This is Ukrainian FPV drone air superiority...arriving.
It is also represents the complete technological obsolescence of the USMC/US Army C-UAS, M-LIDS & M-SHORAD programs.
1/
Assuming an FPV interceptor is a $1000 a shot because of improved kinematic performance & specialized light weight fragmentation warhead.
Everything you see in photographs below is obsolete from a cost effectiveness perspective.
2/
FPV drones are "disintermediated" from any ground or vehicular infrastructure.
Any flat piece of ground or even a human hand to launch them will do.
3/
At $1,000 an FPV Interceptor, you could afford to equip every infantry squad with a few the way disposable rocket launchers are.
And Ukrainian FPV interceptors may cost a great deal less.
4/
The American Coyote Block II C-UAS interceptors cost $126,000 each.
If you are trying to knock down a Bayraktar TB-2 MALE type drone, it's a workable solution.
As an Orlan-10 killer, you can buy 126 Ukrainian FPV interceptors for a single Coyote Block II.
5/
Ukrainian FPV interceptors don't need a specialized M-LIDS launch truck with a unique battlefield visual/EM signature.
Four guys in a pickup, with carry cases with FPV
& mothership drones, plus Gis Arta type tablets talking to AFU's smartphone
6/
...acoustic sensor network generally locating the Orlan-10 by engine noise for the FPV to look can do the same job.
So what if MAYBE only 10% of the FPV interceptors hit right now hit.
7/
Ukraine is building 100,000 small drones a month.
The US military is talking 700 Coyote interceptors _A_YEAR_.
This nightmare of rapid technological change making US procurement irrelevant is what General John Murray of the U.S. Army Future Command has warned of.
8/8
@threadreaderapp unroll please.
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