h/t WRSA
We have long since discussed exactly this scenario, plus several more, and how easy it would be for anyone with a weekend and about $2K to weaponize COTS* drones with simple, even homemade, thermite grenades, to take out aircraft, oil tank farms, LNG terminals, and countless other bits of infrastructure, and laid it out in detail over six years ago on Peter's Bayou Renaissance Man blog, over and over again (we beseech you one and all, read the comments back and forth), joined by the host there, and numerous other contributors, using nothing but average common sense.
(IOW, if you didn't put your shoes and socks on in that order, you could probably figure it out yourself, let alone grasp that drone science isn't rocket science. Which tells you a lot more about the likely sartorial habits of naysayers than anything else.)
We were earnestly and loudly derided by the World's Foremost Self-Anointed Drone Expert, stating that what we suggested was categorically impossible, despite posted links to multiple incidents of Mexican drug cartels already having done exactly what we proposed.
The flatulence in opposition only increased.
We have now all watched only dozens to a few hundred videos of Ukrainian homemade drone bombers taking out Russian tanks, APCs, and individual squaddies in trenches in Donetsk and Luhansk for the last two years, demonstrating proof of concept with repurposed simple Russian grenades, mortar rounds, and RPG warheads.
The flatulence in reply turned to a simian fury of solid fecal flinging. In point of fact, the harder Reality kicked our favorite gross ignoramus right in the arse, the more furiously he mined his underpants to tell us this was all "Unpossible!", and the literal reams of actual available information was simply Not So.
We take this opportunity to welcome Matt Bracken to the ranks of those like ourselves, who clearly don't know what we're talking about, and thus find ourselves dumber than the World's Foremost Self-Anointed Drone Expert (at least among those north of the 45th parallel, and left of the 4th quintile on an IQ bell curve).
You're in good company, Matt.
*(MILSPEAK: Commercial, Off-The-Shelf)
16 comments:
they don't need land near bases to do those sorts of attacks. pull up in a truck, launch, and move on as chaos ensues.
it also makes it harder to determine who did it. if you can say "this drone, was launched from this place, which is owned by this person.." it makes drawing conclusions easy. "it launched from the wal mart parking lot at 3AM, from a rented truck, the truck was rented using a phony ID and a prepaid credit card..." whom do you attack in revenge?
Thankfully, we have an armed forces that would win WWII easily.
@Allen,
Yes, but.
From now until that day, they have real time on-site intel.
They have a base of operations for espionage and sabotage.
They can use it as a safe house for infiltration. (Want to make any guesses how many base maintenance personnel and other civilian employees are Chinese nationals?)
These are not small things.
The only thing stupider would be putting a Chinese consulate at the base PX.
That'll be Beijing Biden's plan for the next 4 years.
I have no problem with Aesop's observation and sitrep. 5 years ago having a law that prevents CCP from owning land near a base would have been viable response. The tech has changed in the intervening period. That $2k today can get you a FPV drone with a 10 klick range or better. Use of a winged drone and the range can be 40 klicks. I believe the current record for a COTS winged drone by an operator is a tad over 60km.
I think we need a different prep/response.
Oh man, did you light a rag under somebody's butt!
He's spitting and spluttering like a wet hen.
The .mil / .gov willful ignorance is STILL legend.
In the mid 80s, some talking head said that a terrorist attack in the US was impossible.
The publisher of Penthouse said bullshit, and hired G Gordon Liddy to see if it was possible.
Liddy limited himself to 200 people total, civilian weapons and commercial explosives, and only publicly available information.
The Penthouse article listed 10 attacks, and is presently not searchable, missing even from Liddys' list of publications.
A limited version was published in Omni. One of the attacks was on the pumping stations that send water to the LA basin.
Without them, LA has 18 hours of water. After 9-11-01, it took the .gov 3 days to send forces to protect these. Another target was the step up transformers sending Canadian hydroelectric power to the NorthEast. So reliable that there are no spares, and the French factory that made them was shut down.
If somebody wants to do it, we are so screwed.
John in Indy
This is ALL being allowed to happen because Beijing is telling the criminals in power...who they OWN...to let it happen. China and Russia are our enemy. But they aren't nearly the threat to us that our own traitorous government poses.
@Felix,
I would expect no less.
When you meet someone who breaks wind at both ends, best to simply steer clear.
@John,
Civilization rests on a knife edge.
The only comfort I take is that for every easy linchpin there is to pull out (and i could give you a dozen myself that could be done for under $10K and would make 9/11 look like a church picnic pie fight), the fact that it hasn't happened bespeaks that the forces of evil are far less populated and funded than we imagine. Or else they'd have already done something.
@Dan,
Careful. You go pointing out brown residue around people's mouths from Vlad's hindquarters, and they get all testy about their dietary predilections. If their Cyrillic coprophagia isn't the absolute weirdest of paraphilias, it's definitely in the top five.
I think I posted, a couple of yrs ago, just how dirt simple it is to rig a 2 seat "ultralight" with an autopilot slaved to a mobile GPS, and program in a flight profile to deliver a 250-300 lb payload.
And you don't even have to be a suicide pilot to do it, you can wear a parachute and bail out after takeoff and programing the fight profile.
It's not rocket surgery, or brain science, and yet I got "lit up" for saying it back them.
Just....GODDAMN....
It's much easier to fool people with bullshit than it is to convince them they were fools.
Mainly because for 95% of the population, thinking is hard work.
This explains any number of bloviating buffoons on the 'net.
"...So reliable that there are no spares, and the French factory that made them was shut down. If somebody wants to do it, we are so screwed."
John in Indy
The fact that the factory shutdown is not essential. Anything more than a residential substation is built to spec. All a custom job. My ONCOR buddies tell me that from the time that a job is let till it is time to deliver is between 30-36 months and does not include transport time. Tack on delivery time and site prep/install and realistically its 40-42 months till its an operational state.
Not that we won't be screwed. Doubtful any region can make do with no power for nearly 4 years.
My comment on Filthy's blog yesterday got obliterated, and he thinks I'm you.
I think your post really chapped his butt.
Aren't paranoia and childishness two of the deadly sins?
And now all comments on his page are moderated.
I feel honored. My work there is done.
You poor, poor fellow.
I would imagine visiting there would be like trying to pick up a turd by the clean end, and avoided absolutely on that basis. I've never been to his blog, let alone responded on it, and only leave some of his earlier responses up on mine to illustrate the level of delusion he exhibits. He himself provides all the best reasons to ignore him. Last time I cleaned out the spam filter lint trap last year, he was 200+ futile attempts to crap in the comments section here.
But I can't say him getting bent about the post surprises me. He'll go to his grave insisting no one could drop a weapon from a drone, because it was too hard for him to fly one. Butthurt and infallibly wrong are his defining character traits. I poke the cage mainly as a gift, to give him a reason to live, since he can't seem to exist except in opposition to everyone smarter than he is. Which, AFAIK, is everyone else. Based entirely on secondhand reports, apparently I live rent-free in his head every day.
If WRSA hadn't posted Matt Bracken's blurb, I'd happily have continued to ignore his delusions, like I generally do 365 days a year, and why I didn't even mention his name in the post. He isn't worth the time, and even responding this much about him is an annoyance I'd rather skip.
He should go back to doing whatever he did for the decades of my life when any knowledge of or concern for his existence was happily and mercifully completely alien to me, as I strive to make it now.
Much havoc can be reaked with COTS drones.
If you've got drug cartel or .gov (but I repeat myself) money, the sky truly is the limit. It all depends on your budget.
Amen
Don't be so hard on him. It's fun to watch him roar and spaz out.
It's not his fault he just can't catch a break on being right.
He's the office loudmouth who's always wrong, but never figures it out.
Even a compass needs a needle that always points south.
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