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“Control from a safe distance”, hits with “deadly precision”: US company loudly advertises its machine gun drone as “groundbreaking”.
Washington DC/Kiev – Feloni Aero promises a “groundbreaking combination of air superiority and deadly precision.” The US-based company now wants to come up with a drone that carries machine guns – or anti-tank missiles. Newsweek reports about this weapon, which, according to the company, was in the Ukraine war “groundbreaking” to the advantage of the Ukraine will hit. The US company is hoping to get an order quickly – possibly with the US’s recently approved $61 billion.
“Felon 1.0” and “FelonX” are the names of the two advertised quadrocopters – “Felon”, as the product name is called in German. The defense company leaves no doubt in its marketing that its products Vladimir Putin’s Ambitions will be thwarted: “Feloni Aero’s armed UAVs offer a transformative solution, offering unparalleled precision, agility and efficiency in combat scenarios. Equipped with state-of-the-art armament, the 5.56 weapon system, as well as missile payload and advanced surveillance capabilities, these drones can help the Ukrainian Armed Forces effectively and safely overcome complex security challenges,” such as Newsweek the company cited.
US engineers are currently outdoing each other with innovative solutions to arm Ukraine. In December, the California-based company Anduril Industries came up with a killer out of the box: their “Roadrunner” is a drone barely tall enough for a man that takes off vertically from a metal container and returns when it misses its target – after which it would be ready for use again. In March, three computer science students in Los Angeles almost claimed to have developed their own cruise missile.
The trio claimed they only needed a 3D printer and around 450 euros for a drone that calculates their GPS coordinates without a signal, using an algorithm that compares satellite images from Google Maps with images from their camera. The drone prototype has similarities to the guidance system of the Tomahawk cruise missile, which is adapted to the contours of the terrain, but was developed at a fraction of the cost and time. The highlight of the bargain: The system is said to be resistant to electronic interference signals, known as “jamming” or “spoofing”. Aviation Week.
Zelensky has no alternative: he is missing almost half a million soldiers
In principle, according to experts, Ukraine has no choice but to consistently rely on drones, the American claims Foreign Policy Magazine; In other words: If Ukraine could see and fight everything on and behind the front, including units and even individual troops moving in its rear, the classic ground attack from armored mass formations would become an outdated tactic for Russia. In any case, President Volodymyr Zelensky is currently running out of strength. He has to mobilize again.
The Deutschlandfunk puts Ukraine’s armed forces at 900,000 soldiers and 1.2 million reservists. Russia On the other hand, there are over 1.3 million active soldiers and around two million reservists. Zelenskyj wants to recruit half a million new fighters – using the mobilization law that has been in force since April, which is also discussed by the Deutschlandfunk reports: All men over the age of 18 have to complete basic military service. At the age of 25, front-line deployments are possible, provided military training is required. Ukrainians abroad who are of military age between 18 and 60 are generally obliged to be included in the military register.
Zelenskyj’s chance: The “hardened criminals” could fill the thinned ranks
Nevertheless, the defenders are missing soldiers – the “hardened criminals” could actually fill their gaps. Russia also went public with ideas for “Terminators” several years ago. In 2017 he had star tells the story of “Fedor”, a robot on two legs “with guns in his hands”, like him star The gunfighter’s picture on star further the addressee of the post, Dmitri Rogozin, the then Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation.
Whether on two legs, on tank tracks, on wheels or with propellers – the autonomization of weapon technology is dynamic and will increase in speed with every fallen soldier. “The situation at the front depends on drones. This is a round-the-clock war,” Mykhailo told Fedorov at the end of last year Newsweek. The Minister of Digital Transformation is the head of Ukraine’s drone army. Basically, Ukraine wants to perfect its own products: the FPV (first-person view) drones, which are produced and used in tens of thousands, defense drones, for example, against “loitering munitions”, i.e. drones that circle over a target until they fall on it at some point, as well as reconnaissance drones.
Hope for Zelensky: US drone tested with miniguns
With the Feloni quadrocopters, another attack weapon would now be added. Feloni Aero is silent about prices, but they are likely to be significantly higher than the unit price of the Ukrainian do-it-yourself solutions. The next questions would then be about the number of drones used and their purpose. They could possibly act as a swarm against armored units or pursue infantry right into their trenches. The war of systems would have begun. The Americans themselves now seem to be able to mount a heavy machine gun unmanned, like the one Flight review currently reported.
For the first time, an unmanned aerial system used machine guns against ground targets. The Mojave drone, which is nine meters long and has a wingspan of 16 meters, shredded a pick-up truck with its two miniguns under the wings – it is said to have carried out seven attacks in two flights. “However, using miniguns on a drone requires a significantly higher level of situational awareness from the remote control pilot. “The focus so far has therefore been clearly on the use of laser-guided precision weapons,” writes the Flight review. However, the drone pilots on the Ukrainian front should have practice.
Promise to Zelensky: Attacks with “surgical precision”
For crews of Russian armored vehicles, this new generation of drones would ignite hellfire and further dampen the morale of the invading army. Drone attacks, for example on armored units, are an “interesting asymmetric means of inflicting damage on Russia without actually making large investments,” Marina Miron recently told the German wave. The scientist at King’s College In London, however, she says it is unlikely that “Ukrainian attacks will cause enough damage to cause the Russian military machine to collapse.”
It remains to be seen to what extent the “felon” has what it takes to stop Russia’s invasion. So far, no copy of the killer from the box seems to have found its way to the front. And the fact that Feloni Aero’s new coup is ready for series production is initially an assertion. But if it exists, and an army of small quadrocopters buzzes across a battlefield firing on all cylinders like a swarm of locusts, this idea will make the war even more inhumane than it already is.
Already the choice of words in Feloni Aero marketing, like them Newsweek basically sounds scary: the rocket-equipped “FelonX” drone is designed in such a way that it can transport its load “with unprecedented efficiency and precision”. For the machine gun-equipped “Felon 1.0,” Feloni Aero even uses what may be the most popular euphemism among the military: the ability to attack with “surgical precision.”
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