UK: Testing direct energy weapons regards UAV defence.

(Thorny Island) The war in the Ukraine has seen the UAV (of all sizes) come of age, initially with larger UAVs, but as the air defence of both sides have become more proficient, then the larger UAVs have been replaced by the much smaller, much cheaper and certainly much more numerous First Person View (FVP) drone which are basically hobby drones fitted with an explosive device and their effectiveness has resulted in cages been built around vehicles to protect them with the latest iteration the Russia turtle tank where instead of a cage, the Russians have built a complete layer of armour around a tank , which has proved to be a very effective form of defence from FVPs drones, problem there is, it does limit and degrade spatial awareness.

Video of an armored assault by Russia's 5th Motorized Rifle Brigade on Krasnohorivka, and another appearance of a tank with a massive counter-FPV shelter and EW jammer, which continues to driving after a DPICM strike. It looks like the lead tank in the first video has a… pic.twitter.com/fQk3FN6ymx

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 16, 2024 

Whilst the above may be effective against FVP drones, it isn't against other tanks, anti armour missiles and only protects that lone vehicle (Russia is using such as the lead element in armoured thrusts in the Donbas) meaning those following are still vulnerable. But as stated, the Russians have used such a modification to great effect, so at this moment of time it is working No doubt the threat from FVP drones has become a cause for concern around the world and a lot of time and effort has been expended in which to try and nullify the threat. The British army set up Project Ealing where they aim to disrupt the electronics on the FVP by using directed energy in the form of radio waves and the other day they revealed  the set up they have been testing with:

Project EALING unveiled: the Radiofrequency "cannon" in development for the British Armed Forces seen with 7 Air Defence Group at Thorney Island. A lot different from the early concept art, it is shown carried on a smaller HX60 truck rather than an HX77 and is visibly demountable pic.twitter.com/C8HRsL0x89

— Gabriele Molinelli (@Gabriel64869839) May 7, 2024

The interesting thing here is the British Government started this project in Sept 2021 when it handed over £75 million for 3 such projects , 6 months before the war in the Ukraine started, so it appears the Uk was somewhat ahead of the game here.

India: Unveils first '“first indigenous bomber drone”,

(Bengaluru ) So last Friday India revealed to the world its first medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned airborne combat vehicle the FWD-200B developed  by the Flying Wedge Company is capable of carrying out precision strikes out to a range of 200 kilometers, has a maximum speed of 209 MPH, a endurance capacity of 12 to 20 hours, and a payload of 100kg and comes in at 1/10th of the price of a Reaper UAV . Whilst on paper that sounds like a win, win win, questions have been raised on the veracity of such claims after the FWD-200B was unveiled to the public.

As you can see its aerodynamic shape doesnt exactly sell itself as similar to other MALE UAVs in same class  such as the Turkish Bayraktar TB2,  the American Reaper drone, the Israel Hermes series, The Chinese Wing Loong , but hey the proofs in the pudding and maybe the Indians will have the last laugh.

Somalia: Amnesty International demands that a Somali/Turkish drone strike should be investigated as a war crime

(Mogadishu) On the 18th March 2024, the Somali terrorist group 'Al Shahbab' attacked the Busley military base in the Lower Shabelle of the country, using several Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) aka suicide car bombs to breach through the defences 

and briefly occupy the base until they were beaten back. How the Somalis beat them back was supporting the troops on the ground with air support by the use of Turkish supplied Bayraktar TB2

UAVs using air to ground missiles (MAM-L) in the fighting the Somali government stated it lost 7 men killing 17 terrorists. 

Well Amnesty International has become involved stating that 23 people were killed during the air strikes which included 14 children (in the middle of a attack on a military base?) I quote:

Amnesty International remotely interviewed 12 people, including four victims and eyewitnesses, and four family members of victims. Researchers also reviewed satellite imagery and medical reports, analysed photos of victims and weapons fragments, and geolocated videos from the scene of the attacks and of Turkish drone operations at Mogadishu International Airport.

Based on the photos of the munitions scrap metal, Amnesty International’s weapons investigator was able to confirm that the strike was conducted with MAM-L glide bombs, which are dropped from TB-2 drones. Both are manufactured by Türkiye. Attacks that fail to differentiate between military objectives and civilian objects are indiscriminate and may amount to war crimes.

I be honest , I'm all for NGOs such as Amnesty to hold countries to task, but I do feel that a lot of the projects they take simply embolden terrorist groups to play the victimcard in which to further their own cause. Here a terrorist group attacked a military base using several car bombs and managed to get inside killing numerous soldiers , they were beaten back and Amnesty isn't bothered about the terrorist attack which started all of this, nope they are more concerned about the deaths of 23 people 14 children, 9 women who just happened to be at the base when this all kicked off. This they came to the conclusion of by interviewing people remotely. Am I the only one to see the problem here? 

Ukraine: Kyiv targets Russian troop deployment with devastating results

(Mozhnyakivka) The other day it was revealed that the US had furnished Ukraine with the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) basically a Ballistic missile which can be launched by US Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) be it the original M270 

or the latter (but better known) HIMARS.

Unlike its siblings ATACMS is much larger and a single missile will take up the space  that 6 will take.

However that does afford the missile a number of advantages such as increasing the range to hit targets from around 50 miles out to 190 miles and increases the speed to Mach 3 (around 2300mph) which makes it nigh impossible for most anti-missile systems to take them out. The warhead of the M39 version contains 940 small bomblets around the size of a baseball and in the Ukraine similar warheads used in the smaller MRLS missiles have proven to be very deadly in use against the Russians. So the other day in Mozhnyakivka in occupied eastern Ukraine. 

It came to the attention of Kyiv that Moscow was carrying out familiarization training for newly trained and arrived Russians soldiers and so targeted a batch of around 150 soldiers and they paid the price for a dictator for life who covets' everything his neighbours owns

Interlude: Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet – Dance of the Knights (The Royal Ballet)