Thank you! I just took out a paid subscription with the following note:
You are innovating decentralized intelligence and training so that every person can defend his family, his community and his unit regardless of whether or not the ‘officials’ are focused on their well-being. As we learn from Oct 7 every community must be prepared to defend itself independently of the government. May G-d Al-mighty bless you.
The title might make it hard to share. I tried sharing it with someone in the IDF, and it looks like I am rubbing his nose in a Hamas attack because the subtitle does not come through. Just an FYI. Chances are, Israelis are going to have to learn the hard way. People learn through two means: Painful experience or abusive teaching that also constitutes a painful experience. Very few people want to learn before the pain.
I am one of those rare things. Retired US Army Special Forces and Jewish. And I mean JEWISH. I also went through my SF Q course with an Israeli Paratroop Company commander who had just come from the invasion on Lebanon in 1984. My take from him was that no matter how much pride they had to swallow in order to admit they were doing something wrong and, that reversing course would save soldiers lives, they would do it. Thank you so much for this analysis and I feel it will get through to the right leaders. Israeli commanders DO listen to suggestions from bottom up so to speak. I also feel that knowing the mindset of these guys that the analysis and subsequent changes to how far to the rear, front line dispersement and movement procedures have already been ordered and done. But just in case I feel its vitally important that your message be pushed though to them.
Years ago (too many) I was an OPFOR dismount on rotation to the NTC. My Scout platoon was supplementing an infantry unit who didn't have enough Joes for their required number and we filled them out for 30 days at NTC (in actuality it was a chance to see how the OPFOR worked for our next Blue rotation six months later).
On the subject of the turret moving for #5.
We were on a dismounted pre-dawn assault mission, stuck about 500 meters from a line of M1s in our last covered and concealed position trying to work out how to approach closer to use our Vipers when my PSG (also my former Tank PSG in the Cav Troop) said, "Sir, listen!"
It only took a minute or two, and we were both laughing out loud, causing the Infantry CO to come forward to see what the ruckus was about.
We explained - the accumulators weren't going off for the line of M1s, meaning the turrets weren't turning,... which after 14 days of operations, they were all dead asleep. And 20 minutes later, they were all kills - all 14 of them.
Which prompted me to come up with our mantra for the Scout Platoon - "A thermal sight is only as good as the man asleep behind it".
Something that’s been bothering me about these drones is why don’t they jam them? They’re commercial off the shelf units that operate on known, very specific frequencies. It seems like it should be pretty straightforward to deny them the areas that troops are in.
Looks like the soldiers were trained to move in different directions after the explosion. I think in the futre when soldiers stop in areas like this. They will have to put up some type of parabolic anntena to gather sound. You may not see it but maybe you could be alerted to the sound of the drone. Great video and goid explantion Ryan, keep it up!
I had various incarnations of my military career. Way, way, way back in the day, I went from being a proud 11B to a 16P Chaparral SHORAD ADA crewman. If it flies it dies, ya know? So of course, we constantly were thinking of the air threat. We'd look for aircraft avenues of approach. When we were in convoy, say in a M151 Jeep, the CSM had all the soft tops removed, so we could see and engage aircraft. We practiced of course with designated ADA weaons, which for us were Stingers, Vulcans, and my beloved Chaparrals. And we practiced small arms fire against aircraft, using tactics my Viet Nam era NCOs had learned from North Viet Namese, having a group of people, aiming ahead of an aircraft, basically making a ball of lead for it to run into, which the North Viet Namese used successfully against US aircraft, particularly helicopters. The only "drones" back then, were the targets, the styrofoam airplans and missiles, called "BATS" we shot at. But we constantly had an airguard, both on the move and at the halt. For me later in Bosnia and Iraq, back in the Infantry role, for whatever reason, I think mostly because we thought we owned the skies, the air guard concept had gone away. You make a good point, it needs to come back. We need to be agile, adapt our tactics. Glad you are looking at this Ryan.
Yes, SkyNet. Combat Drones are a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Or at least they ay they have been used since Feb 22 and in the Armenia and Azeri conflict. Hopefully our guys are paying attention.
You could probably make a bunch of money and help your country alot by creating a portable system that detects drones flying high.
I don't think it would be that technically difficult using ML and a high resolution image sensor. You could probably do the computation with a phone sized device -- mounting the camera might be a bit more effort but certainly doable on a vehicle.
It's never going to detect a reaper up at 30,000 feet but could be effective at this kind of threat.
We routinely drive our soldiers to dig in. We are exhorted to continue digging until we have a '9 storey building with a marble forecourt.'
We are trained to dig 2 man trenches, limiting the effect of 152mm on a position.
We ALWAYS have a air sentry out (though he usually doubles as NBC sentry). But, in UK service, we have NO Low Level Air Defence capability organically. The Wehrmacht were better protected than us!
We too suffer from the "Mounted is Armoured and Armoured is good" thing.
I hope your comments drive open discussion and that the Chain of Command studies the tactical level stuff, like this, before we need to face it next!!
Drones have really changed the rules of the game. Even just being able to see what's around the corner or behind the hedge is huge. Being able to attack at arms length is even more of a huge step forward. I think the IDF may still underestimate the opposition, despite the drubbing given to them in 2006. That 'she'll be right, mate' attitude (the Aussie version) reminds me of something one of my sergeants was fond of saying... "complacency will get you killed, son." So will hubris and arrogance and when you've been the biggest dog in the neighbourhood for decades it's easy to ignore the scabby mongrel pack creeping up on you.
Do you think this threat will encourage the US military to transition all soldiers to default on headset radios for platoon/squad/etc communication?
I mean it seems like the best way to discourage soldiers from gathering to plan or socialize is to give them the kind of headset communication standard in onljne video games (tho with multiple channels, encryption, capability for relayed transmission etc). But when I look online if seems like the standard is still walkie talkie style radios.
Thank you for the great analysis. Iranian drones seem to be striking our troops in Syria pretty frequently these days. I am not sure if our troops have any anti-drone technical capabilities.
Any dog trainers out there? My terrier has great hearing, could a dog be trained to hear the drones as a stop gap until something better comes along??? Just a wild assed guess / wishful thinking.
After a quick search, I ran across this:
Drone Presence Detection by the Drone’s RF Communication To cite this article: Huan Lv et al 2021 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1738 012044.
And this:
Drone communication protocols usually use the same frequency bands used for WiFi transmissions, particularly in the 2.400–2.483 GHz and 5.725–5.825 GHz. A drone equipped with a camera usually transmits a video stream to its control unit through the same wireless channel.
Now depending on how much WiFi is in the area might present a problem.
I'm sure that people much smarter than me have been looking at this problem.
Hamas Drone Attack on Israeli Soldiers
Thank you! I just took out a paid subscription with the following note:
You are innovating decentralized intelligence and training so that every person can defend his family, his community and his unit regardless of whether or not the ‘officials’ are focused on their well-being. As we learn from Oct 7 every community must be prepared to defend itself independently of the government. May G-d Al-mighty bless you.
Thank you for helping fighters stay alive with your posts. I am proud to support you on substack.
The title might make it hard to share. I tried sharing it with someone in the IDF, and it looks like I am rubbing his nose in a Hamas attack because the subtitle does not come through. Just an FYI. Chances are, Israelis are going to have to learn the hard way. People learn through two means: Painful experience or abusive teaching that also constitutes a painful experience. Very few people want to learn before the pain.
I am one of those rare things. Retired US Army Special Forces and Jewish. And I mean JEWISH. I also went through my SF Q course with an Israeli Paratroop Company commander who had just come from the invasion on Lebanon in 1984. My take from him was that no matter how much pride they had to swallow in order to admit they were doing something wrong and, that reversing course would save soldiers lives, they would do it. Thank you so much for this analysis and I feel it will get through to the right leaders. Israeli commanders DO listen to suggestions from bottom up so to speak. I also feel that knowing the mindset of these guys that the analysis and subsequent changes to how far to the rear, front line dispersement and movement procedures have already been ordered and done. But just in case I feel its vitally important that your message be pushed though to them.
Years ago (too many) I was an OPFOR dismount on rotation to the NTC. My Scout platoon was supplementing an infantry unit who didn't have enough Joes for their required number and we filled them out for 30 days at NTC (in actuality it was a chance to see how the OPFOR worked for our next Blue rotation six months later).
On the subject of the turret moving for #5.
We were on a dismounted pre-dawn assault mission, stuck about 500 meters from a line of M1s in our last covered and concealed position trying to work out how to approach closer to use our Vipers when my PSG (also my former Tank PSG in the Cav Troop) said, "Sir, listen!"
It only took a minute or two, and we were both laughing out loud, causing the Infantry CO to come forward to see what the ruckus was about.
We explained - the accumulators weren't going off for the line of M1s, meaning the turrets weren't turning,... which after 14 days of operations, they were all dead asleep. And 20 minutes later, they were all kills - all 14 of them.
Which prompted me to come up with our mantra for the Scout Platoon - "A thermal sight is only as good as the man asleep behind it".
1987 - A Troop, 15th Cavalry $1.97th Brigade.
Something that’s been bothering me about these drones is why don’t they jam them? They’re commercial off the shelf units that operate on known, very specific frequencies. It seems like it should be pretty straightforward to deny them the areas that troops are in.
Looks like the soldiers were trained to move in different directions after the explosion. I think in the futre when soldiers stop in areas like this. They will have to put up some type of parabolic anntena to gather sound. You may not see it but maybe you could be alerted to the sound of the drone. Great video and goid explantion Ryan, keep it up!
I had various incarnations of my military career. Way, way, way back in the day, I went from being a proud 11B to a 16P Chaparral SHORAD ADA crewman. If it flies it dies, ya know? So of course, we constantly were thinking of the air threat. We'd look for aircraft avenues of approach. When we were in convoy, say in a M151 Jeep, the CSM had all the soft tops removed, so we could see and engage aircraft. We practiced of course with designated ADA weaons, which for us were Stingers, Vulcans, and my beloved Chaparrals. And we practiced small arms fire against aircraft, using tactics my Viet Nam era NCOs had learned from North Viet Namese, having a group of people, aiming ahead of an aircraft, basically making a ball of lead for it to run into, which the North Viet Namese used successfully against US aircraft, particularly helicopters. The only "drones" back then, were the targets, the styrofoam airplans and missiles, called "BATS" we shot at. But we constantly had an airguard, both on the move and at the halt. For me later in Bosnia and Iraq, back in the Infantry role, for whatever reason, I think mostly because we thought we owned the skies, the air guard concept had gone away. You make a good point, it needs to come back. We need to be agile, adapt our tactics. Glad you are looking at this Ryan.
Yes, SkyNet. Combat Drones are a Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). Or at least they ay they have been used since Feb 22 and in the Armenia and Azeri conflict. Hopefully our guys are paying attention.
You could probably make a bunch of money and help your country alot by creating a portable system that detects drones flying high.
I don't think it would be that technically difficult using ML and a high resolution image sensor. You could probably do the computation with a phone sized device -- mounting the camera might be a bit more effort but certainly doable on a vehicle.
It's never going to detect a reaper up at 30,000 feet but could be effective at this kind of threat.
Hi Ryan, Roger your last ... BUT
We routinely drive our soldiers to dig in. We are exhorted to continue digging until we have a '9 storey building with a marble forecourt.'
We are trained to dig 2 man trenches, limiting the effect of 152mm on a position.
We ALWAYS have a air sentry out (though he usually doubles as NBC sentry). But, in UK service, we have NO Low Level Air Defence capability organically. The Wehrmacht were better protected than us!
We too suffer from the "Mounted is Armoured and Armoured is good" thing.
I hope your comments drive open discussion and that the Chain of Command studies the tactical level stuff, like this, before we need to face it next!!
Israel pandering to Russia has caused tragic comeuppance. It’s late to ask Ukraine for helpful exchanges but I expect this is happening now.
Drones have really changed the rules of the game. Even just being able to see what's around the corner or behind the hedge is huge. Being able to attack at arms length is even more of a huge step forward. I think the IDF may still underestimate the opposition, despite the drubbing given to them in 2006. That 'she'll be right, mate' attitude (the Aussie version) reminds me of something one of my sergeants was fond of saying... "complacency will get you killed, son." So will hubris and arrogance and when you've been the biggest dog in the neighbourhood for decades it's easy to ignore the scabby mongrel pack creeping up on you.
Do you think this threat will encourage the US military to transition all soldiers to default on headset radios for platoon/squad/etc communication?
I mean it seems like the best way to discourage soldiers from gathering to plan or socialize is to give them the kind of headset communication standard in onljne video games (tho with multiple channels, encryption, capability for relayed transmission etc). But when I look online if seems like the standard is still walkie talkie style radios.
What's needed is an iPhone app to watch the sky and listen for drones.
Thank you for the great analysis. Iranian drones seem to be striking our troops in Syria pretty frequently these days. I am not sure if our troops have any anti-drone technical capabilities.
Any dog trainers out there? My terrier has great hearing, could a dog be trained to hear the drones as a stop gap until something better comes along??? Just a wild assed guess / wishful thinking.
After a quick search, I ran across this:
Drone Presence Detection by the Drone’s RF Communication To cite this article: Huan Lv et al 2021 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1738 012044.
And this:
Drone communication protocols usually use the same frequency bands used for WiFi transmissions, particularly in the 2.400–2.483 GHz and 5.725–5.825 GHz. A drone equipped with a camera usually transmits a video stream to its control unit through the same wireless channel.
Now depending on how much WiFi is in the area might present a problem.
I'm sure that people much smarter than me have been looking at this problem.