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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I'm beginning to think a Baba Yaga or some other compound helicopter mothership drone is taking Ukrainian FPV's to altitude for the interceptor role.
FPV's have a limited battery charge.
If they go to 5K or 10K feet height, they can't have much range at intercept altitude.
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FPV's berthed under the wing of something like AeroVironment’s JUMP 20 that has a 14 hour endurance and an FPV repeater can "delouse" Ukrainian rear areas of Russian Orlan-10/Zala ISR drones.
The issue for any logistical multi-copter is water.
Water is heavy and a soldier needs a minimum of 2 liters of water a day. In heavy combat in high heat/stress environments, soldiers need several times that.
The link & picture comes from a 30 Apr 2023 Russian article that describes the role of a "Forward Edge Conveyor" [initialed TPC per Google translate] and the article advocated for a new TCP, replacing the one pictured below, ASAP.