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

rrbanffy about 3 hours ago 23 commentsRead Article on arstechnica.com

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Discussion (23 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

conartist6•about 1 hour ago

I just want to confirm that people don't think hitting civilian drinking water as retaliation for a military helicopter is normal or ok

roshin•29 minutes ago

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

conartist6•22 minutes ago

If it was targeted, my understanding is that that action would fit the technical definition of a war crime

nehal3m•about 2 hours ago

Don't those Shaheds run on nVidia Jetson? Jensen cashing in again. Funny that most of the hardware in those drones is designed in the US. Stop hitting yourself.

toxicunderGroov•about 2 hours ago

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.

SR2Z•about 2 hours ago

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.

nehal3m•4 minutes ago

Because they're on Amazon for like 350 bucks.

spwa4•about 2 hours ago

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.

xvxvx•about 1 hour ago

Jokes on them: the US has an infinite supply of $25M thanks to its servant population.

yanhangyhy•about 2 hours ago

Is DronesPunk a thing yet?

inglor_cz•about 2 hours ago

So, the US relearns all the lessons of the Russo-Ukrainian war the hard way? Choppers proved very vulnerable already in 2022.

History often repeats itself. In a similar way, Great Powers like France refused to study the lessons of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5 because it was something that happened in barbarian lands far away from glorious Europe, so it was obviously irrelevant to them, right? And then the shock of industrial warfare almost shattered the French army in summer 1914.

tristanj•about 2 hours ago

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.

inglor_cz•6 minutes ago

"However, procurement times on new equipment is on the order of several years to nearly a decade."

Interesting that the Ukrainians can design, develop, produce and deploy a new type of a drone in something like 6 weeks.

Of course, they are in a life-or-death struggle and thus cannot afford a decade of paper wars with various lawyerly and MBA types who want to have their say.

That said, the US cannot afford those either, but it is under the illusion that it still can. Structural ossification at its best, and the result is ... inability to beat an impoverished, long sanctioned Middle-Eastern authoritarian regime into submission.

sam_lowry_•about 2 hours ago

Well then they have to hurry up or loose the war ;-)

Kampfschnitzel•about 2 hours ago

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.

spiderfarmer•about 2 hours ago

Not by chance. Why is the US Army helicopter flying in another sovereign country?

The USA is the Russia of the West nowadays.

tristanj•about 2 hours ago

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

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

wolvoleo•about 1 hour ago

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

If America hadn't started bombing Iran in the first place this wouldn't have happened anyway. Things would have been peaceful and oil prices would have been fine.

orwin•about 2 hours ago

Because the US fired missiles from other countries? It's not a game of mounted tag.

dmpk2k•about 2 hours ago

The same Oman Trump was recently threatening to blow up? Heh.

blitzar•about 2 hours ago

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)

Ekaros•about 2 hours ago

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

spwa4•about 2 hours ago

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 ...