Ukraine releases dramatic FPV footage of drone attack on Russian airbases – video (www.theguardian.com)
from MicroWave@lemmy.world to world@lemmy.world on 04 Jun 23:55
https://lemmy.world/post/30820350

#world

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jasonwnclife@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 00:11 next collapse

Anyone know what the tires are about?

Slab_Bulkhead@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 00:24 next collapse

cope tires, aka anti drone high-technology, there are other overhead pics of planes fully covered, which might help but from most of these shots they clearly were running low on tires and just looks really odd.

jasonwnclife@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 00:31 collapse

Thanks for the info.

seathru@lemmy.sdf.org on 05 Jun 00:28 collapse

twz.com/…/russia-covering-its-aircraft-in-tires-i…

An attempt at optical camouflage.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 00:39 collapse

Seriously? Paint probably would have been easier.

AbidanYre@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 01:25 next collapse

Right? That’s still pretty clearly the outline of a plane.

saltesc@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 01:31 collapse

You didn’t read the link.

GlassHalfHopeful@lemmy.ca on 05 Jun 00:42 next collapse

So how are them tires working for ya? 😏

0ops@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 02:54 next collapse

That was really satisfying to watch

MunkysUnkEnz0@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 04:04 next collapse

Were they even operatable flight-ready aircraft?..

Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org on 05 Jun 05:26 next collapse

Yes, they got deployed a lot over the last years

AngrySquirrel@lemm.ee on 05 Jun 05:55 next collapse

If they weren’t then they wouldn’t be full of fuel. Also, russia has been using these to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine.

Edit: upon further viewing of the footage, some of the bombers even have missiles mounted to hard points on their wings when the drones hit them.

Valmond@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 07:15 collapse

There is a video, with close up, of a loaded 101 cruise missile under the wing, those motherfuckers were loaded up and ready to go in the Zeus lightning operation, putin wanted it to be the biggest air attack in the war just before the “peace negotiations”. That didn’t pan out as expected lol.

The exceptions are the two AWACS who seems to be kept for cannibalism (to keep the two-three flying ones with pieces they can no longer produce).

venusaur@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 04:28 next collapse

That’s so badass. As an FPV hobbyist this is like a fantasy. I’m curious though, why do they all say failsafe, yet they’re seemingly still in control of most of them. I see there’s no GPS lock. Maybe it calls failsafe when no GPS but doesn’t trigger the drone to shut down.

Obi@sopuli.xyz on 05 Jun 04:50 collapse

Is that even beta flight? Never seen it configured like this, I know that’s what they were using at the beginning because that was basically the only FPV software available, but maybe they have a new “military-grade” one now?

Also it’s interesting to see the different flying styles, some of them are like “let me carefully position myself slowly right next to this wing, yesss just right”, meanwhile their buddy just flies full speed ahead straight into it.

venusaur@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 04:54 next collapse

Yeah idk what config they’re using. Doesn’t look like any that I’ve used.

Haha yeah and some look like they’re just falling from the sky. Not sure how the camera is facing straight down and moving down as well unless they just disarmed and let it fall.

Obi@sopuli.xyz on 05 Jun 07:33 next collapse

If we’re thinking of the same ones they just look like full throttle/tilt forward to me!

elmicha@feddit.org on 05 Jun 09:15 collapse

I read they are using ArduPilot.

venusaur@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 12:54 collapse

Interesting. Better for positioning I think Thanks

Valmond@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 07:12 collapse

According to the Ukrainians they trained an AI on some of the target planes they had in museums (some of the strategic bombers blown up were actually handed over from Ukraine in the nineties to russia (alongside the nukes), and I guess they kept one or two as museum pieces), so it could be the AI carefully chosing the good spot to blow up

Damage@feddit.it on 05 Jun 05:49 next collapse

So my thoughts watching this is that it wasn’t exactly a quick attack. The drones were actually being used as quadcopters, manually controlled instead of seeking a target or coordinates, and they seem to be launched sequentially, likely because they’re piloted locally by a limited pool of operatives.

This means that there was no useful jamming going on, and I wonder if any base personnel even tried to shoot them down.

baldingpudenda@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 06:38 next collapse

If i understand correctly they sneaked in the drones into Russia and were released behind their wall of defenses.

Damage@feddit.it on 05 Jun 15:28 collapse

Yeah sure, but if you go to a military base in your country and release a swarm of drones, they’ll likely at least attempt to shoot them down, the base has its own wall of defence.

IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 15:43 collapse

This is why they used small FPV drones and launched them just a few kilometers away. There was virtually no warning, and small low flying drones would be very difficult for any automated defensive system to detect in time.

I think the Russians also felt a false sense of security given how far these airbases are from Ukraine. They may have had defenses in place for larger drones flying all the way from Ukraine, but again, such a system would have difficulty with small drones flying at treetop level from a very short distance.

CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 07:12 next collapse

I remember reading that the drones were meant to be autonamous? (I refuse to look up how to spell that word and simply accept my incorrectness) so those pauses and such might just be whatever image recognitions is intended to identify the shape of an aircraft freaking out a bit. Would also explain sequential launches as it would stop them all dogpiling one plan and being wasted.

7toed@midwest.social on 05 Jun 21:54 collapse

I’m feeling lazy with sources, but I’ve seen reporting that they were at least partially using Ardupilot for autonomous control, and likely were moving slower since they were tethered fiber optic drones that can’t be jammed anyway. Hence, spider’s web with all the fibers on the field.

Anivia@feddit.org on 05 Jun 05:50 next collapse

I saw this exact video the day of the attack, why is this article phrased as if it was released just now?

markko@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 06:04 collapse

Giving The Guardian the benefit of the doubt: because they took time to verify its authenticity before reporting on it.

More likely reason: urgency and BREAKING NEWS gets more clicks.

drspod@lemmy.ml on 05 Jun 07:23 next collapse

The video from the article: youtu.be/aukyzgAGHM4

synapse1278@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 09:45 collapse

I suppose all the planes where fully tanked up and ready to fly in order to be so flammable. I wonder if the damages would be so bad if a plan would be empty of fuel ?

Also, why do they put tires on top ?

mctoasterson@reddthat.com on 05 Jun 14:57 collapse

Some have theorized the tires disrupt object recognition in aerial imagery analysis (and possibly munitions or drone targeting). Obviously that didn’t work here as the targets were already known and visually confirmed.

IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 15:38 collapse

It’s not just a theory. The US military has confirmed that is what they are trying to do:

twz.com/…/russia-covering-its-aircraft-in-tires-i…

lemming741@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 15:56 collapse

That seems like a trick that only works the first time

turmacar@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 16:30 collapse

Maybe maybe not. Camo is just about playing the odds, nothing works from every angle or circumstance. If tires on wings means 5% more planes survive it’s probably worth it.

Xanxia@lemmy.zip on 05 Jun 20:12 collapse

Wonder why they keep all the planes the same color if that is what they are trying to do. The drones just have to target the specific Pantone.

turmacar@lemmy.world on 05 Jun 21:49 collapse

Pantone doesn’t mean much when the lighting conditions change throughout the day.