Cheap Iranian drone downed $25M US Army helicopter–maybe by chance

people might not like it if it was targeted, but if it got slightly damaged (and currently functional) as collateral damage to a military target, I assume more people would be okay

Local wood frames, carbon from Japan, hardware designed in the USA, produced in China with Nvidia soft. It's kind of funny if it wasn't so wasteful on global resources.

I don't know why you think that Russia is able to get GPUs when the entire rest of the world can't.

The drones run on literally whatever is available because any Western-built one is restricted to Iran or Russia.

No, they don't. In fact nvidia is one of the few that's NOT involved. It's definitely a group effort: https://militarnyi.com/en/news/czech-engine-and-western-elec...

    Component / part                     Company                 Company country                            Public factory / manufacturing-origin info
 

    TJ150 turbojet engine                PBS Velka Bites          Czechia                    EU                    Czechia; manufacturer is PBS Velka Bites
    TW1721 GNSS antennas, block of 4     Calian / Tallysman       Canada                     Canada / West         Ottawa, Canada manufacturing publicly stated by Calian/Tallysman
    AD9361BBCZ RF transceiver            Analog Devices           USA                        USA                   COO/assembly: South Korea; wafer diffusion: Taiwan
    MIMXRT1052 microcontroller           NXP USA / NXP            USA / Netherlands          West                  Distributor COO often China; NXP PCN references SMIC8 40nm wafer fab
    N63A0QI chip                         Intel                    USA                        USA                   Exact COO not found publicly
    STM32F405 microcontroller units      STMicroelectronics       Switzerland / France / Italy Europe / Switzerland Probably Manufactured in China 
    ADIS16480 inertial measurement unit  Analog Devices           USA                        USA                   COO: Philippines; ADI PCN adds IMI Philippines as approved assembly site
    TMS320F28335PGFA microcontroller     Texas Instruments        USA                        USA                   COO/assembly: Philippines; wafer diffusion: Japan

I found some details on an "AI version" of this drone, using Rockchip chips.

Absolutely incorrect. The attitude within the military industrial complex towards drone/UAVs has shifted enormously since the Russia/Ukraine conflict. However, procurement times on new equipment is on the order of several years to nearly a decade. There's not enough time to produce nor acquire this hardware.

The US military is sitting on decades of older equipment. The Ukraine conflict started four years ago. Complaining that the US has not overhauled its inventory in just four years is unreasonable and unrealistic.

I am far from a US supporter, but just because a single Apache was downed, doesn't mean the US isnt adapting to the new kind of warfare we've seen from Ukraine. Also Iran =/= Ukraine.

Furthermore, Choppers arent obsolete and if you got em, it makes sense go use them.

Currently it's hard for any nation to meaningfully adapt, as the new tech develops far faster than any governement procurment process.

The helicopter in question was flying in Oman, in Omani territorial waters.

Why does Iran have the right to fire drones into other countries?

It was a defensive flight deploying defensive missiles and defensive bullets against offensive school children who were threatening other countries by being in their own country. Shooting back is an act of war that must be responded to.

(I would add that this is sarcasm, but it is reality for a lot of people sadly)

USA has been Russia/Soviet Union of West since WW2...

I think they mean the Apache was there to shoot it down and managed to fly too close while blowing it up. On the plus side: blowing it up successfully. On the down side ... well that's why it's in the news.

This is why you don't used manned systems to hunt unmanned ones ...