Nothing says 2022 quite like this remote-controlled machine gun drone The latest drone headed to Ukraine's front lines isn't getting there by air. This one powers over rough terrain, armed with a 7.62mm tank machine gun. The GNOM (pronounced gnome), designed and built by a company called Temerland, based in Zaporizhzhia, won't be going far either. Next week it's scheduled to begin combat trials …
If the cable is severed, GNOM is programmed to return to a set of GPS coordinates for pickup.
It might be an obvious point, but I hope the operators have the sense to make sure the return-home coordinates aren't too close to where they are.
Wouldn't want to lead the Russians to an easy win.
If I were the Russians, I’d cut the cable, then strap some explosives to the drone, and send some boys with a remote detonator, hanging back a bit.
Of course, if I were the Ukrainians, I’d have a few drones near my position, with the scopes and the machine guns, waiting for semi smart Russians. Or send the drones out in pairs, covering each other.
The Russians tried something like that during WW2 - training dogs to run under tanks at the appropriate moment in return for food.
Then they turned them into four-legged bombs.
Only problem was... They'd trained them to run under Russian tanks and that is the sound they recognised. So when "deployed" on real battlefieds they ran under the tanks they recongnised the sight/smell of which were NOT the German tanks (smelt totally different to the Russian ones).
I doubt the dogs "volunteered" to be bombs.
https://historyofyesterday.com/the-soviet-anti-tank-dog-7f00425652eb
Except the mock up shows a machine gun fixed mounted so can only fire in elevation mode. or which ever way the vehicle is facing. 50kg is nothing a grenade cant take out easily.
Also 7.62 which configuration. usual eastern block calibre is 7.62 x 39 and is considerably less powerful than a NATO 7.62 x 52 or is it the the larger 7.62 x 54R which is about the same as a 7.62 NATO.
And since when is a two feet high ATV drone with dirt big machine gun on top covert.
Funny how war has opened up the coffers for Ukraine to develop its own weapons systems which eventually will be sold to NATO in some form or another at an inflated cost.
Not wishing to be an 'internet general' but:
This is pointless. The purpose of a machine gun of this calibre is suppressing fire - keep the enemy's heads down while you charge their position.
A remote drone that does this is pointless
A wheeled remote drone is even more pointless.
Small and wheeled has the advantage over a flying drone that it can carry more payload, and is faster than a tracked vehicle - but is limited to roads.
So a 'remote control car' mine that can drive into a convoy and give a vehicle a "significant emotional event" = useful. especilly if autonomous so you can set it goign and run away.
But a drone that is supposed to drive over urban rubble or fields, but with 2inch high wheels, and then stop and sweep the enemy with machine gun fire for 30secs (until it runs out of ammo or needs a barrel change) from a height of 12inches ?
so it can climb a step . not. enemy forces simply need a step and hey presto Dalek syndrome
Its limitation will be the ammo it can carry. p[rob 1-200 rounds at most. Machine guns are prone to jams and 200 rounds the barrel will be cooked anyway.
This is throw away tech. and chances are it'll be grenaded long before it gets anywhere near anything useful/.
The idea is nothing new. have they been watching Steven King movies, Maximum Overdrive springs to mind.
It'll give limited suppressing fire to enable a retreat is about it or an annoyance. This is more about selling something to NATO in the hope of drumming up business opportunities.
What's new about a cable controlled drone, these have been around for years
> Remote drone is useless?
Never heard of a decoy?
> sweep the enemy with machine gun fire for 30secs (until it runs out of ammo or needs a barrel change) from a height of 12inches ?
To paraphrase Shepard Book from Firefly : While there are ethical conundrums over the use of drones for killing, there are less conundrums when it comes to kneecaps.
> While there are ethical conundrums over the use of drones for killing, there are less conundrums when it comes to kneecaps.
If you shoot a soldier’s kneecaps then they’ll need four or more people to get them off the battlefield removing five people, if you shoot the head then you “only” remove one.
Somewhat grim maths…
Part of the thought and not the major part either. The main reasoning was:
Urban combat requires significantly less range out of a personal weapon, therefore make everything lighter so more ammunition could be carried, enabling every member of the section/squad to provide suppressive fire if required. (Up to then it was usually a single soldier per section.)
The 'tumbling' effect of the 5.56 round chosen wasn't planned for but once recognized was accepted as a bonus.
Haven't you seen the news from Ukraine? The Russians have a workaround for this "problem". They just shoot their own wounded and leave them behind. There have been intercepted cell phone calls where Russian soldiers are complaining about it.
You are not dealing with a real Military. You are dealing with thugs and criminals.
This is pointless
The use cases are endless. e.g. In urban warfare when you are trying to take control of a street you trundle it off down to the far end and look for opposing forces which you can suppress. You now control both ends of the street so there are far less points of ambush and your human forces can advance in relative safety.
These things seem to be crawling out of the development wood work from every direction. One that caught my eye was a Taser Drone from Axon. Luckily the project seems to have been closed down because of ethics issues - https://investor.axon.com/2022-06-02-Axon-Announces-TASER-Drone-Development-to-Address-Mass-Shootings
There must be some infrastructure project managers employed by various ISPs thinking, mmmm . ., put a cut and cover trenching bucket on that thing and I feel sure we can drastically reduce many of the delays and obstacles holding back full-fibre roll out!
Good luck to those peeps.
Lviv and let Lviv - that's what I say!
The Germans deployed a similar device on the end of a long cable called "Goliath". The idea was sound but the unit never overcame the shortcomings due to its trailing cable (and it wasn't 5Km long). The Allies regarded it as being of little military value.
The problem is that the moment the enemy gets behind it its dead. Sure, it can find its way home but its going to have to run quite a gauntlet to get there.
And what about recoil : the wheels are very close and the gun is very high, wouldn't this thing turn over like a turtle at every shot ?
If I had to make such a thing, I'd make it lower, wider and longer. And yeah, put the gun on a tip-tilt tourret to be able to fire in any direction. And also, in order to be able to drive on any terrain, replace the wheels by some sort of re-circulating support.
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