Simon Shuster: “Last month, on my way home from Kyiv, I passed through Germany to visit one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers. My hope was to see its response to the rise of drone warfare. The company, Rheinmetall, is best known for making artillery and tanks; the Ukrainians have fought the Russian army to a virtual standstill by learning how to destroy such old-school armaments with cheaply made drones. I thought I would find the leaders of Rheinmetall seized by the threat of this revolution in military technology. I found no such thing.
“When I brought up the drones that Ukraine has used so effectively against Russian tanks, the company’s chairman and CEO, Armin Papperger, was withering in his dismissal. ‘This is how to play with Legos,’ he told me …
“Ukraine’s drones are assembled mostly from imported parts, including rotors, motors, cameras, and computer chips. Most of these components come from China, where a single company produces more than 80 percent of the world’s small drones. But their cheapness—especially when compared with the elaborate weapons systems produced by companies such as Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall—is precisely what makes them so devastating. For only a few hundred dollars, Ukraine’s drones can do serious damage to a military vehicle worth millions. They have, in effect, done to tanks and cannons what muskets once did to knights in shining armor. What Papperger called Legos have gone a long way to saving an entire country …
“The sale of armored vehicles makes up a significant part of the business at Rheinmetall. In Russia and Ukraine, soldiers have learned to protect their tanks from drone strikes using improvised nets and boxes, which cover the vehicles like a turtle shell. I asked whether Rheinmetall had developed something like that after four years of war in Ukraine. Weisswange glanced around at the machines on either side of us, all of them waiting for repairs, their tracks unchained and gun barrels angled upward. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We don’t have something like that.’
“Well, why not?
“The reasons turned out to be complex. But they help explain why Germany, like Europe and the rest of NATO, is so ill-prepared for not only wars of the future but also the ones raging today. The U.S. war with Iran, now in its fourth week, has again demonstrated the power of cheap drones, which Tehran has produced and stockpiled in abundance …
“Ukraine now makes more drones than any democracy in the world, and wealthy nations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are lining up to buy them. But when I asked the CEO of Rheinmetall what that could mean for his business model, he bristled. ‘Who is the biggest drone producer in Ukraine?’ Papperger demanded. I listed the ones that I had visited in Kyiv two weeks earlier, Fire Point and Skyfall, which make hundreds of thousands of drones a month for the Ukrainian armed forces. ‘It’s Ukrainian housewives,’ Papperger said of their factories. ‘They have 3-D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,’ he said. ‘This is not innovation.’”
I’m assuming it’s written with a bit of drama but I can well imagine these people don’t want to innovate or change anything, just keep cashing in on current contracts…
All Europe should be maxing drone development, both in terms of drone defence and offensive systems…
It’s sad how slow our systems are.
slinky3k on
Wrong person to ask. His business is to build large and expensive war machines. Of course he’s dismissive of the idea that the battlefield has changed. Ukraine shows the future of warfare and some of his merchandise is demonstrably quite useless in that future.
Or, in short: „It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.“ Upton Sinclair
big-papito on
Eh. Effective laser anti-drone measures will be embedded with every unit. Ukraine is already testing its own. It’s only a matter of time before the world adjusts and then we go back to where we were. Prove me wrong.
RECCE_HIPPO on
You can’t terrorize your own population as well with drones
GladVeterinarian5120 on
Russia ignored the lessons of Armenia v Azerbaijan; now NATO ignores the lessons of Russia v Ukraine; and we see Israel, USA, and all the Arab states ignored the lessons as well—even as they faced off against one of the largest combat drone factories in the world. If anyone had cared to think past the end of their noses, the Black Sea should have been adequate warning on Hormuz.
Oh, and release the files. All of them. Unredacted.
I_AMA_LOCKMART_SHILL on
People have been predicting the end of the tank since the tank came about.
These drones don’t represent a fundamentally different threat than antitank guides missiles. They are absolutely worth taking seriously. That doesn’t mean every country needs to immediately shut down armored vehicle factory and distribute production to their populations‘ kitchens.
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Simon Shuster: “Last month, on my way home from Kyiv, I passed through Germany to visit one of the world’s largest weapons manufacturers. My hope was to see its response to the rise of drone warfare. The company, Rheinmetall, is best known for making artillery and tanks; the Ukrainians have fought the Russian army to a virtual standstill by learning how to destroy such old-school armaments with cheaply made drones. I thought I would find the leaders of Rheinmetall seized by the threat of this revolution in military technology. I found no such thing.
“When I brought up the drones that Ukraine has used so effectively against Russian tanks, the company’s chairman and CEO, Armin Papperger, was withering in his dismissal. ‘This is how to play with Legos,’ he told me …
“Ukraine’s drones are assembled mostly from imported parts, including rotors, motors, cameras, and computer chips. Most of these components come from China, where a single company produces more than 80 percent of the world’s small drones. But their cheapness—especially when compared with the elaborate weapons systems produced by companies such as Lockheed Martin and Rheinmetall—is precisely what makes them so devastating. For only a few hundred dollars, Ukraine’s drones can do serious damage to a military vehicle worth millions. They have, in effect, done to tanks and cannons what muskets once did to knights in shining armor. What Papperger called Legos have gone a long way to saving an entire country …
“The sale of armored vehicles makes up a significant part of the business at Rheinmetall. In Russia and Ukraine, soldiers have learned to protect their tanks from drone strikes using improvised nets and boxes, which cover the vehicles like a turtle shell. I asked whether Rheinmetall had developed something like that after four years of war in Ukraine. Weisswange glanced around at the machines on either side of us, all of them waiting for repairs, their tracks unchained and gun barrels angled upward. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We don’t have something like that.’
“Well, why not?
“The reasons turned out to be complex. But they help explain why Germany, like Europe and the rest of NATO, is so ill-prepared for not only wars of the future but also the ones raging today. The U.S. war with Iran, now in its fourth week, has again demonstrated the power of cheap drones, which Tehran has produced and stockpiled in abundance …
“Ukraine now makes more drones than any democracy in the world, and wealthy nations in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East are lining up to buy them. But when I asked the CEO of Rheinmetall what that could mean for his business model, he bristled. ‘Who is the biggest drone producer in Ukraine?’ Papperger demanded. I listed the ones that I had visited in Kyiv two weeks earlier, Fire Point and Skyfall, which make hundreds of thousands of drones a month for the Ukrainian armed forces. ‘It’s Ukrainian housewives,’ Papperger said of their factories. ‘They have 3-D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones,’ he said. ‘This is not innovation.’”
Read more: [https://theatln.tc/xiP9NX7D](https://theatln.tc/xiP9NX7D)
Thanks for posting.
I’m assuming it’s written with a bit of drama but I can well imagine these people don’t want to innovate or change anything, just keep cashing in on current contracts…
All Europe should be maxing drone development, both in terms of drone defence and offensive systems…
It’s sad how slow our systems are.
Wrong person to ask. His business is to build large and expensive war machines. Of course he’s dismissive of the idea that the battlefield has changed. Ukraine shows the future of warfare and some of his merchandise is demonstrably quite useless in that future.
Or, in short: „It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.“ Upton Sinclair
Eh. Effective laser anti-drone measures will be embedded with every unit. Ukraine is already testing its own. It’s only a matter of time before the world adjusts and then we go back to where we were. Prove me wrong.
You can’t terrorize your own population as well with drones
Russia ignored the lessons of Armenia v Azerbaijan; now NATO ignores the lessons of Russia v Ukraine; and we see Israel, USA, and all the Arab states ignored the lessons as well—even as they faced off against one of the largest combat drone factories in the world. If anyone had cared to think past the end of their noses, the Black Sea should have been adequate warning on Hormuz.
Oh, and release the files. All of them. Unredacted.
People have been predicting the end of the tank since the tank came about.
These drones don’t represent a fundamentally different threat than antitank guides missiles. They are absolutely worth taking seriously. That doesn’t mean every country needs to immediately shut down armored vehicle factory and distribute production to their populations‘ kitchens.