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On January 4, the Syrian Nation Defense Forces (NDF) shot down two DIY armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) near the Russian Hmeimim airbase in Lattakia governorate. The UAVs were shot down by NDF fighters with a light machine gun, according to the NDF media wing.
The NDF said that the wingspan of the two downed UAVs is slightly more than 1 meter and that they are made of wood, styrofoam and plastic. The UAVs were powered by diesel engines feed by a fuel tank mad of light plastic too.
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Each UAV was armed with at least two local made small projectiles equipped with impact fuses taken from mortar shells. The two UAVs managed to drop some of these projectiles over the town of Qardaha in the eastern Lattakia countryside and the city of Jableh near the Hmeimim airbase before they were shot down. However, the bombardment didn’t result in any casualties.
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Syrian pro-government activists suggested that the UAVs were made by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) with a help from ex-ISIS experts or experts from the Palestinian Hamas Movement that used a similar concept during 2014 Gaza war.
Some speculations circulate that a similar UAV could be used in the attack on Hmeimim airbase on December 31, 2017. However, many experts doubt that such primitive UAVs could penetrate a variety of Russian jamming systems that are active inside and around the airbase.
Shot down by a couple rifles not light machine guns so nothing really extravagant to knock them out of the sky.
So you know more than the NDF media wing? How is that possible? Oh right… you make stuff up….
These drone aren’t meant for fighting in the slightest. They have excellent camera’s, and reliable controls, which is why the Russian equivalent the Orlan costs about 80,000. The American equivalent would be the Puma, which has a price tag of roughly 250,000. The one used here is obviously cheaper than both. But looks like it was modified out of necessity, not out of practicality.
These are file photos from December and earlier so don’t expect them to be the same ones as and they were not near Lattakia airbase KHeimmim, some people can be really stupid just watch out for Graeme he tried to dispute a known military fact about air refueling and relied on data from the early 90’s to support his theory.
I know you’re trying to save face because you pulled some shit out of your ass and now want to salvage as much pride as you can. Yes, you were wrong. But it doesn’t fucking matter what I think, and if you’re here getting mad you’re only hurting yourself.. Go on with your day, and forget it.
I was right and you are wrong but it is stupid to talk about equipment the US is phasing out due to it’s vulnerability to hacks as the viruses still infest the reaper drones and the predator being too easy to hack. You can get mad but my argument is this why do you gloat about equipment that is being phased out due to it’s vulnerabilities and praising them as great pieces of US military electronics and technology?
what part of “”The Iranians captured the predator with their own radio controls and hacking the US controls and flew it back to Iran to reverse engineer it which has been in mass production since in all three countries now”
Were you right about monkey? what part? HAHAHAHA. Wallowing in your ignorance is fucking funny.
They are in production in also both the Russia and Syria what a clown you are , since you are getting mad Mike calm down guy take a chill pill.
Lol. Proof? Anywhere? No? Didn’t think so. Also still factually wrong.
Why do you keep denying the truth and facts as you know these are all verifiable on the internet and through news medias. The one who is looking more ridiculous is you since you can’t show irrefutable proof otherwise than your denial which means it is the truth.
Like I told you before why waste time arguing virus infected electronics that are hacked by $25.95 software , looks to me your angry and you shouldn’t be you didn’t program and build these obsolete junk.
You hahe no proof. Where is it? Where is your partisan Proof? You were factually wrong and have no credentials. You’re already bias. You were wrong. They don’t have a predator or reaper.
Seems the sort of plane that high school kids can build from a small kit or even without as long as they have a small lightweight motor.
Controlling it from a sufficient distance so as not to be shot is indeed the major problem.
i’ve seen some android driven drones, and they can reach substantial distances. Of course if the drone is detected, the controllers have to retreat quickly. These devices are anyway still exploiting a sort of “tactical void” in most armies, where defence from them is still away from being designed and deployed at the lowest level, which is where these things strike.
The cost of hardening basically every single infantry team or squad from them could also be high, if such measures aren’t carefully thought out. At this point the most cost-effective measure could be to give the existing ELINT assets deployed on the field the ability to track and jam guidance signal to the drones, although there is the need of quick ways to get the drone data down to their possible targets so that they can take defensive action in time. In a likely future, those same targets could be given means to quickly locate and jam the drones, although as stated, it could be very costly.
Given that drones can be bought for upwards of €500, equipping them with a cam and some bombs maybe doubling that amount, maybe a bit extra for a protected controller, these can be highly effective against small infantry squads, even more so on patrol, out in the fields. Defense against this will become very expensive indeed, if indeed possible.
“Defense against this will become very expensive indeed, if indeed possible”
As I said above, it becomes more costly with distance from HQs with electronic equipment . Commercial drones utilize wi-fi kinds of radio that can be jammed and taken over with no particular effort. They could even be “hacked” and used against their drivers, whose position would be known as they’d be emitting radio commands.
Keep in mind that these terrorists can only access commercial equipment, and in these cases they assembled some rickety model from available parts
Don’t get to over excited as these are file photos from Lattakia nearer Tarsus I believe and not Kheimmim Airbase in December.These photos popped up recently so it is easy to see why they were used.
Sounds like S-400 can’t detect this drones while SAA can down them with riffles
Drones fly too low so missiles cannot react in time and are way to expensive to be used against a drone of between € 500 to € 1.500. On the other hand, rifles or a machine gun can get them, sometimes.
What a retarded comment!
Well its a true comment none the less and yours is just stupid since all it takes to control these reapers and predators are matching frequencies and hacking the connection where is the difficulty in that?
Expected that by now the Russian and Syrian Air Forces would have armed UAV’s on patrol , 24/7 . You would think they would be cost efficient .
A UAV that can remain airborne a long time and is armed, like the raptor, costs millions.
Raptor? do you mean the Predator or the Reaper UAV? those things are the size of cars, and are completely above the capabilities of the Syrian Airforce. If I recall the Iraqi airforce during the Saddam days had to intercept them with fighter planes. Also the UAV’s Russia have are purely surveillance with the exception of one that is still in prototype stages
The Iranians captured the predator with radio controls and flew it back to Iran to reverse engineer it which has been in mass production since in all three countries now. So what nonsense are you trying to feed everyone.
Drooling retard. Iran took a Sentinel. Not the predator or reaper. The sentinel is a surveillance craft. And then Obamas asked for it back. even then irans bitch ass couldn’t build an exact copy. Educate yourself monkey. If it were a predator the US would have struck the predator with a missile
Hey educate yourself that wasn’t the only one they took , you really are the prize idiot. They don’t build things that would be a breach of the JCPOA you must be a complete idiot but the Russians can have it that way. The real monkey that’s you is dumber than a US cockroach or the same mentality which is it?
I’m right, you’re wrong monkey. They never took the predator or the reaper or anything that had weapons capability. Which your drooling neanderthal ass said they mass produced. “The Iranians captured the predator with their own radio controls and hacking the US controls and flew it back to Iran to reverse engineer it which has been in mass production since in all three countries now” Which is an outright stupidity that you pulled out of your ass using all the power of your 2 brain cells. I”m right. You’re wrong, monkey. You were owned. Deal with it.
Prove me wrong monkey. PROVE ME WRONG.
Keep living under the stupidity of the US umbrella it’s supposed to shield you from the outside world truths as they sent a captured on from the Turks and sent it to Russia as a present.
2012 top secret drone captured not a sentinel model,they have had everything from Scan eagles which were alleged to be lost at sea along with other drones. The list can go on and on Monkroach man!!!
LOL, so I’m right and you’re wrong and you don’t have proof because you pulled it out of your retarded inbred ass. HAHAHA. Love putting the monkey’s like you in their place. Know it by now, Neanderthal. Where is the predator copy monkey? where is it? HAHAHAHA
The predator and reaper drones are all hacked why do you think it’s easy to traack them, they have Key logger virus on the Reapers which records all keystrokes. US is phasing much of the drone fleet out anyways and what use is of hacked equipment that can be controlled by any party at any time.
The RQ 170 , was the US designation , the Iranians renamed it the “Lightning Bolt” . Was this the “Predator” or , the “Reaper” . In the photos I saw it carried four missiles . After reverse engineering , I would think they replaced the control system .
Seems as if the US were the only ones not to do so, the R170 RS I believe was the designation. The Reaper fleet in October 2017 was dealing with a virus called “Keystroke” the technicians can’t rid of it, seems its within OS as a backdoor. The virus allows access to the last known user and all the keystrokes logged and can be mastered from the user at any given time,it basically shadows them.
So HTS made a damage in Russian Air Base and they think they can hit all the time.Hunt them down and kill them they are close, and how are the penetrating Syrian defense from so far.
Obviously it’s entirely subjective to where these things are flying. Not Pro-Assad areas have Russian jamming equipment.