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Russia Builds Microwave Weapon To Take Down Enemy Drones (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Russian government is backing a military research project to develop a powerful microwave-based weapon designed to take out unmanned enemy drones from up to half a mile away. The country's United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation (UIMC) created the microwave gun specifically to disrupt the electronics of enemy missiles. Using the ultra-high frequency waves the weapon can completely disable aircraft communications, resulting in loss of control. The destructive rays, which belong to a group of warfare technologies known as directed-energy weapons (DEW), will be emitted from surface-to-air Buk missile systems. Military analyst Alexander Perendzhiyev noted that the new weapon would be particularly effective against systems carrying microelectronic equipment. He also suggested that the impact of the radio-electronic waves could even be deadly to humans -- and referred to potential use against terrorists.
I own a "microwave weapon" too. Man, have you tried eating a burrito straight out of the microwave? That'll kill anything!
This Blighter/Evenlode combo is much more interesting: http://www.blighter.com/news/p...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Thanks to the incompetence of the US not being able to figure out the right group to back in Syria, you have drones ending up w/ ISIS, and now the Russians have to figure out a way to get them downed.
A nuke here or there on Raqqa, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, would fix things for good
Meanwhile, in Poland, they are developing a charcoal powered weapon. It's not as effective as Russia's microwave weapon, but the drones taste better afterwards.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Buddy, you okay?
But it's Russia, and everyone knows a country with a GDP smaller than the United Kingdom is some sort of mighty power!!!
Russia is a has-been with a military and nuclear arsenal largely inherited from its older scarier days. For Russia these days, "force projection" literally does mean the Black Sea and Syria.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
"disable aircraft communications, resulting in loss of control"
Why would someone build a weapon that could so easily be countered? They wouldn't.
People do realize we build and send unmanned drones literally millions of miles away with pre-programmed instructions, right? How do the not expect that concept to extend to drones?
Programmed to fly to a specific coordinate, using GPS from take off and flight info to calculate current position if communications are disabled by reported weapon, drop payload, fly back to take off point. Laugh. Profit from war.
One problem I can think of off the top of my head is it should be easy to detect the source of the microwaves and take it out. Also I would think better shielding could protect against this.
This might work for non-military drones though.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Russia sure likes shooting down planes.
For Russia these days, "force projection" literally does mean the Black Sea and Syria.
And in the west democracy mean to let the globalist elite decide your destiny. .. or did the Europeans and Swedes actually wanted it this way? Really? Have anyone asked?
Part of the reason they are a power despite having a GDP smaller thant the United Kingdom is also part of the reason their GDP is smaller than the United Kingdom in the first place:
They spend a disproportionate amount on military, $98 billion annually. (more than any other European nation)
This combined with the fact that a lot of their neighbours are military light-weights, they have more nuclear weapons than anyone else, and they have an aggressive dictator (posing as elected) who has already invaded two sovereign neighbours and annexed their territory does indeed make them a threat to world peace.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Using "gun director" fire control radar on Navy ships as much as fifty years ago this was possible, the beams from those radars were able to kill birds in flight and easily fry electronics within a certain range. This is nothing new, at all.
And in the west democracy mean to let the globalist elite decide your destiny. .. or did the Europeans and Swedes actually wanted it this way? Really? Have anyone asked?
Sweden's main concern is about getting naked in the sauna. If the globalist elite ever get in the way of getting naked in the sauna they will rise against them.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I dunno. The Russian have a different approach to these things than we do. If Russian engineering firms were baseball teams, they'd be small ball players and our guys would be sluggers. We tend to swing to swing for the fences and they concentrate on getting base hits.
If the Russians think they're on to something they tend to keep tinkering with it, making it incrementally better. The question isn't whether something is necessarily the most impressive thing in the world now, but whether it is practical and useful now.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
a similar weapon built for use against humans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Sig ?
Code named: Head-Popper
does indeed make them a threat to world peace.
You make it sound like "World Peace" is something we've already achieved.
It's not.... if there is no war now, there will be one soon; ISIS and various players all over the world have aligned everything to make sure of that.
$98 billion annually is not very much to spend on military at all. Hell, the US spends more than $600 billion.
Also, if you don't have an advanced highly-thorough military force when war does break out, then being caught unprepared has a high
probability of meaning you become an occupied or subservient country.
"who has already invaded two sovereign neighbours and annexed their territory does indeed make them a threat to world peace."
Are we perhaps forgetting what the US government has been up to the past decade or so (invading 2 countries, black bagging people from Europe, extrajudicial killing via drone, global spying, etc)? Also the US spends more on the military I believe than the next 10 nations on the entire planet combined. I'm all for calling out Russia on their failings, but that conversation is going to get really uncomfortable really quick when someone asks who/what/where the major causes of civilian casualties (directly & indirectly) over the past 15 years have been.
I foresee a big market in ablative popcorn armor.
the japanese worked on a microwave beam weapon in WW2, from gizmondo:
"According to documents confiscated by the U.S. military after the war, work on a Japanese death ray began as early as 1939 at laboratories in Noborito. To that end, the researchers developed a high-powered magnetron that could generate a beam of radiation. Physicist Sinitiro Tomonaga's team developed a magnetron measuring 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter with an output rated at 100kW. It's doubtful, however, that this technology could have worked like the death rays of science fiction. Calculations suggested that the beam, if properly focused, could have killed a rabbit over a distance of 1,000 yards, but only if the rabbit stayed perfectly still for at least 5 minutes."
I've been told (not an expert) that such weapons would be excellent targets on the battle field.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
However you choose to measure it, Russia's economy is a midget compared to the more populace Western states like the US, Germany, Britain and France.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
If it really is strictly a "ultra-high frequency" jammer then it's range is between 300MHz and 3GHz. What this means is that a 5GHz cellular modem would still be able to operate under these conditions. However, if it's as powerful as they claim, you should add a little aluminum foil to the bottom of your drone. :)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The peoples of Europe freely entered the Common Market, which evolved into the EU. In fact, when the Eastern Bloc collapsed, a number of former Soviet satellites lined up to enter the EU. We can debate whether or not the EU has lived it up to what it was supposed to be, but the fact of the matter is that no tanks rolled across the French fields, no bombs were dropped on German or Italian cities, there were no occupying governments in Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands, these nations, for the first time in European history freely joined together to create a common economic zone.
For the Russians, of course, losing traditional satellites/occupied regions like Poland, the Baltic states, and the other Central European Slavic states was a symbol of its decline. That these states, so long under the Russian thumb, then joined NATO, was seen as a slap in the face. Putin is trying to recover something of Russia's old power, but he runs a nation that, while improving in some respects, really is a midget compared to Europe and the US. The combined economic and military might of NATO dwarfs Russia. The US alone is able to project force to just about everywhere from the Arctic to the Antarctic circles, and while Russia still has a lot of military capability, it remains as it always was, a fundamentally land-based power, able to harass and dominate some of its Eurasian neighbors, but ultimately geopolitically weaker than its competitors.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The US has been doing that, in one form or another since the before the Civil War. If you include campaigns like those against the Barbary Pirates, it has willingly adopted a fairly robust foreign policy since almost the beginning.
Let's not forget that much of what you call the Midwest was basically seized from the Indians, that much of the Southwest was actually northern Mexico until a shameless war of expansionism saw American forces marching into Mexico City in 1847. These sorts of actions are littered throughout US history, at the behest of Administrations of all political stripes.
The reality is you're just cherry picking to try to give the illusion that somehow things are different now, but really, how is, say, the Iraq invasion really that different than the Spanish-American War? And let's remember that, briefly, after that war, the US became one of the major imperial Great Powers, and that it still possesses a number of territories that were once part of the Spanish Empire.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I'm not belittling Russia's talent. It has always been a nation that has had a genius for making a little go a long way. But the fact is that the era of Russia as a major global player, the big competitor to the US, ended with the collapse of the USSR, and really, over the last quarter century, the chief rival has become China. Russia can be a menace, but aside from its nuclear delivery capacity, which is still significant, it isn't nearly as strong as it tries to make out. And ultimately, its nuclear arsenal, like every nuclear power's arsenal, isn't intended as offensive weapon at all, but rather as a last ditch defensive measure.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
...when the Terminators want to take over.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
not since that anal probe in '96
How did Russia suddenly become enemy #1? The build up propaganda is incredible. They hacked the DNC? Lets stop this war that has been laid out in advanced. PLEASE REMEMBER: US, EU, and Russian military corporations think human life is expendable, this is all marketing.
They can say whatever they want, and all the idiot press will believe it. In fact, it's all a bunch of bullshit and countless competent intelligence agencies know that. Putin wants to push everyone around, but he's out of money. International businesses and world leaders don't care what color your judo belt is.
Show the money, bitch.
‘With its effective range apparently not exceeding one kilometre, this weapon may be used against UAVs flying right above the battlefield,’ said Korotchenko.
That doesn't sound very far. By flying at 3500 feet, it can't hit a UAV even if it is directly overhead.
there were no occupying governments
But now there is through the EU.
Also I wouldn't view our Swedish government as by or for the people.
For the Russians, of course, losing traditional satellites/occupied regions like Poland, the Baltic states, and the other Central European Slavic states was a symbol of its decline. That these states, so long under the Russian thumb, then joined NATO, was seen as a slap in the face. Putin is trying to recover something of Russia's old power, but he runs a nation that, while improving in some respects, really is a midget compared to Europe and the US.
The Russian identity is pretty intact though, that and the culture is in a much better position than in most of the rest of the west. Which was my point.
My point was never about what Russia try to portray themselves about or how mighty they are.
My point was all about how the west consider themselves as superior in democracy and freedom even though in the case of the US it's all foreign politics and dictators and non-elected leaders are just fine / possibly better as-long as they act in the interest of the US and here in Europe and Sweden especially democracy isn't a thing since social and main-stream media don't allow all opinions to be heard, the public sector and financial power is everywhere and so strong (majority of the public service employees and teaches in Sweden are sympathizers of the environmentalist party / left), information is being hidden (criminality statistics and data about the suspects of criminal activity, social economic costs and so on), lies are told and voice of the public is seen to be inferior and bad and that the "responsible" politicians and media know better and have to "take responsibility" (act authoritarian) because the public is wrong.
Germany may be even more fucked up than Sweden. They have always suffered under the "oh you were Nazis so you have to suffer under this and for that!" - I have no fucking clue what wrong Sweden have done but I guess it's just basic "white guilt"-shaming from the Marxists and parasites of color.
The combined economic and military might of NATO dwarfs Russia. The US alone is able to project force to just about everywhere from the Arctic to the Antarctic circles, and while Russia still has a lot of military capability, it remains as it always was, a fundamentally land-based power, able to harass and dominate some of its Eurasian neighbors, but ultimately geopolitically weaker than its competitors.
I'd rather say it's basically that of the US.
USA is what make up NATO. That comes with consequences though since USA is the people who pay for everything and who have the power the politics of the US also matter.
Sweden + Norway + Denmark + Finland + Iceland + Estonia (+ Lithuania + Latvia + Scotland + Poland + Hungary + Ukraine) could have had a reasonable population count and economy and through that military might to possibly hold up on their own and could had acted as a buffer zone in both direction and pose no threat to either side while still not be ruled by the US or EU.
Reality of course is that Russia harass and interfere less than USA do. And yeah, they have less capability so maybe that's part of the reason why, it's still how it is. Where Russia try to harass seem to be mostly into propaganda and sharing the Russian "view" of things. Then again it's not like the world doesn't listen to the American view either.
Russians sometimes use methods that look crude to us because those methods are likely to work without costing fabulous amounts of money. It's Americans who set out to do overkill right from the drawing board.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Inherited or not, nukes are nukes. Does it matter where they got them? They also have a very capable intelligence service with many decades of experience, and a demonstrated willingness to use this not just for gathering information but for active espionage and assassination missions.
Incidentally the United States is working on a missile-borne microwave weapon which would be very useful for hitting Surface to Air missile sites like the ones Russia relies on for power projection, to augment their lower-tech air force (as they've done with the recent S-400 deployment in Syria.) This microwave weapon, mounted on the small tracked vehicles used by the Buk system would be a useful point-defense weapon against cruise missiles, if the power output was high enough, and the weapon was slow enough. If its only useful against drones, then the power output is lower or the missiles are too hardened for what it can pump out - in which case you should see it as a high-power, aimable jamming system to counter attacking aircraft, with the ability to fry drones a nice secondary feature.
A nice little microcosm of the ongoing arms race. Pay attention; the toys they come up with now we'll be finding commercial uses for in twenty years.
My numbers aren't wrong, although they are the highest of the 4 organisations that estimate that kind of crap. The lowest estimate is $68B per year. I'm sure you will note that that is also a huge percent of their budget.
Russia could be a very wealthy country; they're strategically located with lots of resources, a decent population size, but they're plagued with high levels of corruption and leaders who care more about the military than the populace.
Of course they don't spend as much as the US, nobody does. The US accounts for almost 50% of the entire world's military budget. However, as a % of total GDP the US, whilst high, is still just a fraction of the % of GDP Russia spends on the military. Instead of becoming a modern nation, taking better care of their people, they're pissing all their money away on their military. The US has so much more money than Russia to begin with.
Only one other nation, besides the US, spends more on the military than Russia, and that's China. Another nation with much more money than Russia, and despite spending more, they still spend a much lower % of GDP.
The average life expectancy for a Russian man today is 64 (it is a little over 70 for women though). That's piss-poor by western standards. Russia would do well to get rid of Putin and his hawkish colleagues and instate someone who cares about the people and the world more than he does shaking his dick around at other nations.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
The US has got involved in wars it shouldn't but has not recently annexed any territory. Russia has done so... twice with their current dictator.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch