- cross-posted to:
- opensource@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- opensource@lemmy.ml
Ukraine used ArduPilot to help it wipe out Russian targets. It wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.
Open source software used by hobbyist drones powered an attack that wiped out a third of Russia’s strategic long range bombers on Sunday afternoon, in one of the most daring and technically coordinated attacks in the war.
In broad daylight on Sunday, explosions rocked air bases in Belaya, Olenya, and Ivanovo in Russia, which are hundreds of miles from Ukraine. The Security Services of Ukraine’s (SBU) Operation Spider Web was a coordinated assault on Russian targets it claimed was more than a year in the making, which was carried out using a nearly 20-year-old piece of open source drone autopilot software called ArduPilot.
ArduPilot’s original creators were in awe of the attack. “That’s ArduPilot, launched from my basement 18 years ago. Crazy,” Chris Anderson said in a comment on LinkedIn below footage of the attack.
The shelves of your nearest hobby store hold the weapons of the future, with only a minimal cost. And that’s terrifying.
ftfy
No, definitely terrifying. War should be costly and terrible. That’s the only reason it isn’t more common, that its cost is objectionable. Pax economica, while flawed, is more subjective than ever before. And I do not like that.
War is costly and terrible, and it always will be, regardless of the magnitude of resources required to wage war.
Your semantic argument costs 300 dollars to destroy with a grenade sent through a closed window from a person 500 miles away.
and it still is and it will be
that’s the point, more often that not, to take money and burn it while producing more fuel for propaganda
not saying that’s whats happening in Ukraine, but this has happened a ton in the past and will continue
So that only the most powerful and elite can engage in a monopoly of violence eh? I’m far more concerned about a well funded local police agency thinking they need a bearcat, or a global power thinking they need a bomb that can split the earth in half than a neighbor with a drone and a 3d printer.
You’ve got it all wrong. The dissolution of the high technology, grand tower approach to war fighting is a good thing.
Governments will use drones. It will cost little. War will be a lighter proposition. That’s what I’m getting at.
There is little to no risk with choosing this as your terrorism device compared to the other options. No getting caught planting a bomb, no getting shot when you pull out a gun. Acquiring the parts is cheap, easy, and hard to track. Hell, they probably won’t even catch you if you get shot down unless you leave your remote transmitting.
And what about that same police force with hundreds of these instead of 1 armored vehicle? They don’t even need explosives, you can put guns or tazers on these things. No witnesses when they kill someone through their 3rd story window.
I don’t really care who is at the controls, it’s scary that anyone can get it - and I say that as someone who would be crushed if they started heavily regulating flying
Hobbyists have been flying remote control aircraft for decades.
Flying is heavily regulated.
Quadcopters are relatively new and the barrier to entry is way down. In the past few years, the technology has advanced considerably and it’s cheaper than ever making it a “reasonable” option for a more casual terrorist. You’re talking to one of those hobbyists, by the way.
Flying commercially is heavily regulated but purchases aren’t. 3 of my quads are illegal to fly without a license but there’s nothing stopping you from building identical (or better) models.
This isn’t to say I think they should be illegal. It’s just scary how its easier than ever for someone to become a terrorist from their basement.
Well, there is the whole payload aspect you need to figure out.
If you have that figured out, the rest is and has always been relatively trivial in comparison.
The trucks in the videos clearly never went through any check of the cargo. Could have had a simple trebuchet design in there and haul some explosives onto the airfield.
Yeah, that’s something I feel like is being taken out of context. It’s the getting the explosives within range of the planes that was impressive to me. They could have had mortars/rockets/etc. and probably done similar damage at that range.
I’m sure drones increase the success rate, but it wasn’t drones that made that operation a success from my understanding.
The cargo area had a false ceiling didn’t it? Like I saw one that looked like you could open the back of the ‘trailer’ but there was a fake ceiling with the drones above that.
Afaik they had fake ceilings yeah. However noone that would bother to look, would be tricked by fake ceilings. That trick exists since horse carriages. The fake ceilings only give the driver some deniability.