>2023
>I am... forgotten.
If Ukraine didn't lose all these frickers they would be really beneficial at this point, considering a lot of Russian anti-air has been exhausted
>2023. >I am...
>2023
>I am... forgotten.
If Ukraine didn't lose all these frickers they would be really beneficial at this point, considering a lot of Russian anti-air has been exhausted
Ukraine have non, Russia destroyed 100 out of 50. Ukraine is neagtive 50 in Bayraktars.
I don't care about the propaganda, I just haven't had my fill of footage showcasing the bayraktar melting russians.
those fricking morons
it was an UNSIGNED integer!
1. Russian anti-air is still up and quite formiddable. It's that they're being hit by STEALTH cruise missiles that try to do everything to evade AA.
2. they supposedly fly recon? Or they may be grounded. I heard both.
3. they're kind of shitty intermediary bombers. Ukraine is firing from Mig's, and want F-16's which will fire NATO ordinance.
It seems to me like they found FPV/quadcopter drones to be a more cost-effective alternative, at least for soft targets
Even if they can't carry the same size/quantity of payload, since they're so much cheaper they can be in more places at once on the same budget, and it's less of a setback when any get lost/shot down (meaning pilots can also afford to be more aggressive with them)
They still have some, russia just finally learned to counter them. Turkey also asked Ukraine not to release any more footage from them.
>Turkey also asked Ukraine not to release any more footage from them.
embarassing
They are good when you have long supply lines and messy frontlines, not so much when both sides have dug in. If/when Ukraine manages to break through you will see more footage from them being used.
>forgotten
You're not hearing much about them anymore because them blowing up shit has become the new normal and is no longer interesting enough to be reported.
Bullshit, drone drops became the new normal and boring about a month into the war and we're still getting them.
They’ve been mostly destroyed or grounded due to lack of maintenance / repairs and the few left are being kept away from AD doing max distance recon.
you know tb2 is good when russians are obsessed with the drone. ukr now has long range rockets, cruise missiles, they'll soon get f16s but vatnigs still stuck in tb2 phase 🙂
There's been a steep drop off in footage from these since about a year ago. This is probably caused by a mix of airframe attrition, a change in mission profile, and Russian counter-measures.
Even though they're cheap compared to other drones, they're still $5 million and vulnerable to AA. It's probably far more cost effective to use a $30,000 spotter drone and a $115,000 Excalibur shell to hit a target or even a $500 kamikaze drone for a similar effect to a TB2 strike.
one of the prime recon drones they are buying, "was" initially a civilian drone used to map areas more accurately. the guys at Quantum Systems are creaming themselves how much data they are getting out of the Ukies on their Vector drones and are constantly updating shit. its absolutely insane and funny if you look at it
They are great when there isn’t heavy AA assets in the area, like against talibans and highly uncoordinated Russian army units. When AD assets are operational, they’re pretty much garbage - slow, nonstealthy etc.
Most likely, Ukraine has just stopped using them for strike missions, and instead uses them as a recon asset as the sensors and loiter time are decent.
It was reported the TB2 is used for Black Sea patrols for sub hunting, and other recon missions.
There was one that went rogue a few weeks ago and was flying over Kyiv until it got shot down
>Thinly veiled vatnik propaganda
Any that remain are hunting kilo class subs. Unfortunately they are the best Ukraine has for ASW.
These guys were valuable when the vatniks were still invading in columns. Now that they are drugged in and have air defense these drones arnt affective anymore.
I think that this conflict has shown that any kind of re-usable MALE drone is not particularly useful in high intensity environments, the balance of Cost and attrition is simply not good.
A Bayraktar or MQ-9 is good as a COIN aircraft or for persistent reconnaissance.
But smaller, cheaper, lower altitude drones are better for reconnaissance and cheaper strike drones or loitering munitions are better for battlefield attack or strategic missions.
Where were you when TB-2 sunk a Russian oceangoing tug, a target 50x more valuable than the drone itself?
I'm looking at tugboat prices RN and they aren't that high.
Problem with Bayraktar is it costs like 15 million dollars.
>Problem with Bayraktar is it costs like 15 million dollars.
ukies are getting those drones with discount since turk ukie relationship is more than drones. turkey is building ships for ukies and ukies give jet-heli engine tech to turkey and so on.
Nope, oceangoing tugs are more expensive than your ordinary coastal tugs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_tug_Spasatel_Vasily_Bekh
Also, it was carrying a TOR onboard and various other military vehicles. This strike itself paid for at least 20 drones or more.
>Problem with Bayraktar is it costs like 15 million dollars.
this would be the price of 3x drones and a ground terminal.
>, considering a lot of Russian anti-air has been exhausted
LMAO
I think honestly that there is a real opportunity for a re-usable Cruise missile sized drone, with similar performance, sharing engines for example.
This would achieve around the same cost as Bayraktar style drones, but it would be much more survivable in exchange for poor persistence, able to rapidly change altitude to protect from SAM threats for example.
I think that AI/ML could enable that kind of drone to be much more survivable against air defense threats whilst potentially operating completely autonomously with a pre planned mission.
It would not need to strike targets, it would just a have a reconnaissance mission and the freedom to adapt it's approach based on dynamic air defense threats.
Fundamentally it would be a modern version of the Tu-141 Strizh, but re-usable.
You would have basically a mission pod that could have reconnaissance, EW systems or potentially a warhead, and the entire drone would be designed to be low life cycle, since at the end of life it could just be used as a cruise missile.
The whole system could be designed to operate from mobile logistics, IE a few trucks, and use very short road strips, potentially with a mobile arrestor cable system.
It could also potentially be used synergistically with less sophisticated cruise missiles, acting as a scout and directing a group of CMs around potential air defense threats.
It was good only during that phase when vatniggs believed in their propaganda about the 3-day special operation after they lost Moskva and retreated from Kyiv they became much more careful and at least turn on their BUKs sometimes.