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A Never-Ending Supply of Drones Has Frozen the Front Lines in Ukraine
Wall Street Journal MSN News ^ | 7/12/2025 | Ian Lovett, Daniel Kiss

Posted on 07/13/2025 4:44:42 AM PDT by marcusmaximus

In the battle for Ukraine, the front line is increasingly at a standstill. The reason: rapid innovations in drone technology.

From just a few commercial and homemade drones, which the Ukrainians used at the start of the war to locate invading Russian columns, unmanned vehicles now dominate the battlefield.

Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line. Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles.

‘Wedding drones’ at war

When Russia sent tank columns into Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine needed to find out where they were headed—and fast.

Enter the humble “wedding drone,” available in stores for about $2,000 and repurposed to scan for enemy units rather than capture nuptial panoramas.

Deployed by enthusiasts acting independently or attached to army units, the drones helped Ukrainian forces, which were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, to know exactly where to deploy to counter Russian arrowheads.

Drones turn deadly

Surveillance drones quickly became a necessity rather than a luxury. Often provided by charity funds, they were used to scan enemy positions for equipment, stores and headquarters. At first, teams of analysts would watch screens of footage stored on memory cards. Within a year of the full-scale invasion, the drones provided real-time images so artillery gunners could direct their fire onto a target.

A cheap and simple tweak made the so-called wedding drones deadly. Tech buffs realized that a simple claw-like contraption, created using a 3-D printer, could be activated from the radio controller by turning on the drone’s light, causing it to release a grenade.

The explosion could wound or kill a soldier or even detonate an armored vehicle

(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
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To: Sirius Lee
I am confident that we are not prepared for a chicom terror attack.


Your confidence is not misplaced.

The 350 billion dollars we have sent to Ukraine is a bargain of the century if it wakes us to the extreme danger of covert drone attacks using pre staged, easy to obtain commercial drones weaponized and launched by covert agents of hostile countries like China.

21 posted on 07/13/2025 6:12:30 AM PDT by rdcbn1 (TV )
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To: Rocco DiPippo

LOL. Maxipad.


22 posted on 07/13/2025 6:17:11 AM PDT by tennmountainman ( (“Less propaganda would be appreciated.” JimRobr 12-2-2023 DITTO)
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To: riverrunner

I appreciate that, hopefully people in charge are thinking out loud to develop a type of defense against drones.

IMO, again thinking out loud, eventually you will some type directed energy or EMP type weapon that could take down dozens of drones at one time, then a final line of defense with bullets or projectiles of some sort.

To go miles ahead further, one of the reasons I think countries like the US and China are racing at light speed to develop AI is to create Terminator/Skynet type defense systems.


23 posted on 07/13/2025 6:31:37 AM PDT by srmanuel
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To: MotorCityBuck

Watched most of the video. Zelensky will fire his Defense Minister soon.
Things not looking good for Ukies on the Ground..


24 posted on 07/13/2025 6:34:09 AM PDT by tennmountainman ( (“Less propaganda would be appreciated.” JimRobr 12-2-2023 DITTO)
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To: Sirius Lee

yup


25 posted on 07/13/2025 6:45:30 AM PDT by KSCITYBOY (The media is corrupt)
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To: tennmountainman

President Trump requested Ukraine’s Defense Minister be appointed as the new Ambassador to the U.S. More bad news for Putin.


26 posted on 07/13/2025 7:08:16 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus

This will push the tech for small truck lasers. Once available the idea of air superiority will be forever ended. Lasers can penetrate fog.


27 posted on 07/13/2025 8:17:51 AM PDT by bobbo666
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To: marcusmaximus
I see drone warfare today as a military technology in its infancy just as aircraft in WWI were.

Twenty five years later the world had jet aircraft and ballistic missiles.

The aeronautical advances leading up to WW2 and even NASA were made with pencils and slide rules. Imagine where drone technology will be 20 years from now.


28 posted on 07/13/2025 8:25:17 AM PDT by fso301
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To: JonPreston
Says the Pooper who gets his reliable information from STEVEN SEAGAL! 🤡 😂


29 posted on 07/13/2025 9:26:59 AM PDT by Apparatchik (Русские свиньи, идите домой)
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To: tennmountainman

Correct.
They continue to lose ground.
However the Russians have a strategy that is working.
The Ukraine is a large country. That’s is an advantage.
That being said the $$ and military support has decreased significantly since Trump took office.
I’m good with that as the conflict has no impact on the U.S.


30 posted on 07/13/2025 10:06:22 AM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal !)
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To: nikos1121
How do you fight against a swarm of drone bees, all the size of birds? Thousands descending like locusts into a city or an army on the ground?

If they're sending video somewhere, there's frequencies they're transmitting on. Easy to jam those. If they're going through cell networks, that many streams is gonna overload it. And again, easy to jam. The only reason that 'works' is because civilian cities have no defense, unlike military facilities.
EMP or other directed energy weapons. Can't be controlled if it gets fried.
Kinetic defenses - your own drones programmed to hit or shoot anything else flying, attached shotguns or nets, even just a hanging steel pole into props.

Either way, these are going to be very short-range, low-payload drones. They're a threat if they're snuck/built in the country by local teams, they won't be traditionally launched, and will be minimally a threat to military posts that will likely have decent defense, and no threat to Naval forces except for docks. Again, to have the range and capacity to actually do some damage, they need to start getting decently big.
31 posted on 07/13/2025 10:20:13 AM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: marcusmaximus
Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers.

Evacuate a 180+ lbs of payload? That's a pretty big drone there!
32 posted on 07/13/2025 10:22:07 AM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: bobbo666
This will push the tech for small truck lasers. Once available the idea of air superiority will be forever ended. Lasers can penetrate fog.

Lasers penetrate fog somewhat better than a flashlight, but not that much better. Infrared and lower frequencies tend to do better, but still might have issues. And either way, iy your tracking radar can't find the target, it doesn't matter if the laser/maser can pierce the fog or not.

We have small truck lasers developing and deployed. Look up the THOR or P-HEL systems.
33 posted on 07/13/2025 10:43:26 AM PDT by Svartalfiar (-)
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To: marcusmaximus

34 posted on 07/13/2025 10:52:18 AM PDT by Allegra (Thank you for your attention to this matter. )
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To: marcusmaximus
UAVs are so deadly that only concealment can protect troops from them. UAVs have much greater effective ranges than even artillery. Advancing requires troops to leave cover and exposes them to enemy UAVs launched from distances beyond the range of friendly covering fire.

Ground combat defense now has an even greater advantage over offense than was the case on the Western Front in 1915-16 during World War One.

35 posted on 07/13/2025 12:00:14 PM PDT by Thud
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To: Apparatchik
Who are you pretending to be today?


36 posted on 07/13/2025 2:56:18 PM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: JonPreston

What nonsense have you made up today about FReepers, stalker?


37 posted on 07/13/2025 3:37:38 PM PDT by Apparatchik (Русские свиньи, идите домой)
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To: Apparatchik

38 posted on 07/13/2025 3:53:21 PM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: JonPreston

39 posted on 07/13/2025 5:05:23 PM PDT by Apparatchik (Русские свиньи, идите домой)
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