither did the logistical and repair personnel. They were dead, wounded, or, if they survived the destruction of the irreplaceable support vehicles, being pressed into ersatz infantry units.
This is more about hobby-sized drones (a few pounds to 10 pounds) than about full-sized aircraft type drones.
And that field of combat is going to be the streets of the US.
Yeah. That’s how it all started after all.
But even the big fancy ones are used exactly the same: as loitering guided missiles.
Was going to record the advancement of their use and countermeasures on this thread but the field grew so quickly that soon became futile.
Napoleon said, “An army marches on its stomach.”
Good finale for this history:
“The U.S. Navy has destroyed a surface vessel with a swarm of drones for the first time. The strike, disclosed in a briefing on April 26, was carried out during the Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem (UxS IBP) 21 exercise conducted off the coast of California...”
One more:
US reports of drone incidents from FAA. Public.
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