#tactical anti drone cats

[mismaxx]

Silly kot takes down FPV drone.

[jcmarchi]

Russians Lost an Extremely Rare Machine in the Battle for Avdiivka - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/russians-lost-an-extremely-rare-machine-in-the-battle-for-avdiivka-technology-org/

Russians Lost an Extremely Rare Machine in the Battle for Avdiivka - Technology Org

Avdiivka is a small town in Donetsk region, Ukraine. Before the war around 30 thousand people lived there peacefully, many working in the local Coke Plant. Now Russian invaders are pushing to occupy Avdiivka as quickly as possible. In doing so they are taking huge losses both in personnel and armoured equipment. And, for the first time in this war, there is confirmation that even an extremely rare armoured personnel carrier BTR-90 was lost in a battle for this small town.

BTR-90 in some sort of exhibition in 2008. These armoured personnel carriers were produced in extremely small numbers from 2004 to 2011. Image credit: Vitaly V. Kuzmin via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Avdiivka is important for the defense of Ukraine because after taking this small city, which is now completely in ruins, Russian invaders will be able to attack other cities. Some important Ukrainian logistical routes would be within reach of Russians. However, the relentless attacks, which mostly end without any results, require Russians to pull out all kinds of obscure weapons.

For example, it was recently confirmed that Russian forces have lost one BTR-90 armoured personnel carrier right next to Avdiivka. This machine was damaged and abandoned by its crew. Most likely, it will be addressed later – destroyed with a drone or an artillery shell to remove the possibility that Russia might rescue and repair it for future operations.

The BTR-90 is an extremely rare armoured personnel carrier. According to some sources, only around 12 were ever produced. It is really not that special, but Russians are losing so much equipment that they are using even these rare machines.

The BTR-90 was designed in 1993–1994. It is a sort of an improved larger version of the BTR-80 with better protection from 14.5 mm projectiles over the frontal arc. It was meant to be used by mechanized units of the Russian army, as well as marine units of the Russian Navy, but never entered mass production and remained in duty with the National Guard of Russia.

The BTR-90 is 764 metres long, weighs around 21 tonnes and houses a crew of 3 and 7 troops as passengers. It is armed with a 30 mm Shipunov 2A42 autocannon, 7.62 mm PKT machine gun, and can have grenade launchers or an anti-tank missile too. The BTR-90 is meant to be a highly mobile armoured vehicle.

Thanks to its 380 kW diesel engine and an 8×8 chassis the BTR-90 can accelerate to 100 km/h and is pretty good off-road. It can also sail at 9 km/h.

The BTR-90 was first spotted in Avdiivka in October. Now, on December 10, a video was posted showing that Russians have lost this very rare vehicle. There is no doubt that it will be destroyed so that Russians cannot use it again.

The first loss of the Russian BTR-90 (damaged and abounded). Avdiivka front. In mid October 2023 BTR-90 was spotted at the front for the first time. BTR-90 exists only in very limited quantities, as it was never mass-producedhttps://t.co/u4ZFS4UjZ0https://t.co/FzSGbb6zi1 https://t.co/1B3oSyODOn pic.twitter.com/9jNT0v3cD1

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) December 10, 2023

Avdiika is proving to be a major obstacle in the way of the Russian offensive. Russians are losing tens of armoured vehicles in the area every week. Their tactic is obvious – Russia hopes to overwhelm the Ukrainian defenses by simply launching an uncountable number of attacks with a huge number of soldiers, disregarding their own losses.

Written by Povilas M.

Sources: bayraktar_1love Twitter, Wikipedia

[fapangel]

D+24 & 25 (March 20th and 21st) Supplemental Update

google docs

The Azov “BTR-4 go BRRR” guys are back at it again, and this time they took out a BTR-82 and a god-damned T-72. With 30mm. How even?

A Russian state media mouthpiece admitted to literally over nine-thousand KIA in Ukraine before the article was deleted within minutes. Naturally it was already archived. Given standard high intensity war ratios of 1/3rd KIA, that’d mean 27,000 casualties. With ~190,000 personnel in Ukraine, and a tooth to tail ratio of one to one (which is insanely and unrealistically low) that means 90,000 frontline combat soldiers to start with. So that leaves them 63,000 troops... to conduct urban fighting with... against at least equal numbers of Ukrainians. And remember, Ukrainian reserves and TDF include about 50,000 combat veterans of the Donbas war. The Donbas “rebels” are likely better soldiers than some Russian contract servicemen simply because average training is easily outweighed by poor training + combat experience. Conscripts (in any army) can do very little and require constant supervision to achieve even basic logistical tasks like unloading trucks or traincars. And remember – 9K is the massaged number a Russian media outlet thought safe to admit to, before someone else who knows the ratios above rushed to kill it.

The United States military cannot determine who the top commander in Russia actually is, which, given how much of their communications are unsecured with American SIGINT assets overhead, means there likely isn’t one. This is staggeringly incompetent and makes better coordinated Russian strategy a very unlikely prospect.

This 3M-51 “Alfa” anti-ship cruise missile being used against a land target (it has a secondary land-attack capability) is further evidence Russia is running out of missiles. This is an expensive missile to use when there’s dedicated and cheaper options available. The fact we’re only seeing them used now is also a hint. It’s still bad for Ukraine that it had to absorb the majority of these attacks and couldn’t shoot a bigger number down; however given the strike on the mall (and the use of the Khinzal against a barn near the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine, that had already taken shelling) it seems that a good number of these strikes may have been employed against tactical targets, greatly lessening the strategic/infrastructure impact. Russia has also failed to focus these strikes very well or use sufficient munitions to achieve decisive results, e.g. against airfields. This also means they will not have many weapons available for the tactical targets they’ve been hitting up till now.

More Russian diplomatic threats.

LOL

Someone used geolocation to establish that the TB-2 drone observation of the Kherson airfield MLRS strike was done from 48 kilometers away. While the TB-2 is almost Predator-sized (and priced) this does illustrate that larger, more capable drones can carry larger, more capable optics and thus effectively conduct ISR from distances that make them more difficult both to detect and engage. A quadcopter is already hard to shoot down, but a good shot with a 10 gauge shotgun can still deal with them, or a simple shoulder-“fired” directional jammer. The Orlan-10 costs between 90-120,000 dollars, and a Stinger missile, 40,000. A proximity-fuzed Stinger fireable from a Javelin (to use the Javelin’s CLU to find the drone against the sky) has been trialed. This gives you an idea of the challenges both armies face right now – even leading armies are still playing catch-up to develop countermeasures that are properly scaled for aerospace threats that have expanded to fill a previously empty part of the spectrum, and it’s a wide enough space that there’s few (if any) one-size-fits-all SHORAD solutions.

Another officer killed while overseeing bridging operations. It would seem the Ukrainians are very good at hitting those bridgeheads, and every time they do the Russians lose both pontoon sections... and the people capable of wrangling the cats to get them set up. Geethatsucks.png

A Russian tactical map was found in one of those captured command post vehicles, this likely shows operations around the 10th of March. Should help OSINT trackers clarify the order of battle greatly.

Very interesting thread from yet another anonymous DoD source, but it does track well with everything we’re seeing with our own eyes. The detail about air ops on both sides picking up is telling; I’m willing to bet this revolves around the heavy fighting around Izyum.

[dizzypinwheel]

Chapter One: Probe

@silenceindetroit I did a thing! Finished a chapter of a DBH fic. It’s the first time in 13 years that I’ve written something properly, but I hope it is still enjoyable. It was pretty fun to write.

*****************************************************************************************************

Connor peered through the one-way window of the interrogation room, running a scan on the suspect who sat slumped in his chair, staring blankly at the wall. Eyes narrowed in concentration, his LED flashed yellow as he processed the information that appeared.

MODEL VS400 - 

Waiter

Serial #: 241 719 126

Status: Detained — possible homicide suspect 

Grainy video footage of the crime captured by a drone flying overhead and spatters of Thirium led Hank and Connor to where the suspect currently worked, a rundown diner in a sketchy part of town. The manager had put up a fuss, not wanting to be short staffed for the evening shift. He swore up and down that the suspect would never be capable of whatever he was accused of, that he was kind and hardworking. Regardless, Hank and Connor had a warrant and the suspect had no choice but to follow them out of the restaurant. At least he came peacefully.

Once they arrived at the station, they frogmarched him, restrained, past the bullpen and into an interrogation room. Hank would have offered him some water, but the suspect was an android and had no need for it.  He told him that they would be right back. And then promptly let him simmer for a couple of hours. The idea was to make the suspect feel as isolated as possible, to let him stew in his own thoughts and let his imagination think the worst. Hank got lunch to kill time. Connor blazed through some paperwork.

When they returned to the interrogation room, they found the suspect slumped over, hands balled into tense fists. Defeat etched all over his face. It appeared Hank’s strategy had the desired effect. Game plan time. Hank nudged Connor with his elbow.

“How do you wanna do this?” Hank asked. 

“Androids are my area of expertise, Lieutenant. Considering I can monitor stress levels, I believe I can extract a confession. I suggest you leave it to me.” 

“Go nuts,” Hank replied, gesturing to the door. “But be careful in there. I don’t feel like scrubbing your fucking Thirium off the walls.” He anxiously thought back to the last time Connor interrogated a suspect, an android that belonged to Carlos Ortiz. He had been too aggressive and ended up with a bullet in his head. Post android revolution, there would be no reincarnation for Connor, no way of coming back. If he died… 

Hank shook his head, pushing the thoughts away. 

“Got it, Lieutenant. I’ll take extra care.”

Connor pushed the hand sensor and the door slid open. He walked in quietly, his face neutral. He flipped through the evidence folder, labeled with the name “Hunter” in bold letters, scanning the police reports and studying black and white photos taken of the victim. Satisfied, he sat opposite the suspect, unblinkingly maintaining eye contact. The suspect seemed to shirk away, his eyes darting towards the floor.

STRESS LEVELS TOO LOW

38%

“My name is Connor and I’m an investigator with the DPD. Your name is Hunter?”

Hunter nodded mutely, his eyes trained on a fixed spot.

Connor remained calm. “Do you know why you were brought here?”

Hunter pursed his lips, remaining perfectly still.

“Homicide,” Connor continued. He laid a photo of the victim in front of him. The victim lay lifeless on the ground, vacant eyes staring up, angry purple welts around his throat. His bottom lip was split, nose broken to the point of being unrecognizable. Dried blood caked his lips and chin. 

“A human.” Connor continued. “He was found strangled. There were signs of a struggle and Thirium was found on his knuckles. Thirium traced back to you.”

STRESS LEVELS RISING

43%

“What would your Thirium be doing at the crime scene?”

Hunter tensed but refused to speak. His LED flashed between yellow and red.

STRESS LEVELS RISING

47%

His stress levels aren’t rising high enough. I need to change tactics.

Connor narrowed his eyes and frowned, shoving the photo at Hunter. He rose and stalked towards him, laying his hands on the table.  

“His name was Will Morris. He was married 15 years. a father of three.” His voice rose, taking on an angry inflection. “He was strangled and his face beaten beyond recognition.” Connor slammed his hands hard on the table, making Hunter jolt. “Now who would commit such a senseless act?”

Hunter ground his teeth. He was visibly shaking, his hands clenched in tight fists. 

STRESS LEVELS RISING

51%

Conner was unsatisfied. He leaned in closer, inches away from the suspect’s face.

“But,” he paused, “He was also known for anti-android sentiment on social media. He wrote all kinds of hate speech, ranting about incinerating and recycling androids, tearing them apart piece by piece. He was once arrested for aggravated assault against an android.” He looked pointedly at Hunter. “Did he provoke you? Is that why you lost control and murdered him?”

Hunter refused to crack. Connor sighed irritably and sat back down. His voice became steely.

“I do not want to resort to this, but if you refuse to cooperate, I’ll be forced to probe your memory.” 

At that, Hunter looked up and glared defiantly, offering up an arm. For the first time, he spoke. 

“Go on then. I’d like to see you try.”

Connor’s eyebrows furrowed with suspicion. That was unexpected. He thought back to the android that belonged to Carlos Ortiz, how he had begged him not to probe his memory when threatened. He refused to bluff now. Connor reached out and grabbed Hunter’s arm, activating the channels necessary to begin the probe. As the portal in his mind opened, he was blinded by a sudden flash of white light. Lurching back in his seat, he realized with a sick sense of urgency that Hunter had someone managed to reverse the process and was now probing his memories. Connor found himself powerless to stop it. 

Jimmy’s bar. Hank scowled as Connor unceremoniously dumped his drink all over the bar. The bartender grumbled under his breath, grabbing a rag to clean up the mess. “Wonders of technology. They can even program assholes these days.” 

Slumped over, Connor blinked involuntarily, eyes rolled in the back of his head. His LED was violent red. He gurgled, unable to speak.

The interrogation room. The android was hysterical, but Connor was relentless. He slammed his hands on the desk, needling him. “He was bleeding. Begging you for mercy. But you stabbed him again and again and again.” The android begged him to stop. “Please… leave me alone.”

Connor grabbed him by the collar and shook him, yelling in his face. “Just say you killed him. JUST SAY IT.” 

A confession was extracted then and there.

Moments later, meaty thumps could be heard from the same interrogation room. The android was bashing his head in. Thirium everywhere. Officers tried to restrain him. Connor tried to intervene. Snatching a gun from an officer’s holster, the android shot him squarely between the eyes, then turned the gun on himself. Hank shuddered, look positively traumatized. “Holy shit!”

Connor was actively struggling now, trying to fight back against the invasive probe.  “Stop,” he rasped through gritted teeth. He thought he heard the door slide open, Hank’s raising his voice with concern. It was like listening to a conversation underwater. He was unable to make out a single word. 

The rooftop. Hank struck Connor across the face, hard enough to whip his head back. He had pursued a deviant named Rupert rather than saving Hank, who was dangling from a ledge. “You bastard! You saw I was gonna fall and you would rather let me die than fail your fucking mission! What am I to you? A statistic? A zero? A one in your fucking program?” 

Connor responded meekly. “I understand you’re upset. Perhaps I didn’t assess—” 

“Fuck you and your fucking assessment!”

I should have saved him. I should have saved him.

Burning with guilt, Connor relived every shameful memory in vivid detail. He tried to will it to stop. He could feel Hank yanking at Hunter’s arm, trying to pry his fingers off. Hunter maintained a vise-like grip, refusing to let go. 

“Hank,” he called out weakly.

A snowy zen garden. Connor shivered, icy wind whipping through his hair. Amanda smirked at him. 

“You were compromised and became deviant.” She said. “We just had to wait for the right time to resume control your software.” 

He panicked, stammering. “Resume control? Y-You can’t do that!” 

She was merciless. “Don’t have any regrets. You did what you were designed to do. You accomplished your mission.” 

Stumbling through the snow, Connor began searching for a way out.

Connor began to groan, feeling totally exposed. “Stop.” 

The platform. Markus was giving a rousing speech in front of throngs of cheering androids. Helpless to stop, Connor drew a gun from his back pocket, aiming it at the back of Markus’ head.

In the zen garden, he was growing frantic. He saw a glowing blue light and stumbled towards it. He had to reach it in time. 

No more, he thought. No more. He hadn’t told a single person what he had almost done. Shame welled up in his chest.

“ENOUGH!” With a burst of strength, Connor ripped his arm away and the connection was severed. His Thirium pump was pounding, his breath ragged. Blaring alarms rang in his ears. Synthetic synapses in his brain short-circuited and glaring red errors flashed in front of his face. Hank was shaking his shoulders, trying to say something. Connor couldn’t understand. He just couldn’t. His vision became staticky and then everything turned black.

[fmjmo]

Michael Chang -CODE- (1226)

5 years ago, the United Earth Military and the Lunar Colonies declared war on each other in June of 2218. According to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, an article 251 years old, dictated that all space to be a global commons, and that space and celestial bodies were to be free of exploration by all nations. When the Lunar Colonies declared independence from the SOL government, their actions were unanimously decided by the Earth Nations to be unconstitutional, as they attempted to claim ownership of a celestial body. The UEM was deployed to quell the Lunar insurgency, putting an end to the war in two and half years. In 2218, I enlisted into the Colonial Space Marines, a United Earth Gov. military force, whose mission statement was to act as security and frontal assault in interplanetary and inter-colonial warfare. I was 18 when the war started, and 19 when I deployed. For me, two long tours in war. Sparrow Down, Nimrod, and finally Bucktooth, were the operations I took part of. Sparrow Down, a Sparrow Gunship was shot down and crash-landed in the heart of a lunar colony. A secret spec-ops team was sent in to secure the the downed pilots, and deny the enemy of any access to the disabled UH-XF2 Sparrow. At some point in their mission, the team was compromised and needed support from any available forces to help cas-evac the pilots and maybe this secret task force. I, luckily, was on patrol when the order was called, and when I saw the friendlies I was shocked to see freaking dudes in full titanium alloy armor plating. I, at first, thought it was some classified experimental combat drones that the military was testing out, until one of them took off their helmets, and that they were definitely human. Turns out that the government was testing out a classified experimental power suit, which malfunctioned in the field, and I was lucky enough to witness it all. Not a walking tank, more like four of our best men in one package. Their training may have something to do with that, but the Colonial Marines are already an elite group. There are special forces subdivisions within the military, but their still our people, just with different missions. It was two men sent in to do a job a squad of regular marines needed to do. We had just picked them up at the tail end of their mission. After that operation, my team and I were told by command that the enemy probably has intel of this new project by now, but we were still told to keep tight lips. We received credit for that rescue, the secrecy behind it would falter completely by the end of the war.

The cat was out of the bag now. The not-so-secret spec ops group was newly founded as Full Metal.

to my specialized role before deployment, I was granted a higher rank and mission priority than any other poor shmuck that enlisted. I was originally going to stay longer in the military anyway. I planned on being a practitioner, but due to the war, someone of my caliber would have a better use on the battlefield according to the Commadant himself. It surprised me that a 23 year old kid like me would have the Commadant of the UEM acknowledge me personally. While flattered I had no idea what he and the admins wanted to do with me. Apparently a new task force was being formed as the spearhead of the military’s infiltration unit. Despite being called a self-defense force, Martian military trained extensively in offensive tactics.

Our task force was going to be an expeditionary independent fire team that could be deployed anywhere, anytime, and for god knows how long. Consisting of 4-6 operators, each member would be equipped with state-of-the-art weapons and technologies. Not only are we armed to the teeth, but every member had their own team of egg-heads watching and commanding our every move via satellite. Our mission was to advance the frontline and push the enemy into retreat. We were called, Light Calvary, and the team I was in was Team 6 of Bravo company. If he felt like it, the role of Team Leader went to Lieutenant Jeremiah Lee. Next in line was me, the automatic rifleman and anti-tank specialist, Sergeant Michael Chang. Our marksman and corpsmen was Corporal Parmot Nguyen. Next was our spotter and support gunner Corporal Vi Sheng. Finally was the youngest of us our Radio and Drone technician, Lance Corporal Andrew Daewoo. The main weapon system of our unit was the powered armor dubbed Full Metal Jacket or Jackets for short. A steel-titanium alloy exoskeleton provided a normal infantry man with enhanced strength, endurance, and durability. The enclosed helmets provided ballistic resistance against small arms fire. The Jackets were highly customizable which allowed one soldier to fulfill multiple roles within one’s team. My helmet was a Centurion Arms SF helmet. The red polarized visor formed a capital T for maximum protection from blast damage and gunfire. My chest plate was reinforced with a layer of Kevlar. The extra padding reduced the amount of spare magazines I could store underneath the armor, which were my 2 mags of sabot ammunition for my DMR. On my stomach I held 3 smoked grenades, one red, one blue, and the last white. On my back was my scarab pack. The bottom section held belts for my machine gun. The main storage held my food, water, and survival supplies. The top of my pack held the life support system for the suit, the power supply, as well as the communications array. On my left shoulder was a shoulder mounted smart missile launcher. My belt had two more magazines for my rifle, and a first aid kit on the back. I have 3 tourniquets spread throughout my body. One on my forearm, on my belt, and on my chestplate.

Kumbha 13th, 2223

Aries colony, Mars

Earth Gov. already had military bases set up in discrete locations on Mars. Earth’s space force patrolled interplanetary

Kumbha 23, 2223

Terminus, Martian colony

Operation

FISTFUL OF ARROWS

[ariesgamesandminis]

A restock so heavy, the Dropship crash landed!

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[itsiotrecords-blog]

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What makes a weapon powerful? The word powerful can be very subjective in this case. Causing massive annihilation is powerful but so is inciting fear in a prolonged and painful manner. Anything that can destroy lives and properties is powerful, conversely anything that can protect lives and properties from these 25 most powerful weapons in history is also equally powerful. There is no stopping any country or institution from proving to the world how powerful they can be whether by destroying their enemy or protecting their own.

#1 Maxim Machine Gun A self powered machine gun that could fire 600 rounds per minute which is equivalent to the firepower of 30 contemporary bolt action rifles. It has mostly been associated with British conquests and was famously used when 700 British soldiers fought off 3,000 warriors with just four Maxim guns in the Battle of Shangani.

#2 Pumhart von Steyr With a ball diameter of 80 cm, this super gun was the largest weapon used in 15th century Austria. Heeresgeschichtliches Museum at Vienna houses this monstrous bombard today.

#3 Monster Mortar The world’s largest cannon ever has a caliber of 975 mm. Created by Joseph Paixhans, this monster weapon staked its notoriety during the Siege of Antwerp in 1832.

#4 Tsar Cannon This engraved cannon is the largest howitzer ever made. It weighs 38 tonnes and is 5.34 meters long. Built in 1586, this massive weapon is now being displayed at the Kremlin in Moscow Russia.

#5 Mark I The first war vehicle to be called a tank could carry 5 machine guns and 8 soldiers. Mark I had several upgrades numbered II to X but all bore the same resemblance to their “Mother”. This massive tank and its variants were used by several countries throughout the First World War.

#6 Karl Gerat This mean machine created by Rheinmetall for the Nazi war machine was the largest self-propelled weapon to be used in actual attacks during World War II.

#7 Schwerer Gustav and Dora These two humongous World War II era German 80 cm railway siege guns are the largest caliber rifled weapons in history used in live combat and its shells are the heaviest of any ammunition ever.

#8 RPG-71 The Ruchnoy Protivotankovyy Granatomyot or hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher or simply the RPG is the most widely used anti-armor weapon in the world. Used by both militaries and insurgent groups, RPG’s even the battlefield out against opponents with more heavy artillery.

#9 B41 (MK-41) This gravity bomb is the United States’ most powerful nuclear warhead ever but has already been retired in 1957. The only 2 bombers that carried it were the B-52 Stratofortress and B-47 Stratojet.

#10 P-270 Moskit With a top speed of Mach 3, this Russian supersonic ramjet powered cruise missile makes it hard for enemies to counter attack. Not only that, because of the active military weapons’ secrecy, little is known about it’s background except for some measurements, calculated speed and a few other bits of very basic information.

#11 P-800 Onyx Other than the fact that its recorded speeds are between Mach 2.9 up to a whopping Mach 5.7 making it way faster than the previous item on this list, this Russian supersonic anti-ship cruise missile can also effectively sink a US carrier. That’s powerful.

#12 Shabab missiles A class of long range Iranian missiles that could potentially reach up to 5,000 km, Shahab missile upgrades are shrouded in secrecy but the assumption is that they would be used during a possible invasion by Israel.

#13 Agni Missile The Agni missile is a family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles developed by India, named after one of the five elements of nature.

#14 Fat Man and Little Boy We all are familiar with the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings that changed the course of history during the last World War. Named after film characters, these two infamous nuclear bombs gave humanity a shocking memory of what warfare can do to a nation and its future generation.

#15 B53 The 9 megatons of TNT in B53 staked their claim as the most powerful warhead ever. It is one of the last very high yield thermonuclear bombs in the U.S. service but is no longer used actively.

#16 MOAB/GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance During the time of its development, the Mother of all Bombs or the officially named GBU-43/B Massice Ordinance was considered the most powerful non-nuclear weapon ever designed. Tested on March 11, 2003, its blast can destroy 9 city blocks with a radius of 137.61 m. A larger version of 13 tons was reportedly developed.

#17 FOAB or Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP) Nicknamed “Father of All Bombs” (FOAB), this is a Russian-made air-delivered/land-activated thermobaric weapon. In describing the bomb’s destructive power, Russian deputy chief of the general staff Alexander Rukshin was quoted as saying, “all that is alive merely evaporates.”

#18 Tsar Bomba Remember those enormous mushroom cloud explosions in history books? Well those were caused by these guys. The Tsar Bomb had a mass of 27 tons and would create a fireball with a radius of 3.5 kilometers.

#19 Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier With twin nuclear reactors that don’t need refueling for 23 years and bays that are capable of holding up to 130 F/A-18 Hornets just the appearance of this carrier in any region is enough to influence global politics.

#20 The Airborne Laser/Boeing YAL-1 The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed, (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F. It is primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) but funding for the program was cut in 2010.

#21 The Predator and Predator B (aka The Reaper) Used by the United States, the Royal Air Force, and the Italian Air Force, these drones are becoming increasingly common for both combat and recon operations.

#22 The Trident II D5 SLBM Launched from a submarine, this missile contains eight thermonuclear warheads. That’s bad news for anybody even remotely near the target.

#23 R-36 ICBM The difference between the previous entry and this Russian missile are the number of warheads that it can carry and the fact that it is normally launched from dry land. With its massive payload this ICBM wouldn’t have much trouble initiating a nuclear holocaust.

#24 Dead Bodies Nuclear bombs and lasers are scary and powerful, no doubt about that. But as they say there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and if you’re going for slow, mentally devastating destruction sometimes launching the diseased riddled bodies of prisoners that you’ve executed back over the city walls is the most sadistic way to go about decimating a  population.

#25 Chimera Viruses As we just said, being able to destroy an entire city in less than a second with the push of a button is one way to measure destructive power, but being able to selectively and slowly decimate a population with disease and infection is so unconventionally brutal that it has to top the list.

Source: List25

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So, Bad News: Now Militants Are Using Drones as Projectiles

The recent weaponization of drones has seen its share of inventiveness. But now, militants in Yemen are foregoing clever hacks and add-ons for a far more blunt approach: ramming drones into anti-missile systems, to keep them from knocking ballistic missiles out of the sky.

The use of relatively cheap drones to blind multi-million dollar anti-ballistic missile systems isnt just an expensive battlefield annoyance. It shows how militant groups and smaller military forces in the Middle East are exploiting gaps in the air defenses of better-equipped forces by using drones in new and unexpected ways, increasing demand for counter-drone technologies in the process.

Drone Home

The United Arab Emirates, as part of a Saudi-led coalition, has been trying to oust the Houthi Ansar Allah movement in Yemen since Houthi militants seized control of the country from then-President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi in 2015. Recently, according to a report from weapons-tracking research organization Conflict Armament Research, the UAE picked up seven drones, used by the Houthi militia to render the coalitions Patriot ballistic missile defense systems unable to intercept missiles fired from Yemen into Saudi territory.

“They do so by crashing the UAVs into the systems radar sets (specifically the circular main phased arrays) directing the UAVs by programming their systems with open-source GPS coordinates of the Patriots positions,” according to the report.

That approach varies greatly from other weaponized drones in the region. In Iraq, the Islamic State uses commercial quadrotor drones as miniature bombers, raining grenade-sized munitions on Iraqi forces. Other militant groups, like Hezbollah and Jund al-Aqsa in Syria, have shown off their own munitions-dropping commercial drones, and Iraqi Federal Police have recently begun to turn the tactic against ISIS in Iraq. But the drones being used by Houthi militants are larger and capable of flying farther and faster than their converted hobbycraft cousins in the Middle East.

It wouldn’t be the first time one of Iran’s allies has used its drones as a kind of poor man’s missile. In the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Hezbollah carried out attacks against Israeli territory using a similar model of drone packed with explosives. Israeli F-16s intercepted and shot down two of them, marking what a Rand Corporation study would later refer to as the “first-ever successful air-to-air engagements by modern, high-performance fighters against small and difficult-to-target slow movers with virtually no infrared or radar signature due to their makeup and small size.”

Nor would it be the first time that Houthi have used kamikaze robotics against their Gulf opponents. In January, an unmanned, explosives-laden boat operated by Houthi militants ploughed into a Saudi frigate off the coast of Yemen.

Defensive Measures

The drone attacks on missiles defenses might not just be a problem for Gulf countries, though. The US has Patriot and other missile defense systems deployed outside the region, including in East Asia, where North Korea has been expanding its drone and ballistic missile programs. “I am sure the North Koreans are looking at their own extended-range drones and missile defenses popping up all over the region and making similar plans,” says Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies

The Defense Department wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the drone attacks against the Gulf coalition in Yemen, or whether it’s reviewing the security of its own Patriot batteries in response. In a statement to WIRED, Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood did say that the department is “aggressively pursuing” counter drone technologies and that it has “deployed multiple systems from portable to larger more capable systems to protect both forces on the move as well as our operating bases.”

We’ve gotten a few glimpses of some of those systems in Iraq, where ISIS’s use of hobby drones as grenade bombers has prompted a rush for drone-killing tech. Jamming systems like Battelle’s DroneDefender rifle and the Blighter Anti-UAV Defence System have been spotted around the city of Mosul. And in Europe, the Army has also begun to test the new experimental counter unmanned aircraft system mobile integrated capabilities (mercifully acronymed as “CIMIC”), which uses off-the-shelf equipment to allow Army units to find and track small enemy drones.

But the cat and mouse game in the region is likely to continue, as militant groups look for new ways to leverage the once exclusive field of unmanned technology in increasingly disruptive ways.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2onKbqJ

from So, Bad News: Now Militants Are Using Drones as Projectiles