in Minecraft
What?
The article alleges that the video is fake (unless there is a translation confusion going on here?), I changed it from Russia Publishes Fabricated Report on 14 Drones Shot Down in a Single Ka-52 Flight for the memes.
I haven’t found confirmation in any english media the video is fake but also I haven’t seen the video pop up anywhere too much either so… I am figuring it probably is indeed fake but I will update if I see an indication it isn’t.
Yes, but what does that have to do with Minecraft?
I attempted to employ the meme use to suggest that the statement may or may not be real, thus casting doubt on the reality of russia’s propaganda here in a humorous way rather than just saying “Fabricated”.
As much as they seem to love hanging out behind the drone, lining up their shots; Would it be feasible to reverse mount a manpads or similar and go helicopter hunting?
Yeah, definitely, and that strategy will absolutely proliferate in conflicts where lots of drone swarms are used.
The problem is though there are serious limitations to the strategy, once you start to bring agility and dynamic movement into the equation you end up in a position where you are just underlining how dominant of a weapon a proper Attack Helicopter is as you stumble around trying to create a whole new category of aircraft and iron out the details.
Take note of the major proliferation of air burst flak cannons in the 25-35mm caliber range.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyranger_35
Clearly they are useful weapons against drone swarms, especially since compared to a missile even a jet powered drone is still far less maneuverable.
Now imagine if you placed one of these flak cannons on a platform that can literally do loops in the sky? Ok so you say well we will use these manpads mounted drones to AMBUSH the helicopters… but then who is detecting the enemy helicopter and with what sensor equipment mounted on what vehicle?
To get an idea of how dominant an Attack Helicopter is in the C-UAS role when used properly watch some footage from this airshow routine from a week ago of two Apache helicopters.
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=QsShf76tEYI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsShf76tEYI&t=8
Watch how dynamically they can respond and move unpredictably and then remember that each of those Apache helicopters can carry 1200 airburst 30mm grenades and that the fire control systems on Apache helicopters were already extremely advanced and mature before drones even came into the picture in any meaningful way. Of course, yeah attack helicopters can cheat and just carry AA missiles laser guided or otherwise too… or their own UAVs in launch cells if needed. Also… if an Apache does manage to use all 1200 air burst munitions up while hunting UAVs, it can be quickly rearmed in the field from crews from pretty much any open field and immediately go back to hunting UAVs. Finally let me remind you that Apaches can mount a Longbow radar which gives them a massive advantage in being able to spot any kind of smaller UAV aircraft that can’t carry such a powerful radar because of payload restrictions.
Sure, in theory this kind of dronetrap will work on helicopters, but it ignores many aspects including the basic question of how is the helicopter detected before the helicopter detects the drone?
In the end you are going to lose the manpads no matter what if you send it off on a drone even if you don’t find a target successfully, is that really a better use of limited, highly valuable munitions than putting it in the hands of a trained soldier? I guess it is if you already killed off all of your trained soldiers by sending them in senseless meatwave attacks…
The thing about sending out a soldier with a manpads system is they can dynamically respond, retreat, take cover, hide and wait for the opportune time to get the upper hand on an attack helicopter even if a battleplan goes totally sideways, a drone just can’t really do that anywhere near as competently… which isn’t to bash drones it is just to underline how dangerous human beings are.
Crucially, there is no guarantee with all of this UAV strike drone development that you will ever be able to significantly best the crosssection of mobility, lift capacity, sensors and field maintainable components that the AH-64 or similar helicopters represent… and the AH-64 is an already established platform with decades of refinement behind it and a deep roster of highly trained pilots who know how to use the system to its maximum potential. Sure you can make the AH-64 unmanned or assign the AH-64 to babysit tiltrotor UAVs… and sure tiltrotor aircraft will eventually replace the AH-64 itself (though then won’t traditional attack helicopters just shift to being like goalies, used to dynamically defend vulnerable infrastructure/population centers?)… but I don’t see the logic to swiping the slate clean and trying to invent a new category of highly mobile, highly lethal, highly advanced aircraft that can go toe to toe in a fullscale war against a near peer when aircraft like the AH-64 are already sitting right there. I mean, Bell Textron is looking for people to sell the AH-1Z and UH-1Y to and having some trouble with it even though if you wrote down the specs of an AH-1Z and presented it as an AI Drone people would be immediately go “holy shit, wow that is a terrifying war machine what is that drone it can do everything down the full vertical of the reaction loop and kill stack from tactical heavy machine gun fire to 150km+ missile launches at strategic targets and carry a fuckton of weapons payload and a sophisticated radar/targeting system while doing so??? Why are militaries even considering other drone UAV platforms?”.
TL;DR Attack Helicopters in many ways are the future of C-UAS, but russia doesn’t necessarily know how to get to that future.
Sure, in theory this kind of dronetrap will work on helicopters, but it ignores many aspects including the basic question of how is the helicopter detected before the helicopter detects the drone?
I mean more cheap and dirty. Like a rearward facing camera so the drone pilot can spot the helicopter and fire off some sort of auto tracking ordinance. I only used MANPADS as an example because it has the best name, it would be overkill.
So how do you spot the helicopter before its far superior sensors spot you?
Sure you can try to spot it with another platform out ahead, but helicopters can just as easily play the same game…
Relying on visually seeing a target with a traditional video camera ain’t gonna cut it except in the luckiest of circumstances.
That’s the neat part. You don’t. You cruise along in your decoy drone until you spot a heli drop behind, lining up a shot like they are in the video, then let rip with whatever ya got.
I’m not saying it’s a long term option. But it’s likely to get a couple nice expensive kills before the pilots start changing tactics (and likely expending more ammo in the process).
Right but it isn’t a requirement for a helicopter with a functional, maintained gun turret to engage in such a highly limited way like an airplane with forward mounted weapons is forced to.
The thing is, I doubt the hardware, maintenance and training of russian attack helicopters is up to providing that capability realistically. Most russian attack helis likely use their turret locked in a forward position because russians bullshit everything.
