cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14307737
Drones from American startups have been deemed glitchy and expensive, prompting Ukraine to turn to alternatives from China
Isn’t China best buds with Russia?
USA and NATO money for Ukraine to buy -> Chinese drones -> to buy Russian oil - to pay Russian solders.
Apparently the only ones who are winning here are the Chinese.
LMAO.
Isn’t China best buds with Russia?
Not really. More of an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation.
But Ukraine isn’t an enemy of China - and from the beginning China has carefully walked thin line of refusing to support Russia while also refusing to publicly acknowledge that Russia is doing anything wrong. They’ve repeatedly offered to be involved in peace talks… but that’s not really possible as long as Russia’s idea of “peace” is more like “total surrender”.
There isn’t much room for such considerations when you are lying in the trench.
Can’t get the site to load, but I gather they’re talking about the Skydio X10 drone?
That doesn’t seem like the type of drone you’d want on an active battlefield. A war drone should be like an AK47. Simple reliable and cheap.
You don’t need a $15,000 drone to tell you there’s a T-90 tank waiting for you around the next corner. Some of the simple drones Ukraine has are just a circuit board with four propellers a battery and a cheap phone camera directly attached to the board. When (not if) it’s shot down, grab another one.
Can I get a $15k drone that removes the T-90 from around the corner?
Best I can do is a Predator for $3mil.
Nice post.
Original is of The Wall Street journal :
https://www.wsj.com/world/how-american-drones-failed-to-turn-the-tide-in-ukraine-b0ebbac3The US just can’t seem to get its act together. And the near/mid-term isn’t looking better.
In terms of producing what are effectively cheap electronic consumer goods? That hasn’t been our thing for a while now.
That’s fair. Can’t seem to build big things either. Or maintain what we have. High speed rail. Roads and Bridges. Basically all infrastructure. And of course the major issues that hold back the entire society. Cost of education, healthcare, housing, transportation. These are all reasons for my statement that we can’t get our shit together. Aside from not being able to efficiently build cheap electronic consumer goods.
