Post

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
Click again on or Share Via icon
Click on Copy Link to Tweet
Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
More info at Twitter Help

Sydney Freedberg

Jul 24 • 5 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X

SWARM WARS: Pentagon holds toughest drone-defense demo to date. Eight counter-UAS systems — wielding a mix of radars, machineguns, missiles, jammers, and more — were tested against swarms of up to 50 drones of different types attacking simultaneously from different directions. /1

Read our full story online at breakingdefense.com/2024/07/swarm-…

PS: One way to make drones harder to stop is to give them enough onboard AI to keep honing in on the target even when their control link to their human operator is jammed. But that’s been devilishly difficult to do on smaller drones…breakingdefense.com/2024/02/the-re…

…until now: A Swiss-American firm, @auterion, says it’s developed an upgrade kit small enough to fit on cheap mini-drones but smart enough to make them much more autonomous: breakingdefense.com/2024/06/skynod…

And DoD just published the full official transcript of the press briefing, which is the source of -most- (but not all!) the details in our article: army.mil/article/278332…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @SydneyFreedberg

Sydney Freedberg

@SydneyFreedberg

Apr 10

Well, crap. I wrote last year that jamming was so effective against drones over Ukraine that there was no point in hardening them & it’s better to just buy lots of expendable ones, but I’d hoped the US might square that circle. Per @WSJ today, the answer is a resounding no [1/n]:

Here’s that @WSJ article (link buried in second post to deceive evil algorithms): [2/n] wsj.com/world/how-amer…

@WSJ And here’s our story from last year, quoting experts @sambendett, retired 2-star @PatDonahoeArmy, @ZKallenborn, Kyle Miller, @KyauMill21 @CSETGeorgetown, and @Mauro_Gilli . Very curious what they’d say about today’s news (besides “I told you!”). [3/n] breakingdefense.com/2023/06/dumb-a…

Read 6 tweets

Sydney Freedberg

@SydneyFreedberg

Mar 11

What do Dune, Star Wars, Star Trek, Rome (the empire), Hamilton (the musical), and Hazbin Hotel (also the musical) tell us about the American Dream & the deep roots of US strategic power?

Yes, my idiosyncratic obsessions really do intersect here, bear with me. [1/n]

One thing that struck me about #HazbinHotel is how -wholesome- it is. Yes, this foul-mouthed musical by a proudly bisexual woman (@vivziepop), whose protagonists are the literal daughter of Lucifer, her girlfriend, and a drug-addicted gay porn star with spider arms…. [2/n]

@VivziePop …preaches very traditional values. (Some might sneer & say “bourgeois”). Longterm monogamous relationships are good! Don’t lie! Everyone deserves a second chance! Avoid violence, but if you must, fight to protect the ones you love! Genocide is bad! [3/n]

Read 42 tweets

Sydney Freedberg

@SydneyFreedberg

Jun 4, 2023

@WarOnTheRocks

A sobering article indeed on Ukrainian tactical shortcomings in @WarOnTheRocks , excellently summed up by @BrynnTannehill in this thread:

https://twitter.com/brynntannehill/status/1665338635019771904

The big unanswered question: Are the elite assault brigades pulled off the line for intensive Western training able to free themselves from the dysfunctional post-Soviet legacy? washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/…

“The 47th brigade is armed almost entirely with Western weapons and, in a first, nearly every one of the unit’s soldiers has undergone a weeks-long course with foreign instructors. The 47th’s leadership is also especially young — all born after the fall of the Soviet Union.”

Read 5 tweets

Sydney Freedberg

@SydneyFreedberg

Jan 26, 2023

https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1618589496802516993

Ok, this Russian TV analysis is a gleaming pearl of bullshit grown from a single grain of truth. This gets technical, but TLDR: Russian tank guns can also shoot guided missiles for long-range targets… in theory. [1]

https://twitter.com/guardiannews/status/1618589496802516993

So, back in the 1950s & 60s, there was a school that said long-range anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) would make tanks obsolete. (Sound familiar?) One bright idea tank designers came up with in response was dual-mode tank cannons that could fire regular shells -or- ATGMs. [2]

You could then fire regular shells against most targets but keep a few more costly, bulkier ATGMs for ultra-long range shots. I -think- that’s what’s happening in this Russian TV analysis, where the T-90s are killing Leopards at extreme range without the Leopards firing back. [3]

Read 14 tweets