@@johnsmith-jq1uc thank you, yes, I am absolutely tracking those. It was possibly going to be this week's video but then the gun drones just snatched it. I will circle back to those hopefully.
@@TheArmourersBench I noticed your channel isn’t clickbait. You’ve just gotten my subscription for that. However, you should post of video about it soon. While it’s (thermite drone) still trending. A follow up video later on would be cool too. As more is learned about them
@@high_higgy prior to that, hell 2014 showed me that hybrid (covert-overt; generally deniable activities) will result in a muted political response, and that china is practicing this i the sea already. Only the Polish, Swedish & Finnish seem to be taking the past 3 years with serious considerations on how to practice defense in a near-transparent battlefield, the amount of steel, artillery, and UAV systems Poland alone has ordered is more than several nato nations combined.
It really is a terrifying prospect, aerial gun drones They've been a component to fiction that speculates on near future military technology, but it's something else to see them deployed like this
@@donwyoming1936 its a nuisance now but thats becuase its litterally just an ak on the bottom of a drone, if you could make a drone specific gun and use a more appropriate caliber it could be quite effective. Also maybe a change of tactics aswell where isntead of hovering around and shooting the drone almost goes in for strafe on infantry where it drives in releases a burst and pulls off.
“Basically” does NOT address: 1. Flight stability 2. Mechanism to trigger gun reliably, like a little motor with signaling 3. Correction of the fire, idk if it was done or not, but long-term has to be 4. Weight/fly distance/battery change calculations and tests It looks simple, but as an engineer, I would say that anything that remotely works with technology in this world is a hell of an effort.
@@AvraamAvramovichAvraamovEven had they not completed the testing, they still would have needed to implement a sophisticated mechanism to control fire, and have reliable coordination of the drone’s movement combined with the mounted firearm
I can imagine auto stabilizing programs to auto level the drone under full auto firing. If you know the angle of the gun and the recoil then the motors could spin up the exact amount to hold the drone steady.
Surprisingly, I don't think it would be as difficult as you might imagine. PID control for motion control systems is extremely robust--granted you have properly tuned the system for the particular loads/use cases
The FPV with the side-mounted AK in the longest video seemed to be doing this, compared to other footage later in the video of similar drones where you can see a burst would cause it to recoil 2-4ft
Gyros would do it automatically as long as you have it spinning on the right orientation. It’ll stay perfectly level and move backwards. Using a gimbal to allow the drone to tilt seperately would greatly enhance its recoil mitigation
Even now drones with firearms are relatively ineffective in comparison to kamikadze FPV drones. Perhaps some more research, money and testing later we'll see proper designs of drones with firearms
@@AvraamAvramovichAvraamov one drone hovering around in a area able to pop off shots at folk and keep the pressure on would be pretty effective from a tactical perspective. Strategy wise having a permanent sniper from above on an area would be very useful. Cheaper than drone spam in the long run too.
@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvusthe problem with sniper drones is that drones don’t tend to stay in one place. Also drones are quite noisy. The constant droning that sounds like a mosquito gives the drone sniper away. If more silent motors could be made, and the drone can effectively stay in one spot in the air and hover with a pivoting sniper rifle, then maybe I could see sniper drones becoming a viable option.
Red-dot sight is used in mock fpv-rc-airplane dogfight because it corrects for parallax error. (When the camera is not directly parallel with the barrel)
@@MaticTheProto A HUD is a Head-Up-Display which is not the same as just a collimator sight, which were used in WW2 planes, although I find it's very impressive that they had them at that time. I know them from the movies, but never realized it is such an advanced sight.
@@hibahprice6887Might be problematic to use for several reasons - Twice the amount of data, meaning more strain on channel, meaning more data loss, as you can see, it already struggles at times - Less battery time and thus range - More weight - More traffic means higher chance of data being intercepted by enemy
Imagine if these drones were dropping small AI-controlled tanks. I think our technology should be advanced enough for that, I'm just not to sure if it would be OK with international laws... These small tanks could silently and autonomously wander around, search for something that looks like a Russian soldier and head-shoot it with a small caliber (aimbot style). They would recharge themselves with their solar panel and carry on until they get destroyed. If one it getting stuck or is slightly disabled it could send an encrypted signal with his GPS coordinates to get help from the mother drone.
@@centurymemes1208 Yeah, its inaccurate as hell but stray bullets can kill too. And i think they will force the attacked soldiers to keep their heads down. Imagine the use in a assault. A group of soldiers attacks a enemy position while the gun-drones keep the defenders distracted...these drones can kill without hitting a target, just by harrasment in the right moment.
Ukraine has long been using thermite munitions homemade by some of the larger munitions workshops but this new one allows the fpv to basically spray a entire treeline with thermite particles causing fortifications to burn. It's wild.
I was thinking exactly that. We're not far from a target ID algorithm being loaded and having the machine hunt on it's own. Breakpoint sure knew the direction that warfare is headed.
@@audreyrewinded I always thought the med drone in Wildlands was monkey business, but never got the chance to play ghost war PVP or see the drones there. At least Wildlands and BP add some realistic balance to drones with the video jammers
In the Vietnam war the United States used a lot LAW rockets. These were lightweight RPG's. They had a small disposable launcher. Those would be great anti helicopter and infantry weapons. The Vietcong quickly figured out that the thrown away launching tubes were only a little bigger around than hand grenades. So they would pull the pin on their grenades, and slide a few grenades in the tube. They would hang the tube high in the trees with a trip wire that released a gate at the bottom of the tube. The grenades would exit the tube, the spoon would fly off and the party would begin. A drone with a tube of 6 grenades releasing them at once would be good for clearing trenches.
I think the system they have is just fine. If the tube design is to be done it needs optimisations. Using steel tubes is too heavy, probably PVA would work best, it's sturdy enough and much lighter.
The pressure from the lever on a grenade is really strong, it would grip the inside of any tube so tightly it couldn't budge if you even tried to shake it out. Why would you want the grenades on the ground? They're deadlier suspended in the air. There's far more effective boobytraps using just a bit of string to hold the lever down that would release when a tripwire is pulled. That story sounds like commie propaganda to trick Americans into hauling their worthless M72 tubes back to base. It really is as worthless as any old bit of pipe. Commies loved stories like that "we use your weapons against you" but it's not true, it's using our worthless trash against us in a way that less effective than ignoring it. The problem with booby traps is you're as likely to set them off yourself.
Hardly would one need a LAW tube just to store hand grenades to a drone, unless it is a booby trap of some kind. Not that you were necessarily suggesting that with your tangent, but anyway. An RPG 26, which is a similar disposable weapon, has been known to be attached to a drone. M72 LAW could easily be attached to a drone for top-attack anti-tank role. Tanks are easily penetrated from the roof and modern production versions of the weapon have significantly improved armour penetration compared to the Vietnam era versions.
@@herptek At that point, is it any more useful and effective than zip tying the warhead right onto the drone and then smacking it against the target like they already do?
@@ach3909 One clear advantage would be that the drone operator gets an immediate battle damage assessment without another asset confirming the kill. One could also re-use the drone that way, which in turn would make it convenient to invest somewhat more on sensors on board or other expensive features. Against infantry it would seem to me that something like 40mm grenade pistol or revolver launcher with several rounds would be better suited for that job than one LAW tube.
This concept might not be practical now, but imagine when defense production produces dedicated models. Perhaps with smaller caliber weapons. Mass produced drones are probably going to be the future of warfare. If there cheap just flood the battlefield with them.
I will not be surprised if drone swarms are coming. On the other hand, technological developments can go in very unexpected ways. To be honest I would also not be totally surprised if some innovations in radio signalling increases jamming capabilities massively, with certain verhicles, or just any tank, dropping a drone swarm to the ground at short to medium range.
@@joostdriesens3984 I'm with you, drones are so cheap that the potential is there to send them as a swarm. I don't know, but it's likely that most jamming is done by detecting the control frequency of the drone, and then filling the air with watts of noise on that channel. Or maybe it's done by detecting the video transmit frequency of the drone's camera. Some drone controllers (even cheap ones) dynamically switch between available channels, so a jammer would have to step on the control signal (or video signal) up and down the spectrum. I'd be interested to see a video where a swarm of drones gets jammed and plops into the river.
I'd think using it as an anti-drone interceptor would be more useful. Its hard to kamikaze into another drone, but getting it 10 or 20 feet away from the other drone doesn't seem too hard.
Shotgun drone with automated object detection on the camera or something like a passive infrared detector, cheap radar or ultrasonic sensors to give you a drone that automatically centres on the object and fires. A lot cheaper and easier than developing something like a Roomba vacuum.
Using the whole RPG launcher instead of just the warhead could remove the problems created by jammers on tanks which make it very difficult to keep the moving target in sight in the last meters.
Those needs a custom muzzle break to be "better". The next step should be a juiced up gimbal, even software compensation, but those are gucci solutions. For the time being, i think focusing r&d on some good muzzle breaks might be the most cost / time efficient. And remving everything "useless" on the lead dispenser.
Muzzle brakes shouldn’t be too hard to develop, given that suppressors for AKs are common in Ukraine, and are often from domestic production. Though the standard AK-74 muzzle brake is a plenty effective already and are a known quantity.
The drone and gun need to be designed around one another. Software stabilization is all well and good, but you really want something that is purpose-designed from the ground up.
@@sciencecompliance235 Not necessarily. The a major point of modern drones and their weapons is their much reduced cost, and would be optimal if existing designs could be leveraged for the task. The drone could be a ground-up design, but it would be easier to mate an existing firearm to the drone instead. In addition to software stabilization, a recoil-absorbing mount could be added. These exist for various light, medium, and heavy machine guns, and are basically spring, pneumatic, or hydraulic shock absorbers on a set of rails.
@@classifiedad1 I mean, you're not wrong about the cost issue necessarily, but you're looking at it from a different perspective than I am. I'm just talking about a drone that optimizes performance for this role. The cost would still be much less than a gunship or something filling a similar role, especially when mass-produced. The thing about infantry rifles, too, is that they are completely designed from the ground up with a form factor suited to a human operator. You can do away with a lot of the gun if it is going to be electronically fired from a drone platform and probably want something that is belt-fed rather than magazine-fed, too. Then there's the issue of ejection. Ejecting shell casings sideways could cause problems for a drone, so you would probably want to eject them downward. You could always turn an assault rifle sideways, but, again, you probably want this thing belt fed (from the side), which I'm pretty sure assault rifles cannot be easily modified to accommodate. I'm also not aware of machine guns that eject 90 degrees to the feed direction either. On the subject of recoil, there is only so much recoil mitigation you can do. If your rate of fire is high enough, your recoil dampening system will get saturated and have to unload. Such a system will also add weight, which comes at a premium performance cost for a flying vehicle.
Imagine an anti-material rifle-equipped drone that could perch or somehow plant itself in a strategic position. It wouldn't need to be very close to the combat or fire while in the air. It could even be a detachable system so the drone could fly back and forth to resupply.
Imagine a drone with little legs. It sits on a tree and waits for prey. When some arrive it pounces with its armor piercing high explosive 20mm rounds.
probably for more direct anti personnel engagement in general, rather than a splash down. I feel like it adds far too much weight to a drone to literally strap a full rifle to it rather than a stripped down one with it's most vital parts.
Dropping hand grenades is not that effective (we only see the successful hits from the videos), otherwise they would not start using single-use fpv drones(which are MUCH more expensive than grenades) against infantry. But if you mean a grenade launcher with 40 mm grenades, then yes that could be more effective. Check out Cerberus GLH, it's an Australian drone with a grenade launcher.
Firing blindly in a direction isn't helpful either, but it's called suppression. This also does the same thing. If you don't want them to scatter while artillery is zeroing in on them for maximum effect, or if you do want to distract them from focusing on an encroaching or retreating unit.
Even if it's not that efficient in terms of getting kills the psychological impact must be extreme on the russians. Imagine you sit somewhere you think is safe then you get fired upon from the air.
not really. bullets whizzing by at is pretty fucking standard and if it's barely aimable, it doesn't really matter. The bomb drones are much more dangerous and intimidating. it would be more dangerous if it could fly down into the trench and try to fire at the enemy that way. Smaller target, harder to shoot back.
Место не спокойное, военные уже давно готовы к всяческим обстрелам, а для более менее прицельной стрельбы из этого дрона надо подлетать на близкое расстояние и из-за этого военные могут его легко спить
Alternatively, drones designed to intercept other drones. Using rifle drones that way would be a good start for that. If planes have multirole, bomber, interceptor, and the like, it'd be intuitive to apply similar things to drones as well.
@@alphamoonmanthere is a company that has a video of their drone that has swappable heads, a shrapnel shotgun or a kamikaze shaped charge. Can’t remember the name but look it up
i don't know why but i feel like if someone made a platform that fired 22LR reliably, a drone flying around with like 3k rds of 22LR just seems like the zaniest shit ever that'd be both funny and terrifying. It'd probably sound like a swarm of angry bees.
A better idea would be mount a modified p90 in fixed wing drone with a quadstack magazine as the guns is fairly easy to fit in a areodynamic fueslage, it probably be easier to aim aswell due to the more stable gun platform
The thermite drone to jet drones to interference drones and fpv to boat drones Ukrainian drone production has become one of the miss advanced technologies in the world. It’s amazing to see such innovative technology being developed and implemented the rapid adoption and development process is impressive
Yeah if Trump didn’t get speaker Johnson to stop military aid for a few months that accelerated the drone production and innovation and if Putin never invaded we wouldn’t have these drones the way we do today. They will be integral to all army’s going forward it’s crazy this leap forward has came . Ukraine wasn’t even given a chance at the beginning every news company were going Russia days to take over but alas look where we are today Russias Black Sea fleet combat ineffective in the Azov sea . Russias professional army they started with has been eroded Russias tank jet helicopter and artillery also have taken huge losses . Russia will be in a bad way at the end of this war and it’s all putins fault
Aiming is only difficult for now. Once they make an mil spec version with integrated gun and sighting systems and AI targeting assistance its gonna be really wild. Won't be long...
@@Slava_Ukraini1991 they already use AI. It's called the last mile targeting system iirc. It basically locks on the target shortly before and makes sure it hits even if they lose connection. They also already have automated guns in the DMZ between the North and south Korea. It's not new just not been implemented in this way on the front yet. Won't be long tho.
Before this war started, a dron with a Berretta was shown firing an hoverin on RUclips an other channels. One also was showed with a shotgun firin at nebours in a fight between the two families on US news. So I’m surprised that this has taken so long.🙏🙏👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧
Think something like the FN P90 or another gun using a P90 magazine would be the perfect weapon for this. Would allow it to be used on a smaller drone with a higher ammo-capacity while still being armor-piercing.
I wonder if the barrel was pointed straight down if it would be easier to aim. Seeing how effective dropped munition drones have been that is def the direction I'd go for.
Nowhere close, you don’t have a clue how far AI has to go for something like that to occur. All AI is right now is a copy cat. It is incapable of thinking self sufficiently and probably never will with our current computing power.
Rather than direct combat where explosive would be more useful, think about the applications where infantry with guns are normally required and aviation bombs don't work. Clearing houses with occupants of unknown alignment, accepting and supervising the surrender of enemies beyond the front lines, policing occupied areas, etc. etc. etc. Some of these roles will still require some humans, but a swarm of drones can multiply the force of a squad to be more effective, control a wider area, and/or take on what would be greater risks.
Have on of those fancy recording digital scopes on the rifle with a separate video feed so you can have 2 monitors, one for shooting and one for flying
I think the obvious benefit of a gun is for anti drone work, although the psychological aspect of man hunting rifle armed drones is quite terrifying as well ofc. We've seen a lot of suicide drones targeting Russian surveillance drones, but with this you can simply fly up to them and give them a few bursts. Or mount an auto shotgun for an easier time. Making the cost value absolutely crazy.
I kind of find it funny how my private military company came up with a basic concept based around Black ops 2 for an attack drone (13 months ago today) and it started to become a reality 😂 Hell we might as well just stopped production and just wait until people finish off the different versions and just buy it 😂 Since its mostly declassified and we're not producing it anymore I'm just going to go ahead and tell you basically what it it is The prototype we were building was an am90 "swarm of angry bees" flipped upside down strapped to a quad propelled drone , We removed the trigger system and replaced it with a wired version of a trigger width 2.5 mm rolled homogeneous steel And then we started testing it and it did pretty good The problem was the consistency of the fire rate we believe that if we had made the am 90 in semi-automatic the drone would have actually been an absolute scouting beast
Presumably all Western Armies are now developing this type of aerial gunboat drone. They might eventually have several machine guns front, side, back. Like the small, rapid fire uzis.
The South Africans showed off drone tech back in 2014 for strikebreaking that would use tear gas rounds and taser darts. This is a much more grounded proof of concept, though.
surprised they haven't already made gun installed variants. I mean they have those small ground tractor drones with specially designed 9mm Glocks built-in; not just a hand gun zip-tied to a unit.
Wondering if bringing back a mars pistol style directly rearward ejection would make sense. Why worry about shell casings flying into the shooters face 500 meters away?
I have a feeling that this gun drone can do strafing runs on enemy positions which could be an advantage over ground based machine gunners shooting at an elevated position
The gunner drone use you did not mention is for when a unit is in the trenches and either facing pressure, or more likely, when the men are advancing and the airborne drone provides both effective fire AND simultaneously offers a huge distraction splitting the concentration of defenders between the airborne threat, AND the ground forces advancing on the enemy. Which of the 2 should a defender act against, and how do they defend simultaneously. They cannot have their rifle horizntal AND 60 degrees off the horizontal at the same time. Imagine a more urban scenario. A man across the street at the corner, 25 feet away, AND a guy 40 feet off the ground on a balcony where the balcony man is the parallel for a drone. Both want to shoot you, but you can only cause casualties at ground level, while tasked with defending from a overseeing threat. It's a tough battlefield today.
Surely a fire-and-forget ATGM is the next step to overcome the issues of firing an aimed weapon from a drone. Much more expensive - but much more effective as well.
Watching the drone retrieve an enemy weapon with a magnet on a string and then retrofit that rifle onto the very same drone was spectacular. That's actually an important part of Sun Tzu's Art of War. Taking weaponry from the enemy and using it against them is a powerful strategy. Particularly when you are the underdog in the fight munitions-wise.
So using a lighter ammo, reducing recoil (and kinetic power) but giving you more rounds, you could use them in a support role kind of raining diwn rounds from above say 100-150 rounds
Another advantage is that it would be able to actually stop and aim. With a side-pointed rifle, a standard quadcopter has to constantly move while aiming/shooting.
everyone saying drone warfare should be a war crime... forgetting the fact that Russia literally invaded a country, what did you expect? flowers? A country should be able to defend itself in any form possible, dont want the enemy developing new and fun ways to kill you?????? then how about you consider not invading them? Good tip eh?
If it wasn't for potential reliability issues I could see helical drums being useful for drones for balance and space limitations, it would be interesting if this sparks new interest in case-less ammunition, the thought of a eletrical not clockwork G11 like device firing in volleys on a drone is really something but only time will tell I honestly think that a volley style of weapon might be simpler and more reliable way of hitting targets with every shot fired disturbing the POA, either that or some sort reciprocating rail to try balance the recoil I look forward(?) to seeing the new mechanical/electrical horrors we create
What about a powerful pneumatic (air) gun firing steel balls (BB size or larger) to shoot down other drones. The plastic drones don't take much to damage them and cause them to crash. Recoil would be very low. They could carry hundreds of "rounds" of ammo. A pre-charged pneumatic automatic rifle (PCP) would be easy to mount (and lighter than a firearm). There are many of them available on the market. OR, instead of an AK74, mount an autoloading (semi-automatic) _shotgun,_ .410 bore or 28 ga. would be ideal. Again to target other drones. It would have no use against personnel or vehicles but could be effective against other drones. Better than ramming them which usually destroys both drones.
reminds me of ww1 use of airplanes, at first they were practically only used for recon, then dropping small bombs, then eventually air-air warfare with machine guns. maybe the same will happen with drones
I think they would also work well for defense... Be it patrolling incoming attack vectors, or even repelling assaults... Like the ones where BMPs get disabled and you have a bunch of dismounts that are hard to target with individual FPV drones, but quite easy with even semi-decent optics with a drone like this.
They should make a new kind of bullet for these that shoots retroreflective rounds so after the first volley automated targeting solutions can be engaged as the reflective rounds paint the field with fixed points (retroreflective shrapnel) allowing the drone to simultaneously move and shoot at the target.
Need to find a way to affix a holographic sight to the firearm. That will adjust for misalignment far better than the little crosshair in the camera. Maybe use an aftermarket forearm with picatinny on the side and put the holo there and then line the drone cam up with the holo. It would require the rifle be placed further forward though.
How about overlaying the sighting system on the video feed, rather than on the weapon? It assumes a rigid mounting, but conventional sights won't work without a correctly aligned camera anyway. I'm imagining a compute impact point based on the known position of the drone, the attitude angle, and the terrain elevation data for the area its looking at. From that you can draw a line to intersect the target area, look that up against the trajectory of the round (at that angle), and display a mark on the screen offset as necessary. Might need a two-step process of point the rangefinding symbol, press a button, then adjust angle to aim the weapon. Couldn't have it auto-update the range as then it would keep changing when you aimed off.
The RPG-7 is relatively heavy, both in absolute numbers as well as relative to the weight of it's warhead. I would suggest that a smaller single-use RPG or a rocket launcher is a better option, since the launcher can not be reloaded in any case. Good options could be RPG-18, M72 LAW, RPG-72, RPG-26 or AT4 recoilless launchers or S-5 rockets. Guided missiles like the MBDA Enforcer Air, Thales LMM or, depending on the drone, maybe even larger missiles like Hellfire, Brimstone, Stugna-P,... could be an option as well.
There's a UK drone from Malloy that's been paired with LMM which is promising. And yes, I'm not sure why they went with RPG7, a disposable launcher would make sense.
The Marlet/LMM costs 250,000$ I think, judging from the cost of the recent UK donation of those to Ukraine, so it kind of defeats the attractiveness of cheap drones. Still, if you could infiltrate enemy territory with a few drones holding those and manage to shoot down enemy aircraft launching glide bombs, it might be worth it...
One idea, two drones, one carries a laser for designation while another heavy drone carries a battery of the modified Hydra rockets. Could possibly operate in 'wolf-packs' with the multiple heavy drones.
Can imagine there are companies working on super light weight guns with recoil dampers specifically for drones. Rockets that only fire up once released would also remove the forced on the drone. Aswell as meaning there is no weight to carry on return flight.
Gun-armed UGVs have appeared a few times before as well, as sentries, as AA defenses and as some force multiplier for advancing soldiers, but i havent heard much of them since.
it need to have swivel arm, laser targeting, and ballistic computer... luckily the ballistic computer can be linked through network so it does not add heavy load... maybe using rocket-based ammo to mitigate the recoil is good too(basically recoilless small arm)...
It’s honestly insane what Ukraine is doing with drones at this current moment. They’re extremely low cost, they can be made from a shed using 3D printers, they’re disposable and are basically useless if they’re shot down, you can easily mount existing tech to them or even strap an infantry rifle yo them in this case, and they’re so easy even someone with basic FPV experience can operate them. I honestly believe that drones are the next evolution of technicals. In the 80s and 90s, we had the rise of technical: trucks mounted with recoilless rifles or rocket launchers that were low maintenance, easy to operate, and extremely cheap. Now we have FPV drones that are the exact same thing.
it shouldn't even be hard to aim, as long as camera is completely aligned with the barrel (can align it by shooting before), and just aiming a bit under the center of the screen.
To create such a system is not complex. However, the complexity comes from the fact that the drone can hold a rifle, but the drones has to be pretty large in order to hold something like a machine gun. Big drones are big targets.
Could a sticky smoke ,maybe block the lens of these drone and thereby cripple it 🤔 Or maybe tubes with a charge and paint, could be shot out at the right time (like a paint cannon).. Or paint granades maybe
I do think this concept might be better served by a smaller-caliber weapon, something like a 9mm SMG with an extended magazine and a high rate of fire. With the reduction in weight you could also carry grenades or mortar rounds to drop, and then use the submachine-gun to circle and strafe after making a bombing run.
How about just using a submachine gun with low recoil and extended mag? Or any low recoil automatic weapon. Then just add a raspberry pi motion tracking turret with 360 degree motions. Obviously keep the cameras and servo on the trigger.
There is a 3-axis gimbal design, weapons platform out there that is integrated with a TADS (Target Acquisition Defense System). Fully automated target acquisition while in flight. Ukrainian innovation is a cut above.
why not combine the heavy lift drone with a lock on weapon like the javelin? I imagine the only problem is the weight and getting a drone that can integrate with the weapon.
If there's on board target recognition then the effectiveness of this goes way up. The operator pulls the trigger to engage and the drone does the targeting.
Thanks for watching be sure to check out our accompanying article for this video here -
armourersbench.com/2024/09/06/gun-armed-drone-in-ukraine/
sir, have a look at the new thermite dropping drones if you have not allready done so
@@johnsmith-jq1uc thank you, yes, I am absolutely tracking those. It was possibly going to be this week's video but then the gun drones just snatched it. I will circle back to those hopefully.
@@TheArmourersBench I noticed your channel isn’t clickbait. You’ve just gotten my subscription for that. However, you should post of video about it soon. While it’s (thermite drone) still trending. A follow up video later on would be cool too. As more is learned about them
FPS russia YT channel made one years ago.
Haven't heard from him ?
@@johnsmith-jq1ucman I was just coming here to comment that I can't wait for him to cover the dragons and you all ready have him working on it
Black ops 2 being set in 2025 doesnt seem too unrealistic anymore.
i’ve been thinking this since we all saw how china acted during covid
Friendly Dragonfire deployed
@@high_higgy prior to that, hell 2014 showed me that hybrid (covert-overt; generally deniable activities) will result in a muted political response, and that china is practicing this i the sea already.
Only the Polish, Swedish & Finnish seem to be taking the past 3 years with serious considerations on how to practice defense in a near-transparent battlefield, the amount of steel, artillery, and UAV systems Poland alone has ordered is more than several nato nations combined.
"none of this surprises me" - Woods.
Friendly Hunter-Killer drone deployed
It really is a terrifying prospect, aerial gun drones
They've been a component to fiction that speculates on near future military technology, but it's something else to see them deployed like this
*Terminator is what comes to my mind. Simply terrifying.*
Israel had such drone, battle tested in Gaza.
It's more of a nuisance than an effective weapon. Anything that big will get blown out of the air by any professional army.
maybe a floating marksman rifle would make sense employed in this manner.
@@donwyoming1936 its a nuisance now but thats becuase its litterally just an ak on the bottom of a drone, if you could make a drone specific gun and use a more appropriate caliber it could be quite effective. Also maybe a change of tactics aswell where isntead of hovering around and shooting the drone almost goes in for strafe on infantry where it drives in releases a burst and pulls off.
I love how basically the first vid is literally just an ak duct taped to a drone.
zip tied
“Basically” does NOT address:
1. Flight stability
2. Mechanism to trigger gun reliably, like a little motor with signaling
3. Correction of the fire, idk if it was done or not, but long-term has to be
4. Weight/fly distance/battery change calculations and tests
It looks simple, but as an engineer, I would say that anything that remotely works with technology in this world is a hell of an effort.
@@platonslynko7785 assuming they did do all of that, yeah
@@AvraamAvramovichAvraamovEven had they not completed the testing, they still would have needed to implement a sophisticated mechanism to control fire, and have reliable coordination of the drone’s movement combined with the mounted firearm
@@platonslynko7785imagine how bootlegged the drones look 😭
I can imagine auto stabilizing programs to auto level the drone under full auto firing. If you know the angle of the gun and the recoil then the motors could spin up the exact amount to hold the drone steady.
That's next week.
Surprisingly, I don't think it would be as difficult as you might imagine. PID control for motion control systems is extremely robust--granted you have properly tuned the system for the particular loads/use cases
@@Trenz0 A from the depths player could do it lol
The FPV with the side-mounted AK in the longest video seemed to be doing this, compared to other footage later in the video of similar drones where you can see a burst would cause it to recoil 2-4ft
Gyros would do it automatically as long as you have it spinning on the right orientation. It’ll stay perfectly level and move backwards. Using a gimbal to allow the drone to tilt seperately would greatly enhance its recoil mitigation
I'm surprised it took this long to deploy them at all.
it didnt actually..Ive seen footage dating as far back as winter 23. but R&D takes a while I guess, especially aiming issues/recoil ammortization
Kamikaze FPVs are cheaper. Those new gun drones need a bigger drone and as it was said here addicional parts to fight recoil and other stuff.
Even now drones with firearms are relatively ineffective in comparison to kamikadze FPV drones.
Perhaps some more research, money and testing later we'll see proper designs of drones with firearms
@@AvraamAvramovichAvraamov one drone hovering around in a area able to pop off shots at folk and keep the pressure on would be pretty effective from a tactical perspective. Strategy wise having a permanent sniper from above on an area would be very useful. Cheaper than drone spam in the long run too.
@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvusthe problem with sniper drones is that drones don’t tend to stay in one place. Also drones are quite noisy. The constant droning that sounds like a mosquito gives the drone sniper away. If more silent motors could be made, and the drone can effectively stay in one spot in the air and hover with a pivoting sniper rifle, then maybe I could see sniper drones becoming a viable option.
Red-dot sight is used in mock fpv-rc-airplane dogfight because it corrects for parallax error. (When the camera is not directly parallel with the barrel)
Huds were also used in ww2
@@MaticTheProto A HUD is a Head-Up-Display which is not the same as just a collimator sight, which were used in WW2 planes, although I find it's very impressive that they had them at that time. I know them from the movies, but never realized it is such an advanced sight.
@@joostdriesens3984 my bad. But yeah they were really advanced especially considering how simple some other systems still were back then
You can install a second camera-sight precisely sighted with a grid. And use two video channels.
@@hibahprice6887Might be problematic to use for several reasons
- Twice the amount of data, meaning more strain on channel, meaning more data loss, as you can see, it already struggles at times
- Less battery time and thus range
- More weight
- More traffic means higher chance of data being intercepted by enemy
Supressive fire from a swarm of these would be terrifying to be on the business end of.
jeez. even if its innacurate, it can pin your position down while a strike team flanks you and get annihilated.
Not for other drones
Finally, a real reason to do 3-Gun instead of 2-Gun.
Imagine if these drones were dropping small AI-controlled tanks. I think our technology should be advanced enough for that, I'm just not to sure if it would be OK with international laws... These small tanks could silently and autonomously wander around, search for something that looks like a Russian soldier and head-shoot it with a small caliber (aimbot style). They would recharge themselves with their solar panel and carry on until they get destroyed. If one it getting stuck or is slightly disabled it could send an encrypted signal with his GPS coordinates to get help from the mother drone.
@@centurymemes1208 Yeah, its inaccurate as hell but stray bullets can kill too. And i think they will force the attacked soldiers to keep their heads down. Imagine the use in a assault. A group of soldiers attacks a enemy position while the gun-drones keep the defenders distracted...these drones can kill without hitting a target, just by harrasment in the right moment.
MQ 27 Dragonfly from Bo2: "My time has come"
Hunter killer drone from Terminator 2 3D where you at.
black ops 2 also predicted kamala harris winning the election.
i bet an aircraft carrier will get named after obama
*Me handing the Bird shot rounds to a ally as I am about to draw its fire* You must continue your journey without me..
Hawk x3 too
Cypher drones from MGS 2
Most interesting was the use of drones as a carrier and repeater. Genius.
What is a "carrier and repeater"?
@@olliefoxx7165I’d like to know as well
@@olliefoxx7165 to carry other drones and repeat the signal from a drone team forward so drones can reach further
-
It was used as a plane carrier, to drop of smaller drones. And the Main drone acted as a signal repeater for the smal drones.
@@Operationpr0 Thank you! That's very interesting. Appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me.
Looking forward to seeing a video about the flamelayer drones Ukraine has also started using.
Ukraine has long been using thermite munitions homemade by some of the larger munitions workshops but this new one allows the fpv to basically spray a entire treeline with thermite particles causing fortifications to burn. It's wild.
YES!!!!
waiting on the thermite drone video
@@zootyzay4878 I saw one on youtube yesterday..
@@zootyzay4878 just search flamethrower drone on here, you'll see it
Holy f###, this is straight out of Ghost Recon Breakpoint
I was thinking exactly that. We're not far from a target ID algorithm being loaded and having the machine hunt on it's own. Breakpoint sure knew the direction that warfare is headed.
@@waylonk2453 War would be Automated soon enough. few ground soldiers and more are just repairman or armorer for those Drones
@@waylonk2453they had the drones in wildlands too, and in the pvp they were so op against people they had super nerfs 😅 art really does imitate life
@@audreyrewinded I always thought the med drone in Wildlands was monkey business, but never got the chance to play ghost war PVP or see the drones there. At least Wildlands and BP add some realistic balance to drones with the video jammers
In the Vietnam war the United States used a lot LAW rockets. These were lightweight RPG's. They had a small disposable launcher. Those would be great anti helicopter and infantry weapons.
The Vietcong quickly figured out that the thrown away launching tubes were only a little bigger around than hand grenades. So they would pull the pin on their grenades, and slide a few grenades in the tube. They would hang the tube high in the trees with a trip wire that released a gate at the bottom of the tube. The grenades would exit the tube, the spoon would fly off and the party would begin. A drone with a tube of 6 grenades releasing them at once would be good for clearing trenches.
I think the system they have is just fine.
If the tube design is to be done it needs optimisations.
Using steel tubes is too heavy, probably PVA would work best, it's sturdy enough and much lighter.
The pressure from the lever on a grenade is really strong, it would grip the inside of any tube so tightly it couldn't budge if you even tried to shake it out.
Why would you want the grenades on the ground? They're deadlier suspended in the air. There's far more effective boobytraps using just a bit of string to hold the lever down that would release when a tripwire is pulled.
That story sounds like commie propaganda to trick Americans into hauling their worthless M72 tubes back to base. It really is as worthless as any old bit of pipe. Commies loved stories like that "we use your weapons against you" but it's not true, it's using our worthless trash against us in a way that less effective than ignoring it.
The problem with booby traps is you're as likely to set them off yourself.
Hardly would one need a LAW tube just to store hand grenades to a drone, unless it is a booby trap of some kind. Not that you were necessarily suggesting that with your tangent, but anyway.
An RPG 26, which is a similar disposable weapon, has been known to be attached to a drone. M72 LAW could easily be attached to a drone for top-attack anti-tank role. Tanks are easily penetrated from the roof and modern production versions of the weapon have significantly improved armour penetration compared to the Vietnam era versions.
@@herptek At that point, is it any more useful and effective than zip tying the warhead right onto the drone and then smacking it against the target like they already do?
@@ach3909 One clear advantage would be that the drone operator gets an immediate battle damage assessment without another asset confirming the kill.
One could also re-use the drone that way, which in turn would make it convenient to invest somewhat more on sensors on board or other expensive features.
Against infantry it would seem to me that something like 40mm grenade pistol or revolver launcher with several rounds would be better suited for that job than one LAW tube.
This concept might not be practical now, but imagine when defense production produces dedicated models. Perhaps with smaller caliber weapons. Mass produced drones are probably going to be the future of warfare. If there cheap just flood the battlefield with them.
Everyday we get frighteningly closer to slaughterbots
I will not be surprised if drone swarms are coming. On the other hand, technological developments can go in very unexpected ways. To be honest I would also not be totally surprised if some innovations in radio signalling increases jamming capabilities massively, with certain verhicles, or just any tank, dropping a drone swarm to the ground at short to medium range.
@@joostdriesens3984 I'm with you, drones are so cheap that the potential is there to send them as a swarm. I don't know, but it's likely that most jamming is done by detecting the control frequency of the drone, and then filling the air with watts of noise on that channel. Or maybe it's done by detecting the video transmit frequency of the drone's camera. Some drone controllers (even cheap ones) dynamically switch between available channels, so a jammer would have to step on the control signal (or video signal) up and down the spectrum.
I'd be interested to see a video where a swarm of drones gets jammed and plops into the river.
flechettes made of tungsten/DU they would pen almost every russian body armor^^ (plastic sheets, carton, sometimes 1mm metal sheets)
Yeh, it would only take a closed door to stop the entire swarm though...
I'd think using it as an anti-drone interceptor would be more useful. Its hard to kamikaze into another drone, but getting it 10 or 20 feet away from the other drone doesn't seem too hard.
How are you going to aim it at a fast moving target?
@@randomsnow6510 shotgun drone maybe
bullet physics is a pain in the ass to model surely
@@randomsnow6510 It might not be fast moving if its a loitering observation drone
Shotgun drone with automated object detection on the camera or something like a passive infrared detector, cheap radar or ultrasonic sensors to give you a drone that automatically centres on the object and fires.
A lot cheaper and easier than developing something like a Roomba vacuum.
Using the whole RPG launcher instead of just the warhead could remove the problems created by jammers on tanks which make it very difficult to keep the moving target in sight in the last meters.
It is however hard to aim well.
@@nic.h Add a laser pointer. Sensors. Clever math and it could tell you where to aim.
@@Splarkszter probably yes, with sufficient effort and cost.
If it works on full sized aircraft good chances a miniturized version could be created.
The recoil will destroy the drones.
@@uwemattiss880 More than acceptable lost if it successfully hit the target
Those needs a custom muzzle break to be "better". The next step should be a juiced up gimbal, even software compensation, but those are gucci solutions. For the time being, i think focusing r&d on some good muzzle breaks might be the most cost / time efficient. And remving everything "useless" on the lead dispenser.
The platform definitely needs to be standardized. That way they could program a recoil controll system
Muzzle brakes shouldn’t be too hard to develop, given that suppressors for AKs are common in Ukraine, and are often from domestic production.
Though the standard AK-74 muzzle brake is a plenty effective already and are a known quantity.
The drone and gun need to be designed around one another. Software stabilization is all well and good, but you really want something that is purpose-designed from the ground up.
@@sciencecompliance235 Not necessarily. The a major point of modern drones and their weapons is their much reduced cost, and would be optimal if existing designs could be leveraged for the task.
The drone could be a ground-up design, but it would be easier to mate an existing firearm to the drone instead. In addition to software stabilization, a recoil-absorbing mount could be added. These exist for various light, medium, and heavy machine guns, and are basically spring, pneumatic, or hydraulic shock absorbers on a set of rails.
@@classifiedad1 I mean, you're not wrong about the cost issue necessarily, but you're looking at it from a different perspective than I am. I'm just talking about a drone that optimizes performance for this role. The cost would still be much less than a gunship or something filling a similar role, especially when mass-produced. The thing about infantry rifles, too, is that they are completely designed from the ground up with a form factor suited to a human operator. You can do away with a lot of the gun if it is going to be electronically fired from a drone platform and probably want something that is belt-fed rather than magazine-fed, too. Then there's the issue of ejection. Ejecting shell casings sideways could cause problems for a drone, so you would probably want to eject them downward. You could always turn an assault rifle sideways, but, again, you probably want this thing belt fed (from the side), which I'm pretty sure assault rifles cannot be easily modified to accommodate. I'm also not aware of machine guns that eject 90 degrees to the feed direction either.
On the subject of recoil, there is only so much recoil mitigation you can do. If your rate of fire is high enough, your recoil dampening system will get saturated and have to unload. Such a system will also add weight, which comes at a premium performance cost for a flying vehicle.
Imagine an anti-material rifle-equipped drone that could perch or somehow plant itself in a strategic position. It wouldn't need to be very close to the combat or fire while in the air. It could even be a detachable system so the drone could fly back and forth to resupply.
Imagine a drone with little legs. It sits on a tree and waits for prey. When some arrive it pounces with its armor piercing high explosive 20mm rounds.
@@froschreiniger2639 Imagine a forest full of these bad boys
Now you've made me think "Remote control sniper system with a tripod"
@@froschreiniger2639 Imagine a drone with a comical amount of high-explosive/fragmentation material being used as a kamikaze unit
@@soupcangaming662this is what they do already
I don't see how attaching a gun to a n fpv drone is better than a drone carrying multiple smaller grenades...
Personally I think grenades are more useful too.
probably for more direct anti personnel engagement in general, rather than a splash down. I feel like it adds far too much weight to a drone to literally strap a full rifle to it rather than a stripped down one with it's most vital parts.
Dropping hand grenades is not that effective (we only see the successful hits from the videos), otherwise they would not start using single-use fpv drones(which are MUCH more expensive than grenades) against infantry.
But if you mean a grenade launcher with 40 mm grenades, then yes that could be more effective. Check out Cerberus GLH, it's an Australian drone with a grenade launcher.
you can surppres enemy position for longer while friendly troops advance.
Firing blindly in a direction isn't helpful either, but it's called suppression. This also does the same thing. If you don't want them to scatter while artillery is zeroing in on them for maximum effect, or if you do want to distract them from focusing on an encroaching or retreating unit.
I wonder if they could use the rotor RPM to compensate for recoil.
Perhaps syncro an increase in RPM when the trigger is actuated. Interesting idea.
i thought it was a joke at first but i guess not. compensated somehow 🤔
They are already being used to control position of the aircraft. That's just how drones, like quads, work.
theres brighter minds than our "average infantrymen spare part army" working 24/7 "dontcha worry...bout a thing, coz EVERY LITTLE THING..."^^
Even if it's not that efficient in terms of getting kills the psychological impact must be extreme on the russians. Imagine you sit somewhere you think is safe then you get fired upon from the air.
not really. bullets whizzing by at is pretty fucking standard and if it's barely aimable, it doesn't really matter. The bomb drones are much more dangerous and intimidating.
it would be more dangerous if it could fly down into the trench and try to fire at the enemy that way. Smaller target, harder to shoot back.
It's a threat to poorly trained conscripts. Not to seasoned or professional troops.
Clearly you are unfamiliar with Russians
bomb drones have way higher psychological impact than gimmicks like this
Место не спокойное, военные уже давно готовы к всяческим обстрелам, а для более менее прицельной стрельбы из этого дрона надо подлетать на близкое расстояние и из-за этого военные могут его легко спить
For anti-drone operations, Ukraine needs a drone built around a semi-automatic shotgun (modified to reduce weight).
Reusable one/two shot suicide shotgun drones is a crazy idea. It's like a kamikaze fighter without losing the drone.
or something that shoots netting or strings of fishing line to entangle the props of the other drone.
Alternatively, drones designed to intercept other drones. Using rifle drones that way would be a good start for that. If planes have multirole, bomber, interceptor, and the like, it'd be intuitive to apply similar things to drones as well.
@@alphamoonman 40mm launcher, buckshot or HE
@@alphamoonmanthere is a company that has a video of their drone that has swappable heads, a shrapnel shotgun or a kamikaze shaped charge. Can’t remember the name but look it up
“Dmitry, is that a flying Kalashnikov?”
I still remember FPS Russia channel. He had a gun drone
A man of culture👍
That was CGI
@@A-G-F-отмазывайся
Black ops 2 really predicted this huh?
We got the BO2 Dragonfly irl before GTA6
the footage starting at 2:43 is probably not "in combat" - the Ukrainian text says something to the effect of "drone practice firing"
Makes sense thank you! The source I had for it claimed it was.
i don't know why but i feel like if someone made a platform that fired 22LR reliably, a drone flying around with like 3k rds of 22LR just seems like the zaniest shit ever that'd be both funny and terrifying. It'd probably sound like a swarm of angry bees.
imagine getting 360 noscoped by a fucking FPV drone
A better idea would be mount a modified p90 in fixed wing drone with a quadstack magazine as the guns is fairly easy to fit in a areodynamic fueslage, it probably be easier to aim aswell due to the more stable gun platform
Get a big fixed wing like a model spitfire and mount six of them, three in each wing
AK74s are plenty, P90s are not.
@@죽은_시민의_사회 exactly, and not only that but imagine the cost of ammo for that 5.7
Not a rifle cartridge so would suck at suppression
Maybe, but I feel this is a "use what we got" situation and not a perfect gun drone design challenge.
Yep we are living in the black ops 2 timeline at this point
The thermite drone to jet drones to interference drones and fpv to boat drones Ukrainian drone production has become one of the miss advanced technologies in the world. It’s amazing to see such innovative technology being developed and implemented the rapid adoption and development process is impressive
Necessity is the mother of all invention
Yeah if Trump didn’t get speaker Johnson to stop military aid for a few months that accelerated the drone production and innovation and if Putin never invaded we wouldn’t have these drones the way we do today. They will be integral to all army’s going forward it’s crazy this leap forward has came . Ukraine wasn’t even given a chance at the beginning every news company were going Russia days to take over but alas look where we are today Russias Black Sea fleet combat ineffective in the Azov sea . Russias professional army they started with has been eroded Russias tank jet helicopter and artillery also have taken huge losses . Russia will be in a bad way at the end of this war and it’s all putins fault
All they're doing is taping ordnance to consumer grade drones or receiving military equipment from NATO, lol
@@nnk_ll2 if it was that simple, you'd expect to see non-ukrainian military drones
@novastar6112 but you do see, it's you who's only looking at Ukraine
Aiming is only difficult for now. Once they make an mil spec version with integrated gun and sighting systems and AI targeting assistance its gonna be really wild. Won't be long...
You don't even need AI. Just need a solid mount and a holographic sight in front of the camera.
@@Slava_Ukraini1991 they already use AI. It's called the last mile targeting system iirc. It basically locks on the target shortly before and makes sure it hits even if they lose connection. They also already have automated guns in the DMZ between the North and south Korea. It's not new just not been implemented in this way on the front yet. Won't be long tho.
@@Mattiflips Automated turrets are easy. You don't have a weight restriction and it's not flying around.
@@Mattiflips That's not "ai" though, that's just code. True "ai" literally does not exist.
@@Mattiflips literally aimbot
Before this war started, a dron with a Berretta was shown firing an hoverin on RUclips an other channels.
One also was showed with a shotgun firin at nebours in a fight between the two families on US news.
So I’m surprised that this has taken so long.🙏🙏👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧
Where'd you see that shotgun drone?
Think something like the FN P90 or another gun using a P90 magazine would be the perfect weapon for this. Would allow it to be used on a smaller drone with a higher ammo-capacity while still being armor-piercing.
Thanks for gathering and covering these clips. Truly wild stuff coming out of the conflict
I wonder if the barrel was pointed straight down if it would be easier to aim. Seeing how effective dropped munition drones have been that is def the direction I'd go for.
We're one android away from Skynet
Nowhere close, you don’t have a clue how far AI has to go for something like that to occur.
All AI is right now is a copy cat. It is incapable of thinking self sufficiently and probably never will with our current computing power.
That's what you don't want an AI that will think for itself and decide it doesn't need it's creator anymore
next step - O-frame with center mount for avoiding rotation on recoil
also mb U-frames for horizontal aim
Rather than direct combat where explosive would be more useful, think about the applications where infantry with guns are normally required and aviation bombs don't work. Clearing houses with occupants of unknown alignment, accepting and supervising the surrender of enemies beyond the front lines, policing occupied areas, etc. etc. etc. Some of these roles will still require some humans, but a swarm of drones can multiply the force of a squad to be more effective, control a wider area, and/or take on what would be greater risks.
Have on of those fancy recording digital scopes on the rifle with a separate video feed so you can have 2 monitors, one for shooting and one for flying
I think the obvious benefit of a gun is for anti drone work, although the psychological aspect of man hunting rifle armed drones is quite terrifying as well ofc.
We've seen a lot of suicide drones targeting Russian surveillance drones, but with this you can simply fly up to them and give them a few bursts. Or mount an auto shotgun for an easier time.
Making the cost value absolutely crazy.
I kind of find it funny how my private military company came up with a basic concept based around Black ops 2 for an attack drone (13 months ago today) and it started to become a reality 😂
Hell we might as well just stopped production and just wait until people finish off the different versions and just buy it 😂
Since its mostly declassified and we're not producing it anymore I'm just going to go ahead and tell you basically what it it is
The prototype we were building was an am90 "swarm of angry bees" flipped upside down strapped to a quad propelled drone ,
We removed the trigger system and replaced it with a wired version of a trigger width 2.5 mm rolled homogeneous steel
And then we started testing it and it did pretty good
The problem was the consistency of the fire rate we believe that if we had made the am 90 in semi-automatic the drone would have actually been an absolute scouting beast
Presumably all Western Armies are now developing this type of aerial gunboat drone. They might eventually have several machine guns front, side, back. Like the small, rapid fire uzis.
The South Africans showed off drone tech back in 2014 for strikebreaking that would use tear gas rounds and taser darts. This is a much more grounded proof of concept, though.
surprised they haven't already made gun installed variants. I mean they have those small ground tractor drones with specially designed 9mm Glocks built-in; not just a hand gun zip-tied to a unit.
Trench warfare and combat shotguns...
History repeats itself.
Wondering if bringing back a mars pistol style directly rearward ejection would make sense.
Why worry about shell casings flying into the shooters face 500 meters away?
Imo it makes more sense to mount a shogun and use it to hunt other drones. Load the shotshells with short lengths of steel chain.
Like the keychain balls strung together! Great idea!
They'd need a semi auto shotgun, which are rare and expensive
@@S3alTheTrooper war money is unlimited
Didn't Russia do this already
@@S3alTheTrooper semi auto shotguns arent even that rare and expensive. The issue with semi auto shotguns is that they arent 100% reliable.
I have a feeling that this gun drone can do strafing runs on enemy positions which could be an advantage over ground based machine gunners shooting at an elevated position
this would be a good application for my new 1.9lb 5.56 rifle i made
The gunner drone use you did not mention is for when a unit is in the trenches and either facing pressure, or more likely, when the men are advancing and the airborne drone provides both effective fire AND simultaneously offers a huge distraction splitting the concentration of defenders between the airborne threat, AND the ground forces advancing on the enemy. Which of the 2 should a defender act against, and how do they defend simultaneously. They cannot have their rifle horizntal AND 60 degrees off the horizontal at the same time.
Imagine a more urban scenario. A man across the street at the corner, 25 feet away, AND a guy 40 feet off the ground on a balcony where the balcony man is the parallel for a drone. Both want to shoot you, but you can only cause casualties at ground level, while tasked with defending from a overseeing threat.
It's a tough battlefield today.
Surely a fire-and-forget ATGM is the next step to overcome the issues of firing an aimed weapon from a drone. Much more expensive - but much more effective as well.
But then you lose the advantage of low cost.
Watching the drone retrieve an enemy weapon with a magnet on a string and then retrofit that rifle onto the very same drone was spectacular. That's actually an important part of Sun Tzu's Art of War. Taking weaponry from the enemy and using it against them is a powerful strategy. Particularly when you are the underdog in the fight munitions-wise.
Imagine getting killed in war not by a soldier, but a nerd.
This guy must not know many soldiers, a huge chunk of them are nerds my dude.
all those calculations that go into artillery, nerds kill the most
So using a lighter ammo, reducing recoil (and kinetic power) but giving you more rounds, you could use them in a support role kind of raining diwn rounds from above say 100-150 rounds
Look incredible
why not just point it downwards , destabilisation from recoil would be reduced
Another advantage is that it would be able to actually stop and aim. With a side-pointed rifle, a standard quadcopter has to constantly move while aiming/shooting.
Would like to know more about GL efforts with RPG rounds.
everyone saying drone warfare should be a war crime... forgetting the fact that Russia literally invaded a country, what did you expect? flowers? A country should be able to defend itself in any form possible, dont want the enemy developing new and fun ways to kill you?????? then how about you consider not invading them? Good tip eh?
Invaded a country, bombed and killed countless civilians who had very little to do with any of the politics but just lived their lives.
this is such a bad take omg.
If it wasn't for potential reliability issues I could see helical drums being useful for drones for balance and space limitations, it would be interesting if this sparks new interest in case-less ammunition, the thought of a eletrical not clockwork G11 like device firing in volleys on a drone is really something but only time will tell
I honestly think that a volley style of weapon might be simpler and more reliable way of hitting targets with every shot fired disturbing the POA, either that or some sort reciprocating rail to try balance the recoil
I look forward(?) to seeing the new mechanical/electrical horrors we create
What about a powerful pneumatic (air) gun firing steel balls (BB size or larger) to shoot down other drones. The plastic drones don't take much to damage them and cause them to crash. Recoil would be very low. They could carry hundreds of "rounds" of ammo. A pre-charged pneumatic automatic rifle (PCP) would be easy to mount (and lighter than a firearm). There are many of them available on the market.
OR, instead of an AK74, mount an autoloading (semi-automatic) _shotgun,_ .410 bore or 28 ga. would be ideal. Again to target other drones.
It would have no use against personnel or vehicles but could be effective against other drones. Better than ramming them which usually destroys both drones.
reminds me of ww1 use of airplanes, at first they were practically only used for recon, then dropping small bombs, then eventually air-air warfare with machine guns.
maybe the same will happen with drones
also, fit vehicle with Active Protection System (APS) that use this concept. Safer for people. ("drone-APS" category)
I think they would also work well for defense... Be it patrolling incoming attack vectors, or even repelling assaults... Like the ones where BMPs get disabled and you have a bunch of dismounts that are hard to target with individual FPV drones, but quite easy with even semi-decent optics with a drone like this.
Everyone should go play Receiver 2: The Compound.
Such a great game
They should make a new kind of bullet for these that shoots retroreflective rounds so after the first volley automated targeting solutions can be engaged as the reflective rounds paint the field with fixed points (retroreflective shrapnel) allowing the drone to simultaneously move and shoot at the target.
A drone with a gun can do anti-drone operations.
You ever tried it?
Need to find a way to affix a holographic sight to the firearm. That will adjust for misalignment far better than the little crosshair in the camera. Maybe use an aftermarket forearm with picatinny on the side and put the holo there and then line the drone cam up with the holo. It would require the rifle be placed further forward though.
Ah sweet man made horrors beyond my comprehension
How about overlaying the sighting system on the video feed, rather than on the weapon? It assumes a rigid mounting, but conventional sights won't work without a correctly aligned camera anyway.
I'm imagining a compute impact point based on the known position of the drone, the attitude angle, and the terrain elevation data for the area its looking at. From that you can draw a line to intersect the target area, look that up against the trajectory of the round (at that angle), and display a mark on the screen offset as necessary. Might need a two-step process of point the rangefinding symbol, press a button, then adjust angle to aim the weapon. Couldn't have it auto-update the range as then it would keep changing when you aimed off.
I guess they omitted 2 grenades out of polite courtesy - and RUclips censorship :ø)
Good video analysis and commentary.
The RPG-7 is relatively heavy, both in absolute numbers as well as relative to the weight of it's warhead. I would suggest that a smaller single-use RPG or a rocket launcher is a better option, since the launcher can not be reloaded in any case. Good options could be RPG-18, M72 LAW, RPG-72, RPG-26 or AT4 recoilless launchers or S-5 rockets.
Guided missiles like the MBDA Enforcer Air, Thales LMM or, depending on the drone, maybe even larger missiles like Hellfire, Brimstone, Stugna-P,... could be an option as well.
There's a UK drone from Malloy that's been paired with LMM which is promising. And yes, I'm not sure why they went with RPG7, a disposable launcher would make sense.
The Marlet/LMM costs 250,000$ I think, judging from the cost of the recent UK donation of those to Ukraine, so it kind of defeats the attractiveness of cheap drones. Still, if you could infiltrate enemy territory with a few drones holding those and manage to shoot down enemy aircraft launching glide bombs, it might be worth it...
would something like the RMK-30 work? to big for drones this size of course so maybe a scaled down version
One idea, two drones, one carries a laser for designation while another heavy drone carries a battery of the modified Hydra rockets. Could possibly operate in 'wolf-packs' with the multiple heavy drones.
That barrel jumping like that would render the unit unserviceable. A good fear tactic but quite ineffective.
Can imagine there are companies working on super light weight guns with recoil dampers specifically for drones.
Rockets that only fire up once released would also remove the forced on the drone. Aswell as meaning there is no weight to carry on return flight.
Will you also make a video on the thermite drones?
Gun-armed UGVs have appeared a few times before as well, as sentries, as AA defenses and as some force multiplier for advancing soldiers, but i havent heard much of them since.
it need to have swivel arm, laser targeting, and ballistic computer... luckily the ballistic computer can be linked through network so it does not add heavy load... maybe using rocket-based ammo to mitigate the recoil is good too(basically recoilless small arm)...
It’s honestly insane what Ukraine is doing with drones at this current moment. They’re extremely low cost, they can be made from a shed using 3D printers, they’re disposable and are basically useless if they’re shot down, you can easily mount existing tech to them or even strap an infantry rifle yo them in this case, and they’re so easy even someone with basic FPV experience can operate them. I honestly believe that drones are the next evolution of technicals. In the 80s and 90s, we had the rise of technical: trucks mounted with recoilless rifles or rocket launchers that were low maintenance, easy to operate, and extremely cheap. Now we have FPV drones that are the exact same thing.
it shouldn't even be hard to aim, as long as camera is completely aligned with the barrel (can align it by shooting before), and just aiming a bit under the center of the screen.
It’s hard to see because RUclips’s compression 0:58
Yeah, the original footage is linked in the accompanying article at armourersbench.com.
This is the sort of weapon that doesn't need to actually kill things very often to be very scary.
To create such a system is not complex. However, the complexity comes from the fact that the drone can hold a rifle, but the drones has to be pretty large in order to hold something like a machine gun. Big drones are big targets.
It looks like drones could provide the perfect platform for the Metal Storm family of weapons that was in development about 20 years ago
I suspect putting an appropriately oriented muzzle brake on the gun would help flight characteristics.
Could a sticky smoke ,maybe block the lens of these drone and thereby cripple it 🤔
Or maybe tubes with a charge and paint, could be shot out at the right time (like a paint cannon).. Or paint granades maybe
Finally! I've been asking about this for a year at least.
Seems like a drone with a LASER designator could direct in a guided munition to a pinpoint by lighting up a target that it'd found.
I do think this concept might be better served by a smaller-caliber weapon, something like a 9mm SMG with an extended magazine and a high rate of fire. With the reduction in weight you could also carry grenades or mortar rounds to drop, and then use the submachine-gun to circle and strafe after making a bombing run.
How about just using a submachine gun with low recoil and extended mag? Or any low recoil automatic weapon. Then just add a raspberry pi motion tracking turret with 360 degree motions. Obviously keep the cameras and servo on the trigger.
Skynets hardware section is coming along nicely
is the silencer for reduced recoil?
Could be very useful in taking out other drones, specifically the high flying long range 'strategic' drones.
There is a 3-axis gimbal design, weapons platform out there that is integrated with a TADS (Target Acquisition Defense System). Fully automated target acquisition while in flight. Ukrainian innovation is a cut above.
Why not strife left and right when shooting? It could maintain accuracy on fixed barrels and safety distance from counterfire.
why not combine the heavy lift drone with a lock on weapon like the javelin?
I imagine the only problem is the weight and getting a drone that can integrate with the weapon.
If there's on board target recognition then the effectiveness of this goes way up. The operator pulls the trigger to engage and the drone does the targeting.
What's crazy is this is almost all off the shelf hobby grade equipment.
Gotta do what they did with the ww2 AT motorcycles with mounted recoilless guns
Is that voltage on the bottom left showing the avg cell volt? If so, that’s a spicy meatball😮
damn they are cranking those batteries 5.0 v/c is ridiculous😂😂