Two Russian Raptor patrol boats were destroyed at dawn today near Snake Island according to the Ukrainian military. “The Bayraktars [Turkish made drones] are working,” Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Raptor patrol boats can carry up to three crew and 20 personnel. They are usually equipped with machine guns …
Will cheap anti-tank missiles mark the end of the Tank era? Raytheon and Lockheed Martin make the Javelin missile. The Javelin costs $178,000, including the launch system and missile and each replacement missile costs around $78,000. Tanks cost $1 million to $8 million each. Russian tanks are in the lower cost range of $1 million …
The main updates for the Ukraine War is the West has kicked Russia out of the SWIFT financial system and Ukrainian forces have been successfully resisting so far. Drones sent from NATO Ally, Turkey have been used to coordinate laser targeted strikes on Russian armor. Russia has not integrated night vision goggles. They only advance …
A DARPA drone swarm program for squads of infantry had successful tests. DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program at the Cassidy Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF) in Fort Campbell, Tennessee. Since 2017, OFFSET has held six field experiments with objectives of increasing complexity and difficulty. The program envisions future small-unit infantry forces employing large-scale …
South Korea is developing a tailless stealth drone similar to the Lockheed RQ 170 Sentinal. The US first deployed the Lockheed RQ 170 Sentinal in Afghanistan back in 2007. The US built about 20-30 Lockheed RQ 170 Sentinals. The US also has the Grumman X47B stealth drone. The US spent about $1 billion on the …
Skydio gave the keynote to the 2021 HotChips Conference. They have raised $340 million and are the first US Unicorn drone company. Consumer drones are still mostly a hobby because drones are difficult to fly. World changing capability gets unlocked with easy automated drones. Brian WangBrian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular …
The U.S. military launched air strikes targeting three operational and weapons storage facilities — two in Syria and one in Iraq. The US said that drone strikes were being launched from these locations at US interests in Iraq. The US used F-15 and F-16 jets for the airstrikes. There were five drone attacks over the …
Parachute assaults have been the exception, rather than the rule but paratroopers are still useful. Airborne troops are the first “boots on the ground” in any crisis. This could be major combat or humanitarian relief. A brigade of paratroopers can deploy into anywhere in the world in as little as 18 hours as part of …
Today is May the Fourth be with you day. Star Wars is usually considered a Space Opera Fantasy and not a source of accurate predictions of the future. However, there is a significant probability that day to day life could have many similarities to the worlds of Star Wars. I, Brian Wang, actually believe that …
The Perseverance Mars rover has the Ingenuity Mars helicopter drone. This solar-powered helicopter drone has a mass of 1.8 kg (4.0 lb). Ingenuity has had its third flight. It is expected to fly up to five times during its 30-day test campaign scheduled early in the rover’s mission. It will fly at altitudes ranging from …
eHang, Volocopter and Archer Aviation are each billion-dollar or multi-billion valuation companies that are racing to establish the commercial VTOL air taxi industry in the 2021-2024 timeframes. Flying super-sized drone taxis are using electric engines and should become lower cost than helicopters. Multiple engines should be safer as one or two engines could fail and …
