As Watling himself puts it: “Unhardened UAVs are disposable tools like munitions and get consumed very rapidly. You need them in your force and you need them to be cheap.”
For decades, Western armies have relied on a few expensive, ‘exquisite’ high-tech platforms, and that includes drones. This conflict of disposable drones may lead to a radical change in military procurement towards the many and the cheap.
“…even if the figure really is 10,000, this appears sustainable…10,000 DJI quadcopters at an average cost of about $1,000 would be $10m. Last week, Russia lost an Su-34 bomber, with a sticker price of something over $40m…
“And yesterday Russia apparently lost an even more advanced Su-35, which goes for around $85m. Together these two aircraft alone represent a loss ten times as great as all Ukraine’s drones for the month put together.“
The headline is pretty much clickbait. $10m is a drop in the bucket.
Yeah! I thought it was interesting that it’s not a big deal.
Great breakdown, very enlightening
Wouldn’t we by now be seeing piles of dead drones being showcased daily if they were lost in such a high number? Like it was done with the recent loss of leos?
RUSI? Tried to look them up to see if theysharee more than just letters with Russia. Found this great assessment from 2019 UK would be ‘outgunned’ in Russia conflict - think-tank
So if not biased just incompetent?
@sexy_peach In one of Hromadske’s reports from Bakhmut a drone team did quote a fairly high number for drone losses. Not sure how accurate 10k a month is but it doesn’t strike me as completely unbeliveable in relation to that.
