Spotted at industry confab: Quadcopter equipped with Brit missiles Ukraine is so fond of

UK-designed missiles used extensively by Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing Russian occupation have been spotted attached to a giant quadcopter drone able to carry 300kg (661 lbs) while maintaining a range of 30 km (18 miles).  Specifically, a T-650 drone developed by British arms manufacturer BAE Systems and Malloy Aeronautics …

[Binraider]

A drone capable of lifting that I can certainly think of a few uses for. A few questions come to mind.

Brimstone's primary reason for existence was to replace the Belouga Cluster Bomb in the role of smashing up armoured-columns. The idea was it was a PGM that you could salvo fire at multiple laser designations at once - thus smashing the whole column in one strike (which the Belouga could very definitely do) rather than having to make multiple passes.

A 300kg capable drone will take 2, maybe 3 Brimstones at maximum. At which point the point the multiple launch capability is rather lost. The (large) reaper drone has been able to carry similar for years (often operating with a couple of Hellfires, the US-made predecessor of the UK-ian Brimstone, and basically the same packaging).

What would make more sense to me would be to carry one of those Hydra rocket pack conversions with laser guidance compatibility on the drone platform.

[EvilDrSmith]

Being a quad-copter, this can presumably take off from just about anywhere, so could be deployed close to the front line, enabling very short response times from the call for fire support, follow a low altitude flight path then pop up once it reaches the general target area.

Reapers need a runway, and tend to operate at high altitudes. Against insurgents with no SAM systems, they can loiter, but against the Russians in Ukraine, they'd be at risk of being shot down (though presumably no more so than the Bayraktar's the Ukrainians are already using).

Remember also that Dual-mode Brimstone can self-identify its target using its radar.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Can these land in Wales or are they inadvertently single use as well?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Naughty, Naughty! Don't mock the afflicted!

[Commswonk]

Here We Go Again...

According to reports from the DVD defense conference last week...

The above included a link to a UK document; is it too much to ask* that differences in spelling conventions are honoured?

* On reflection it obviously is too much to ask.

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: Here We Go Again...

By this point I'm surprised their articles don't start "howdy y'all" and refer to us as Limeys. They're trying a bit too hard to... well, actually I've no idea what they're trying to accomplish, but it's not an improvement.

[crayon]

Re: Here We Go Again...

This changed from .co.uk to .com for a reason.

[Vometia has insomnia. Again.]

Re: Here We Go Again...

True, though the reason remains unclear. Which isn't me disagreeing (downvoter wasn't me), just that they're changing from being a recognised brand i.e. UK-based, in-depth but irreverent etc to being seemingly directionless. Feels like they're dumping their core audience (or at least alienating some of it) to try to refocus their appeal to an already saturated market which is... something. It's as if they've taken advice from one of those strategy boutiques they used to (rightly) take the piss out of.

[Dan 55]

Re: Here We Go Again...

I am so looking forward to reading CNet-style articles. It's what made me a regular reader of The Register all those years ago, putting up with their article style but knowing that one day they would decide to turn into a copy of CNet.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Here We Go Again...

I thought it was because of... brexit?! ;)

[Spanners]

Technicals?

Have they tried fitting one to those cool quad bikes their special forces allegedly use?

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Technicals?

One side has military spec quad bikes, built to MoD requirements which somehow cost £125,000 each

The other side has Toyota Hliuxes

[Mayday]

Re: Technicals?

And which one is more reliable, able to be used more often, and by more (ie less specially trained) people?

A Hilux or a $/£125k quad?

[John Brown (no body)]

I hope...

...they remember that the missiles rocket engine has to fire AFTER the missile holding clamps have released, preferably a half second or so after.

[Cederic]

Not just recon

Ukraine have destroyed many tanks and other armoured vehicles using drones dropping grenades. They literally hover above the target and use the drone's camera to aim. Plenty of video footage of this is available on the usual sources, including a grenade dropping through the sunroof of a civilian car a Russian squad had just piled into, and through the open hatches of tanks.

The article is nonetheless undoubtably correct that the primary use is reconnaissance, which is unfortunate as that's difficult to spell.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not just recon

the more the merrrier!

arguably those mavic granade droppers etc, are cheap as chips when compared to mouthful of 'payload deployment' (mil drone + brimstones and infrastructure), but they do suffer from electronic countermeasures. If only they could get 10K of 'reinforced' drones off aliexpress...

Hopefully, if the land lease does kick off in October, Ukraine could become a playground for numerous (US) companies trying out their craziest inventions on real battlefield to get their finger in the juicy gov contract pie. Russians don't have such a... path, for obvious reasons. Good.

[ChrisC]

"According to reports from the DVD defense conference last week, BAE plans to equip its drones with three Brimstone II missiles"

Blimey, they really are taking copy protection schemes seriously these days, aren't they...

[Potemkine!]

Western countries have to provide as many weapons as possible to Ukraine to stop the Russian invasion. We all have to stop Putin Khuylo, he won't stop with Ukraine.

Let's not make the same mistake that democracies by not helping the Spanish Republic fighting fascism in 1936-39. A new fascism is coming from the East Defending Ukraine is defending ourselves.

== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==

[Shalghar]

"Western countries have to provide as many weapons as possible to Ukraine to stop the Russian invasion. We all have to stop Putin Khuylo, he won't stop with Ukraine."

I am afraid the ukraine may run out of people. You know, those uninteresting auxiliary systems called "human beings" if the irreal illusion of more weapons= victory prevails over more sensible ideas and this needless war is kept going forever (or at least until too few ukrainians are left alive to continue this madness).

As someone who was a bit involved in the NATO attack on yugoslavia and someone well familiar with the anti air cannon system "Gepard" as well as its russian counterpart, the ZSU 2/4 "shilka" (technical comparisions in function and peculiarities during training) i can assure you that not only is war always dire and dirty, except for the armchair warriors and those who send others to die, it also is never as easy as "send more weapons and we will win".

This may have to do with the fact that usually, the enemy also has weapons and is also usually not as much inferior as the propaganda wants to make believe.

But then theres profits to be made, so human lives dont matter at all.