I know Patriot missiles are relevant to traditional airframes… But aren’t they completely irrelevant when it comes to drones? I’m pretty sure each missile costs at least 1000x the price of what it’s most likely to be aimed at.
Edit: at four million a missile it’s closer to 10000 or 100000x
These aren’t for the small disposable drones. They’re for other missles and large aircraft. For the missles in particular, you should also factor in the potential cost of the damage they’ll cause if not intercepted.
I think they’re referring to the cheap drones that Ukraine and Russia have been using. They’re very simple and can’t carry much of a payload, but they’re incredibly inexpensive and easy to produce.
Even the cheap wedding drones that were converted at the start by Ukraine were in the $400 range. Now the cheapest quadcopters they’re using are $1000 on the low end, with the ones Russia is using have a low end $35,000 price tag.
Still ridiculously cost effective compared to a Patriot Missile.
The Ukrainians and houthis are having successful attacks with consumer drones that have hand grenades or ieds taped to them. You don’t need a “military grade” drone to fly an explosive where it shouldn’t be
I know Patriot missiles are relevant to traditional airframes… But aren’t they completely irrelevant when it comes to drones? I’m pretty sure each missile costs at least 1000x the price of what it’s most likely to be aimed at.
Edit: at four million a missile it’s closer to 10000 or 100000x
Patriots are part of a layered air defense system that focuses on more valuable targets, whereas smaller air defense systems and units intercept UAVs.
Example
These aren’t for the small disposable drones. They’re for other missles and large aircraft. For the missles in particular, you should also factor in the potential cost of the damage they’ll cause if not intercepted.
4 000 000 a missile, 100 000x times more expensive than a military drone? what military drone costs $40?
I don’t know what models are in use today, but a Bayraktar TB2 costs 4 million.
I think they’re referring to the cheap drones that Ukraine and Russia have been using. They’re very simple and can’t carry much of a payload, but they’re incredibly inexpensive and easy to produce.
Even the cheap wedding drones that were converted at the start by Ukraine were in the $400 range. Now the cheapest quadcopters they’re using are $1000 on the low end, with the ones Russia is using have a low end $35,000 price tag. Still ridiculously cost effective compared to a Patriot Missile.
Yeah but the use case of patriot missiles is not shooting down rc quadcopters so this whole line of argumentation is just kinda useless
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/19/missile-drone-pentagon-houthi-attacks-iran-00132480?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d
It’s already happening in the world.
The Ukrainians and houthis are having successful attacks with consumer drones that have hand grenades or ieds taped to them. You don’t need a “military grade” drone to fly an explosive where it shouldn’t be
Both Russia and Ukraine are heavily reliant on consumer drones from the likes of DJI. Those run in the 1000-4000 dollar range.