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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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1 posted on 07/13/2025 4:44:42 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: marcusmaximus
Wonder how many hundreds of thousands the chicoms here in the U.S. have ready to launch from their "farms" conveniently located next to our military bases, energy grid, and reservoirs?

I am confident that we are not prepared for a chicom terror attack.

2 posted on 07/13/2025 4:49:12 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: marcusmaximus

Bkmk


3 posted on 07/13/2025 4:49:50 AM PDT by sauropod (Make sure Satan has to climb over a lot of Scripture to get to you. John MacArthur Ne supra crepidam)
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To: marcusmaximus

https://youtu.be/Yp6kbJEjXAU
Military Summary Channel
Updates on the ground.


4 posted on 07/13/2025 4:50:50 AM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal !)
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To: MotorCityBuck

Putin conquer tree line in Donbas! Kyiv in 3 days!


5 posted on 07/13/2025 4:56:37 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: Sirius Lee

How many drones could we launch from a air craft carrier.

One could be turn into a complete drone manufacturing plant and launch plat form


6 posted on 07/13/2025 4:57:24 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: riverrunner

Subs would be better. Carriers are temporarily floating caskets in the 21st century’s drone warfare age. (not all drones are airborne)


7 posted on 07/13/2025 5:02:25 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: marcusmaximus

Steven Seagal: "Ukraine was known for human trafficking, organ trafficking, narco trafficking, child sex trafficking, biochemical warfare labs, fascism and Nazism."

pic.twitter.com/7SID0xTdLG— illuminatibot (@iluminatibot) July 13, 2025


8 posted on 07/13/2025 5:13:49 AM PDT by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
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To: Sirius Lee

Absolutely, we are whistling past the grave yard. The base I worked at had 12 tankers within sight of a public perimeter road.


9 posted on 07/13/2025 5:20:13 AM PDT by blitz128
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To: Sirius Lee

REALLY?

We have something called submarines. I think we have a few right now as we speak not to far from China’s coasts.

Trump, BTW, has asked each Asian ally where they stand in the event Taiwan is invaded.

And everyone here, excpet you and me, is more dialed in to what the latest thing we can learn about Jeffrey Epstein.


10 posted on 07/13/2025 5:24:59 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: riverrunner

Why use something provocative like an Aircraft Carrier or other obvious Naval vessel.

I heard this on a recent podcast; the example was Ukraine’s use of trucks with roofs that opened launching a few dozen drones. What if you used a cargo ship stacked with shipping containers, all rigged with roofs that open, launching hundreds if not thousands of drones at one time.

Now put that cargo just offshore in international waters and launch them on an American City like Washington DC.

I don’t know for sure, I doubt there is any defense for this type of attack.

It would not be a stretch to think someone could launch multiple attacks like this up and down both coasts of the US.


11 posted on 07/13/2025 5:25:30 AM PDT by srmanuel
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To: marcusmaximus
Zeep! Zeep! Slobbo Urcrayknee!!!Zeeptard
12 posted on 07/13/2025 5:27:50 AM PDT by Rocco DiPippo (Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State. -Donald Trump)
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To: marcusmaximus

“Hunter/Seeker” from the Terminator.


13 posted on 07/13/2025 5:30:31 AM PDT by LeonardFMason
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To: nikos1121
We have something called submarines.

I was responding to another post. I was speaking of using subs as dedicated drone launching platforms.

14 posted on 07/13/2025 5:30:45 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.”)
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To: Rocco DiPippo

You found a picture of Marcus.
He’s a handsome devil.😄


15 posted on 07/13/2025 5:40:53 AM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal !)
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To: Sirius Lee

Oh.

I think it is clear that we look at this war as a wonderful opportuinity to test out the latest offensive and defensive weaponry.

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?

I think the answer is pretty obvious, you respond with your own drones, and you wipe the enemie’s command center or real estate that might be thousand of miles away.

If China tries to pull this crap on our soil, that’s fine. We’ll take the hit, but the only response is to nuke their leaders within seconds.

WE saw this in Iran.

Trump, I am sure, has sent messages like the one to Bagdadi of his house, saying without words that we know where you are.

Theh cool thing I think is, unlike the Bushes, Clinton’s, Obama and Biden, that there is alternative to fighting over nothing, and that is prosperity, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.


16 posted on 07/13/2025 5:42:51 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: Sirius Lee
(not all drones are airborne)

Frogman drones. Underwater ops. Like cutting cables, disarming mines, creating sabatoge. The possibilties are endless.

17 posted on 07/13/2025 5:50:06 AM PDT by Kudsman (I am Coal baby! Burning for you. )
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To: Sirius Lee

More likely, their attack will come against the grid. Both Spain and Portugal appear to be test cases.


18 posted on 07/13/2025 5:52:48 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: srmanuel

Just thinking out loud


19 posted on 07/13/2025 6:04:58 AM PDT by riverrunner
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To: Sirius Lee

Tanks have been seen moving “quietly” into downtown Beijing in the last few days. They have been disguised with Russian-style turtling.


20 posted on 07/13/2025 6:05:15 AM PDT by Chad_the_Impaler
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