2/ 2.5 kg all up weight is excellent, and the 63/100 mph cruise/dash is much better than typical quadrotor
3/ the drone is up for some clever tactical use:
rather than "suicide attack" of simpler systems,
it *shoots* the payload and continues loitering for follow-up observation.
4/ note the rare wing arrangement: tandem wings of equal sizes. uncommon arrangement and a bit hard to make properly - but can beautiful handle tight design constraints.
also seen on several Burt Rutan aircraft.
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3/ told you, frens.
told you Russia is not of the old european tradition.
no, Russia seems to match the current trend western - and i claim it was created in (soviet) Russia to begin with.
2/ "collectivization" as nation-scale stealing of most of land from farmers and giving it to collectives (kolkhozes) and the government (sovkhoz). this detached people from their roots and destroyed productivity, with all the attendant hungers, poverty and misery.
3/ related: "dekulakization" as process of killing or jailing the farmers that were previously well off. this also destroyed productivity and detached communities from the knowledgeable and respected members.
2/ several excellent points, in particular touching the somewhat counter-intuitive tension between populism and Russian invasion.
3/ my only big gripe with the article: no, China is not self-aware as to its readiness & capability level.
in the same way the authoritarian Russia was not self-aware about the internal weakness & corruption in its military - the information filters at every level of bureaucracy
>little or no information is being given about these operations
gee i wonder why. almost as if Russia repeatedly warned about targeting shipments of military aid to Ukraine.
1/ a bit of aviation guesswork: consider the Tu-141 reconnaissance drone that crashed in Croatia. reportedly *exploded* with force of a 120kg bomb, tho the crater is small and believable for a fast (~700kn) falling ~6t vehicle. luckily nobody hurt.
2/ i have speculated whether it was perhaps a scuttling charge (to destroy any recordings & devices) or maybe even fuel fumes.
"War is Boring" with an even more interesting tidbit: it's got *retro rockets* to facilitate soft landing, besides the chute.
3/ a brief ~1 second firing retro-rocket would sound pretty close to an explosion.
alternatively, a malfunctioning one going off during the crash could conceivable explode (deflagration) like a rather potent explosive charge.