Re: Interesting - Ukraine Missiles Use Open Source, Russians Use Pi-4s

rbowman <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Jul 2026 12:24:42 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> 
>> On 19/07/2026 23:55, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
>>> rbowman <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 18 Jul 2026 19:38:31 -0400, c186282 wrote:
>>>>>     Meanwhile, everything made in USA costs a million dollars per 
>>>>>     unit and take forever to build.
>>>>
>>>> I forget who said 'Generals do not end wars; accountants do.' 
>>>> Estimates vary but the Tamir missile used by Iron Dome costs 
>>>> around $50K.  When you use them to blow up a $5K DJI drone the 
>>>> costs add up fast.  That's chicken feed compared to the cost of a 
>>>> Tomahawk.
>>> 
>>> The USA and Israel are getting deep into laser weapons now
>> 
>> UK already has them
> 
> DragonFire might be operational next year and may live up to the 
> hype.  Apparently US air defense systems aren't 100% successful, The 
> media seem reluctant to examine the repercussions of Iran hitting US 
> assets in Jordan.

And therein lies the problem with "swarms of cheap drones".  The 
attacker can build, and launch, 50 "low cost drones" (granted, $50k 
seems a lot, but it is 'low cost' as compared to a US Military missle 
of 5M and up each) at an attack target.

The drone defense has to be 100% perfect every time because if even one 
drone survives to its target, some damage will be taken by the target.  
And it is very unlikely *any* of the air/drone defense systems are 100% 
perfect every time.

Plus, if the "drone defence" is firing anything that is more costly to 
build than the drone itself, then there is a significant asymetric cost 
factor applied to the defender as well.