Thanks so much, Stefan, for sharing all this. Some thoughts:
1. This is so outside the box that almost no commentary about the war incorporates its lessons. And the textbook is very much still being written, as you emphasize.
2. As a result, the Ukrainians seem far more resilient to loss of support today than they were. And with the stories on manpower issues and running out of hardware like gun tubes for the Russians, I am hopeful that the Ukrainians might hold out through a period of low international support long enough for the Russians to collapse.
3. To that end, my donations to private support for the war are already personally painful, but may need to increase in 2025.
4. Despite how serious all this is, when I read this and see the parts photo, I can't help thinking that it would have been so much fun to have access to drone tech 60 years ago, when I was a kid.
Two cents from me, regarding "Training at this point is at the unit level, that is brigade."
Indeed, unit level training is the most important, but I should note that there are UAV operator training courses in army training centers as well. Some guys and gals from my basic infantry training group, who applied for UAV pilot positions in battle brigades, went to UAV operator training course after completing basic infantry training course. They had UAV course in the same training center, before being transferred to their assigned unit. As far as I've been told, they had 17 days training, and final exam failure rate was pretty high.
Thanks so much, Stefan, for sharing all this. Some thoughts:
1. This is so outside the box that almost no commentary about the war incorporates its lessons. And the textbook is very much still being written, as you emphasize.
2. As a result, the Ukrainians seem far more resilient to loss of support today than they were. And with the stories on manpower issues and running out of hardware like gun tubes for the Russians, I am hopeful that the Ukrainians might hold out through a period of low international support long enough for the Russians to collapse.
3. To that end, my donations to private support for the war are already personally painful, but may need to increase in 2025.
4. Despite how serious all this is, when I read this and see the parts photo, I can't help thinking that it would have been so much fun to have access to drone tech 60 years ago, when I was a kid.
Thakns. This was very interesting and very useful.
That was excellent Stefan. Very much appreciated the detail and background. Thank you for putting this together 👍
Thank you for the great article, Stefan!
Two cents from me, regarding "Training at this point is at the unit level, that is brigade."
Indeed, unit level training is the most important, but I should note that there are UAV operator training courses in army training centers as well. Some guys and gals from my basic infantry training group, who applied for UAV pilot positions in battle brigades, went to UAV operator training course after completing basic infantry training course. They had UAV course in the same training center, before being transferred to their assigned unit. As far as I've been told, they had 17 days training, and final exam failure rate was pretty high.
https://en.victory-drones.com/
Thanks for this very good and informative article Stefan
Thanks for answering my question! Happy Holidays!!!
Thank you very much.