"US Drones not good enough" Topic

…The Wall Street Journal, citing Ukrainian government officials, noted that US-made drones are fragile and unable to overcome Russian jamming and GPS jamming technologies. Sometimes, they failed to take off, complete a mission, or come back. US-made UAVs are often unable to fly the declared distances or carry significant payloads…

Ukrainian Pravda: link

For reasons, I cannot list. Do not believe the Ukrainians on the quality of US drones.

I tend to believe what they say, they are in actual combat and want drones that work. If US drones work they would not complain about them unless it is a disinformation campaign against the Russians.

The US needs a super cheap, domestically produced drone that we can make by the millions. Otherwise in a World War the Communist Chinese will outproduce us and we could lose.

We also need all those Sgt York and Vulcan guns back.

Bunkermeister.

How quickly we forget that there are many classes of drones in the US arsenal. Are the drones being deployed properly or are the handlers not staying within tactical capabilities.
There is some speculation that the Ukrainians have translated operator and maintenance manuals wrong.
Did you miss the news report from a Ukrainian site where they were building their own drones based on plans from several countries.

Ut is 'highly likely' that they are not being sent "this year's model" as there has to be an assumption that the performance of anything sent will become known to the Russians through exploitation of captured / recovered units. Same with munitions and just about any other kind of sensitive equipment.

On the other hand isn't this the perfect opportunity to test out your new toys? Let's face it, Russia/China are going to get their hands on the latest Western tech sooner or later, they've been doing it for decades. No one's HUMINT is better than the KGB's. (Ok so they've got a new name, same training and mentality.)

Get your kit in the field and see how it performs against the enemy you'll potentially be facing later. No brainer to me.

You might say I just got more information on the situation. The US drones are obtained by the bid law which means they must be from the low bidder, cheapest. US law requires that American personnel must stay in Germany and Poland so training must happen outside of Ukraine. They must do their own operating and maintenance and manual translations are a problem.

There are much better drones from other countries without bid law restrictions. Even through American institutions. As stated by others the Russians and Chinese can easily buy better technology by going to the security shows around the country which all have drones.

Yes, the low bidder paradigm has been a problem on occasions. But those making those choices may not have kin, friends, etc. that it may affect.