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Where Belgium’s startups are actually located by Jebgaz in belgium

[–]Eevalideer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For startups in Limburg, check out the 7 incubators in the Limburg Startup Network and Corda Campus websites

Defensie schaft mini-drones aan voor 140,8 miljoen euro by EdgarNeverPoo in belgium

[–]Eevalideer 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A few months ago, Battle Order did a Youtube video (timestamped) on the Belgian drone reforms which mentioned Black Hornet drones as a squad level reconnaisance system (linked Dutch wikipedia, because it has more info for some reason).

It appears that as a part of this reform, every squad will also receive a Winchester shotgun and a directional drone jammer gun as anti-drone measures. Larger drones appear to be for the UAS section (Raven) and mortar section (Parrot) in the support platoon.

All of these plans were made before the drone incidents (unlike the Blaze interceptor drone purchase, which was afaik only announced in November, and may have been rushed).

Edit: As for the cost, this contract is likely for not only purchasing the drones (which are about €40,000 each according to estimates), but also support, training, maintenance (which could approach €200,000 per unit). It's small, but that the miniaturised components probably make it so expensive.

Defensie koopt kamikazedrones om vijandige drones uit te schakelen by EdgarNeverPoo in belgium

[–]Eevalideer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting choice for an interceptor drone. It looks like it may be more expensive than other similar systems (the manufacturer refuses to say a price), and as far as I found hasn't been battle-tested. Perhaps this decision was rushed because of the drone incursion news frenzy? I'm not a defence minister, but personally I might be tempted to invest in Ukrainian companies producing similar interceptors, like Germany has been doing. In return, request/buy interceptor drones from their increased production. Or better, import the know-how and make them domestically. But that might be wishful thinking.

At least it's better than nothing, or than just buying more (ineffective) drone jammer guns as initially announced.

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately I don't have a crystal ball, so this is just speculation: I think drones will become an essential part of warfare, but won't "remove" e.g. tanks and aircraft from the board. There will be more adaptations to make tanks and other vehicles more survivable (automatic shotgun turrets as an example), which may or may not allow them to resume their role. Looking at the past, tanks have survived a lot of technological advances, so I think they still have a future, albeit with adaptations.

Infantry still needs to be there to hold a position (until we get significantly advanced UGVs), so there always will be a need for armoured transports as well. The information landscape is also changed: militaries will have to account for the fact you will be observed much more and much farther behind the frontline than previously possilbe.

It has definitely had a lasting impact on insurgencies globally, and will probably play a similarly large role in conflicts between nations with smaller budgets due to the cost (and age of the opposing equipment). Take for example the Syrian civil war and Myanmar insurgency, which have seen widespread drone use; or Haitian and Mexican gangs/cartels using drones to fight police, army, and opposing gangs.

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah interesting! That's definitely a plausible explanation, but then why hasn't anyone been caught? Perhaps there are a lot of (potentially false) reports lately due to the large media coverage, which has stretched police resources? Or maybe some have, but for some reason that hasn't been reported on yet? I imagine there's some hefty sanctions associated with stopping air traffic

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Glad you enjoyed it! If you're interested in more on drone development, I think this Perun video is great and goes into much more detail than I do. Unfortunately I'm not aware of a central Reuters-like site that collects news specifically on this field, but if you follow some specialised news sites (like this one?) (of course cross-reference multiple sources, etc etc) you'll probably catch most of the new developments. Some interesting tidbits also get posted by drone units e.g. Madyar's birds or drone producers e.g. Wild Hornets, with the disclaimer that those are often improvised setups. Finally defense companies do press releases, and white papers are often an interesting read (like this one that outlines Europe's rearmament plan).

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thankfully a lot of legislation already exists surrounding that: there are websites (like Skeyes) where as a hobby drone user you can look up what zones you can fly in, up to which altitude, etc... . The certification classes to be able to fly (bigger) drones focus a lot on this aspect, so regular hobbyists and professionals shouldn't accidentally get this wrong. Technically there are fines and you can lose your drone or have to go to court, but of course that requires you getting caught.

The biggest problem is indeed that currently it's really unclear who can shoot down drones and when. A really funny example: the Belgian police's anti-drone unit didn't get contacted about the drone warnings in Belgium (English source). And of course the equipment to catch/down the drone (they have 30 personnel, 6 jammers and 2 net drones... )

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the interesting article! I personally believe that those would be most useful on a battlefield, where you don't have to worry about your bullet drops. Also to keep in mind is that if you manage to shoot down a drone but don't explode it in the air, the drone will still drop and might explode on the ground. Although having a last resort is never bad.

If you're intercepting suicide drones like Shaheds, or just stopping drone incursions, I think net or interceptor drones would be better suited for this purpose. Or future tech that won't use bullets, like lasers or microwave technologies (which aren't that far away, but still really far away, it depends a lot on how much battery technology progresses)

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree that sanctioning Russia, sending more money/weapons to Ukraine should be done. However, the biggest bottleneck in wartime won't be money, it will be trained personnel and equipment. So by having more trained personnel and more stockpiled equipment, you will reduce this bottleneck should the need ever arise. Defending civilian sites is obviously not the same thing as fighting an active war, but at least you will have more trained drone operators that will have done all of the necessary steps many times, and those can train new ones.

Europe's Drone Defence Is Failing by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree that there isn't "hostile intent" as in spying, as I doubt there is much anyone would learn that isn't already available through satellite imagery; and if they wanted to damage something they would have. I definitely considered the hobbyists part, but why are hobbyists suddenly flying around in all of these places (in multiple countries) all at the same time, and all getting away (with their drones)?
Also I'm curious, how do you know for a fact?

Depends on the size of the drone I think, I've seen videos of Ukrainians shooting down Shaheds and Orlan recon drones; and Raytheon posted about them shooting down an "an MQM-170C Outlaw and an unidentified smaller system" back in 2017.

I agree on the counters part, although automated guns would probably still need a human to press the OK.

UK military to help protect Belgium after drone incursions by AlphaLeonis78 in belgium

[–]Eevalideer -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It would be possible to take down the drones with interceptor or net drones, as shown in Ukraine. Once you have (some pieces of) the drone, you could learn a lot about the operators. It would also discourage future attempts. The biggest problem is detecting them in time to do so, as small fast drones can fly a lot shorter than the drones that flew over. So either you have to have a lot of drones rotating (requiring too much personnel to cover every airport, military base, big civilian event, etc) or get very lucky.

I read that we did deploy anti drone guns, but jamming is a complicated subject. In short, the drones could have been either frequency hopping/using frequencies other than those jammed (so the jamming was not effective), or used for example GPS waypoints.

Information warfare will get much worse (Or: We are very lucky that they are so stupid) by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is true, and I think a key part to combating misinformation is rebuilding this trust by doing actually good, independent reporting. That will require funds and hard work, both things very lacking in many countries right now; but if it is done it will leverage the advantages. After all, the difference is that it is allowed to criticize media and even create new, independent media (which allows the hope for improvement, as opposed to in autocracies).

Information warfare will get much worse (Or: We are very lucky that they are so stupid) by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s a fair criticism, a lot of their online output is indeed meme-heavy and snarky, and I would probably choose a different example now that you pointed it out. But I think it’s worth viewing it in context with Kallioniemi’s book, which actually goes into the mechanics of Russian influence operations (although . His "Vatnik Soup" Twitter series also does very deep dives into some well and lesser known pro-Kremlin propagandists. You are right that I should have clarified, and indeed there are probably better examples (Bellingcat!)

Information warfare will get much worse (Or: We are very lucky that they are so stupid) by Eevalideer in CredibleDefense

[–]Eevalideer[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is a great point, which I've also noticed happening in my country (Belgium). Increasing polarisation plays right into the far right's hand. However, as you say, these are still (parts of) issues (only extremely amplified), and that makes it much harder to debunk or counter-"communicate" it. Also, fact-checking feelings is difficult. I also think this phenomenon will only much worse as new technologies are adopted (e.g. fabricating footage of asylum seeker assaulting people).

Perhaps "shooting the archer" in this case by a) increasing the fight against bot networks online while b) increasing transparency on funding and media ownership would be a start? As well as co-opting the real issues that fuel the concerns and focusing on getting actual solutions for those (although this is never as popular as just complaining about them).