Radio War Nerd EP #398 — Drone Warfare in Ukraine War (Year 2), feat. Samuel Bendett

I just saw a video of a drone dropping a bomb (probably an RPG) on a Merkheva. Hit just forward of the turret, and the tank burned

Deep dive! Excellent guest. I had to focus in order to follow the acronyms!

This episode, and the Hasford one, are both AWESOME

Man the Jason Aaron reveal is huge for me! Been reading his stuff almost two decades

doing the training montage from Neon Genesis Evangelion episode 9 so i can pilot a war drone *really* fast in sync

my hunch is that civilian drone manufacturers themselves are also weary of getting included in official military doctrine because it would make them officially weapons manufacturers and thus covered under a bunch of international arms trade regulations that are a pain to deal with

Very warm congrats to John with finally getting a Nerd Cave! Bendett gave a good overview and a detailed analysis of the drone warfare. What was interesting to me though how at the same time his presentation was misleading in a major way. A naive listener would leave with a general impression that both sides are roughly equal in their drone capabilities. However, this is very far from the truth. Shaheds/Gerans have been used with increasing effectiveness and deadliness against Ukrainian rear, ammo depots, barracks, infrastructure, and ports, from the East all the way to Lviv and Odessa, especially when combined with cruise and ballistic missiles. Ukrainian reports or shooting most of them down are as believable as their claims of intercepting hypersonic Kinzhals. In comparison, Ukrainian drone strikes beyond the front lines have been mostly pinpricks with a small number of exceptions - the Pskov airfield (unprotected at the time), a couple of strikes on strategic airbases with Soviet-made jet drones a year (?) ago, and a strike on the airfield in Crimea around the same time. Did I miss anything? Similarly, there is no Ukrainian analogy to the huge success of Lancets that destroyed a massive quantity of equipment. This is partly why Ukrainians switched to attacking on foot. The obvious reason for asymmetry is the AD and EW capabilities, in which Russia is leaps and bounds ahead not only of Ukraine, but also of US/NATO. Industrial capacity of local manufacturing of Gerans and Lancets is probably another reason, but it’s hard to assess. I wonder if this was an honest mistake by Bendett or there are ideological or business reasons for that. He is fluent in Russian. Is he a Soviet emigre like his buddy Kofman, semi-blinded by his grudge towards Russia? Or is this simply what is acceptable for CNA to say at this stage of the war?

Congratulations to both of you on your permanent home!

How can someone bungle so much the iconic “Is it safe?” line from “Marathon Man”? ? “Luke, you may be surprised, but I’m your biological father”

I like how Mr. Nerd is playing off the mercury in the teeth like he wasn’t seeking immortality. SMH

I always thought that the most implausible part of MARATHON MAN was when Olivier’s character thinks he can just swing by the diamond district in Manhattan like no problem, nobody’s gonna recognize me, in and out.

was anyone else surprised to hear that FPV drones are less susceptible to electronic countermeasures? seems counterintuitive. is that just because the jamming devices are line-of-sight and FPV drones which fly lower and faster are harder to draw a bead on? surely the actual comms tech on these consumer-grade drones aren't better than the military equivalents.

Surreal to hear DJI is playing such a huge role in this; I knew they made consumer-grade drones and similar doodads but I mostly think of them as a big player in the "action camera" (think EXTREME sports YouTube vids) and camera accessory/vlogging market. Almost everything they sell is priced between $100 and $1000 and can be found on Amazon in a few seconds. Strange to think of them as the Lockheed Martin for both sides of this war.

the public narrative in the US states that the Russian civilian population is simply hostage and indoctrinated Clockwork Orange style, so an accurate assessment of the size of the civilian contribution to the war effort could help us understand what things are really like over there. But yeah this war has been giving me flashbacks to pundits who thought they were smart when they pointed out that a $400 RPG could knock a $10 million Blackhawk out of the sky Like wow dude, crazy concept

is that a brazillian accent? great interview :)

Hella poisonous!

Hella sick the war nerd has established home base

Hey! Congrats on the apartment! Horray!

Congrats on getting the mercury teeth out of your skull!

‘Hella poisonous, if one may be colloquial’

"Welcome to the Future!" -SpongeBob SquarePants