I’ve sometimes thought that WW2 flak cannons (~artillery) with a programmable fuse (set immediately before “launch” by radar) could be effective. You would get longer range than C-RAM or laser and artillery shells are cheap. Shahed/Gerans are not particularly fast or durable. It wouldn’t take much to make it fall out of the sky: close enough is good enough.

Again, this particular DIY radar has no application in Ukraine. It does not have a 50+km range (10km). It can not direct or interface with an interceptor missile, of any kind, to shoot down TBMs, Shaheds, etc. The critical issue really is how many interceptor missiles Ukraine has and far less about janky early-warning radar coverage.

Acoustics are used for FPVs, which have a tiny radar cross section and can fly at tree top altitude or lower. A basic/crude DIY radar would not be effective there and at $12,000 vs $Free, acoustics win hands down for FPVs. The Gepards (AA gun) have their own onboard radar already for cruise missiles/shaheds. No one is proposing or expecting acoustics to track missiles or bombs. These are two very different problems.

The Russian Navy stays way, way the hell away from the Ukraine coast these days. The drone-boat bombs have them running scared. Even Sevastopol in Crimea is too risky.

This doesn’t have any practical application in Ukraine.

Ukraine detects FPV drones with numerous distributed and networked microphone/acoustic sensors. You’re not going to get any cheaper than a used phone paired with a $2 USB solar panel.

The larger Shahed/Geran and above stuff isn’t limited by radar detection. What they need are cheap interceptors to deal with swarm attacks.

“I’m not here because it’s the right thing to do. I’m here because I expect to get something out of it.”

The minute the deal doesn’t look good, they drop you like a sack of bricks. It happens in ever facet of how they act.

I think I’m gonna need more proof on this one. Not just one guy that works in an office who attached an image in an email.

It’s kinda got all the classic markers. Superbly outlandish yet just believable enough. Confirms everyone’s preexisting beliefs.

They are closing the labs where the work is happening. You can’t just throw your experiment in the back seat of your car and drive to Colorado.

And how can you centralize research when so much of it is location specific? It’s costs more money to fund “off site” long distance research on a temporary basis versus having something local and long term.

The “ghost gun” 3D printing laws going around had me thinking about “ghost drones”. I think a lot of the NDAA and FAA noise around drones is an attempt to gain control over domestic drone use. They’re criminalizing flying a drone within 1km of ICE activities - which is impossible to know or avoid.

But you don’t need an expensive flight controller, fancy ESC, or even brushless motors to get your basic drone in the air. An esp32, some mosfets, servos (for a wing), and brushed motors will get the job done. Will it compete in multiGP? Hell no. But it’ll fly and it’ll cost like $15.

Please submit your driver’s license for age verification.

If you read the article though, it’s not as simple as being dissolved. They’re just massively reorganizing how it’s run so it’s dysfunctional and the original mission is lost. They’re letting states (industry) have dominating access and control over USFS policies and shutting down long running and irreplaceable research projects. Like RFK’s CDC, if you stop testing and gathering facts, you can then justify any policy you want.

Palestine is where Leopards Ate My Face meets Meanwhile On Grad. The two extremes have a common goal of destroying the country. MAGAts are shocked that Republicans are getting us into another war in the Middle East and the country is going hell. Gradbots are so pissed off with the the Democrat’s (“blue maga”) lack of spine against Israel that they want to burn the country to the ground in vengeance.

One less person saying “no” to a land invasion of Iran :(