Drone Warfare in CW2

Get up to speed, or become a casualty

Some of the most successful (and profitable) YouTube channels are devoted to what some may refer to as gun porn. So much so that this sub-genre is referred to as GunTube. Garand Thumb and Brandon Herrera are two of the wildly popular channels that I subscribe to.

Between them, they have eight million subscribers and nearly a thousand posted videos. I have seen the occasional video by Michael Jones (aka Garand Thumb) on evading drones, but 99% of both shows are dedicated to the great American pastime of guns and shooting. And there is nothing at all wrong with this. I own plenty of guns and I enjoy shooting them. I began shooting before I was in high school, and I was already a shooter a decade before this photo was taken. (Thanks, Uncle Al.)

So don’t expect me to bash the great American gun culture. Not at all. But I think that on the Right, among patriotic heritage Americans who might describe themselves as preppers, our emphasis on firearms urgently needs to be updated to include the study of modern drone warfare.

Many of our peers own high-quality carbines and battle rifles equipped with variable power scopes our parents could only dream of. Many of them own night vision gear and hard-plate body armor. When they are not on the range, they are in the woods practicing patrolling and small unit tactics. But to a large extent I think they are missing the bus. In Ukraine, some of the world’s toughest soldiers are now reduced to hiding in bunkers and basements from the eyes in the sky. We have all seen dozens of FPV videos showing the final seconds of troops trying in vain to hide from drones. I’m not going to post them here, they are easy enough to find.

Not to pat myself on the back as being ahead of the curve, but back in the mid-2000s I included drone warfare in some of my novels. In Domestic Enemies, patriots use a drone to take out a person with a remarkable resemblance to George Soros, while he’s sitting on a bench by a New Mexico lake, next to a man remarkably similar to then-President Slick Willy. In Foreign Enemies and Traitors, patriots in Tennessee are hunted by traitors dropping broom-size anti-personnel missiles (mini-Hellfires) from Predators. And in Castigo Cay, former Marine sniper Dan Kilmer employs a purloined military Raven drone.

And I’m far from the only novelist or military writer who has been looking into the future and seeing today’s current situation. So you would think that after several years of peer-versus-peer drone warfare in Ukraine and elsewhere, American patriots would be far more aware of their capabilities. However, our overall ignorance is belied by that fact that it’s still common to hear folks suggesting that drones might be taken down with shotguns. This is naive. Drones can fly thousands of feet up in the sky, far beyond visual and audible range.

There is one area, however, where shotguns would come in very handy. That’s in engaging fiber-optic guided drones on their final approach, as they carefully weave between trees in the woods, or around anti-drone nets, or even into enclosed buildings.

The next photo is a screen capture from an FPV drone entering a warehouse to destroy enemy vehicles. (Which enemy is not the point.) VIDEO LINK In this terminal stalking phase, a shotgun could be an answer. But even if this drone is destroyed, the operator has located his target and will be back with more drones, or possibly he will defer his attack to an artillery or rocket strike.

But in any case, some soldiers are in fact now carrying shotguns in Ukraine, and companies are trying to create purpose-built weapons like this one below.

Their utility in the field remains to be determined, but no doubt much effort is going into their R&D. In any case, our military is, we hope, scrambling to find ways to take out drones beyond visual or audible range. Jamming can be successful against radio-controlled drones, but jamming will not work against drones controlled by fiber-optic wire as fine as a thread. You will see these further down the page.

Recently war correspondent Patrick Lancaster was allowed to film inside a Russian drone workshop.

Patrick Lancaster: "Exclusive Report: I gained access to a secret Russian Army laboratory where captured Ukrainian drones are reverse-engineered and repurposed for combat. This undisclosed facility, operated by Russia’s 35th Brigade, takes U.S. and NATO-funded drones—including FPV kamikaze drones, reconnaissance UAVs, and DJI drones—and modifies them for Russian military use.” YouTube VIDEO LINK

The amount of current drone warfare information disclosed in this video is jaw-dropping. I highly recommend watching it and taking notes. In case this video is removed or disappears, I made screen captures of significant areas of interest. I’m going to post them here to preserve them for easy saving and sharing.

Closeup photo below for careful examination.

Below, the technician is holding an inert bomblet used for training drone pilots. Note silver attachment loop in base for dropping.

Heavy lift drones sometimes use liquid-fuel motors for greater power and range.

According to the technician, as shown in another Patrick Lancaster video, these drones can lift up to 35 kilograms. In one video, an anti-tank mine is lifted.

Below: note the controller circled at left, two heavy lift drones, and fixed-wing ISR drones on the shelf at top right.

These fixed-wing ISR drones are created in the shop’s 3D printer. 3D printing is another area that patriotic Americans must master. We can’t depend on buying everything from China forever!

Below is one of the shop-created ISR drone fuselages.

Circled at left is the wing assembly.

Below is a heavy lift drone in the field, screen-captured from THIS ARTICLE.

Russia Intercepts a BK-3OF Guided Bomb Mounted on a Ukrainian Baba Yaga Drone.

Note what are presumably heavy battery packs with handles for easy removal. There is one on the ground behind the drone in the top picture, and one of the slots is empty.

Shown inset above, and below, is a visually controlled steerable BK-30 anti-personnel bomblet. Note presumed camera lens in nose.

Below are images of a drone showing its spool of fiber-optic thread. These have a range of beyond 10 KM, and perhaps significantly farther. They cannot be jammed.

Below is an image I came across on the internet, supposedly a Ukrainian drone showing its capacity to lift and drop fairly heavy ordnance.

Below is a composite screen capture showing a model of drone credited with destroying an Abrams tank. Drones can literally find “the chink in the armor” and strike the most vulnerable point. In the video that the bottom image shows, the fiber-optic-controlled FPF drone hovers around the tank, examining it, then ducks under the netting to explode where the turret meets the hull. (In modern warfare, even a “mobility kill” of the treads or the turret is enough. Other drones will follow to finish off the cripples.)

And I created the meme below a while ago to show the vulnerability of our Air Force and Navy aircraft currently sitting out in the open at bases across America.

The point of this thread is to demonstrate how behind the curve most American patriots are when it comes to drone warfare. The greatest thousand-yard battle rifle, night vision and body armor won’t protect you from drones that are controlled by some communist nerd 25 miles away from your fighting position. Instead of buying another carbine or case of 5.56 or 7.62, maybe consider getting into the drone game. Even in an ISR role around your area of operations, a simple DJI drone can be a game changer, and you will gain valuable experience for the drone warfare that is sure to be a critical part of any foreseeable CW2 scenario.

And I would encourage the military and others to promote drone racing. In another century, the military supported shooting sports down to the Boy Scout level in order to encourage firearms familiarity and marksmanship among our youth. Today, the sport of indoor and outdoor drone racing should be encouraged for the same reason.

Take a look at THIS VIDEO. “Inside the Drone Racing League” NBC News

If drones are the future of warfare, these young drone racers are going to be the “aces” who will win (or lose) the battles of tomorrow. Especially if the battles are on the home front.

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