If you thought the Flying Yeet of Death was cheap, the Ukrainians have announced they just used a drone that looks even cheaper to hit a Russian airbase:
(A follow-up video suggests they may not have hit much, if anything, but I’m more interested in the drone than the strike.)
The Australian SYPAQ Corvo UAV is the drone reportedly used. “These drones are made out of cardboard, making them almost invisible to radar. They can carry a four to five kilogram payload have a range of between 40 to 120 kilometers, and a flight time of one to three hours. These are dirt cheap and can be made in the thousands.” It ships in a flatpack kit.
Here’s a closer look at them:
I suspect that SYPAQ represents a goodly portion of the future of drone warfare: Numerous and ultra-cheap, but capable of taking out much more expensive enemy vehicles and equipment.
High tech and low cost is a very cyberpunk approach to warfare.
Tags: Australia, drone, Kursk, Military, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Suchomimus, SYPAQ, technology, Ukraine, video
Being an 11b always sucked. Being an 11b in the 21st century is going to suck in new, fantastic, and terrifying ways.
“Numerous and ultra-cheap, but capable of taking out much more expensive enemy vehicles and equipment.”
When the Fuzzy Wuzzies acquire these, America’s ability to project force through overseas operations will become significantly reduced in scope. Like it or not, The Empire will begin to contract.
@Malthus
Contraction is already happening. It’s just a lot of people don’t see the signs. For those not paying attention Hemingway said it best, it will “happen gradually, then suddenly.”
It’s really not a lot different than when modern small arms began to proliferate; when we were the only people with Maxim guns, empire was done on the cheap. When everyone can do the things that used to be the sole purview of the big guys on the outside, well… Things change.
One of which is going to be the fact that the borderland regions are going to have to man up and figure out how to deal with the fact that they’re on their own, period. You push out the French? Well, baby boy, you better man ECOWAS the hell up and get to work, ‘cos ain’t nobody there but you, now.
Lots and lots of people are gonna learn the hard way that keeping things running ain’t quite as easy as it looked, and that it’s way, way more expensive than they think. Quite a few are going to wind up wishing they’d kept “the man” in charge and paying the bills. Ask many former Rhodesians what they think of the current mess of idjits running Zimbabwe…
4-5 KG Payload! Several hundreds of these launched simultaneously by infantry and sent toward enemy troop concentrations will be more effective than cluster bombing.
All armed forces need to shift research and resources to combat drone swarm attacks.
I can see Lockheed or Boeing buying this company up, you know, for “synergistic development” or some such. And strangling it. Puting a stop to such low budget nonsense. “It doesn’t even have a tv camera or satellite feed…”
re: Kirk
Meanwhile ANC looked upon Zimbabwe and thought they can do much better with the reign of Jacob Zuma. Albeit, Zuma is no longer in charge, but his replacement have no answer to decade of institutional looting and corruption. They’re of course going to start seizing the White property to pay for all of it.
“I can see Lockheed or Boeing buying this company up, you know, for “synergistic development” or some such. And strangling it. Puting a stop to such low budget nonsense.”
As if. I don’t think you can patent the idea of an aircraft made of cardboard any more than you can patent making it out of carbon fiber, aluminum or any other material. Looking at that thing I’d say the barriers to entry to manufacturing a knock-off are pretty low. You can build them in any country where you have a cardboard factory and can import model aircraft engines. I suspect this is going to be the new “Arithmetic on the Frontier” moment.
The dream of a flying aircraft carrier, but with expendable craft, looks real.
All I can think of is Protoss carriers with their swarm of interceptors.
En Taro Adun!
[…] of sense…up to a point. The fast and cheap portion makes a lot of sense, given Ukraine’s use of dirt cheap flatpack cardboard drones we talked about earlier this […]
[…] shown by Ukraine, cardboard drones are a very cost-effective way to destroy much more expensive military […]