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A $13 Million Military Drone Was Lost in the Mediterranean Sea Because the Propeller Fell Off

Bum

I survived. Suck it, Schrodinger.
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An MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed late last year into the Mediterranean Sea because it lost a propeller, ultimately destroying the entire unmanned aircraft, according to a newly released incident report.
The new details, released late last month by Air Combat Command, revealed some of the circumstances that caused the multimillion-dollar aircraft to be destroyed but still left unanswered questions as the drone was unrecoverable in the sea.

A $13 Million Military Drone Was Lost in the Mediterranean Sea Because the Propeller Fell Off

The new details, released late last month by Air Combat Command, revealed some of the circumstances that caused the multimillion-dollar aircraft to be destroyed but still left unanswered questions as the drone was unrecoverable in the sea.
www.military.com
From the article...
"Accident Investigation Board President Col. Rick Schuessler described the mishap as being due to "a failure within the Splined Coupling Assembly" that "led to a sudden and permanent mechanical decoupling of the propeller from the engine, resulting in an unrecoverable loss of thrust," the news release added."

Another fine ACME product serviced by Wile E Coyote contracting?
 

A $13 Million Military Drone Was Lost in the Mediterranean Sea Because the Propeller Fell Off.​

$13 Million? Chump Change. No pilot or crew lost. No biggie.
 
Chock Full o Nuts said:
I gotta laugh at the inclusion of the 'permanent' part of the statement. Yeah, these things usually don't fix themselves on the fly when parts fall off.

Maybe next time?...
View attachment 67584531
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I wonder how many here know what that is.

Sorta like Elon’s “rapid, unscheduled disassembly.”
 
Ukraine manufactures FPV drones for a fraction of that cost and they work just fine.
 
Reactions: Bum
Rogue Valley said:
Ukraine manufactures FPV drones for a fraction of that cost and they work just fine.
Click to expand...
And have a fraction of the capability

And if you think they don’t have mechanical failures you are living in a fantasy world.
 
Rogue Valley said:
Ukraine manufactures FPV drones for a fraction of that cost and they work just fine.
Click to expand...

You're comparing a garden tractor with a John Deere 9550 series, sorry....or comparing a 32 HP 1950's Beetle to a 600 HP Porsche, or a 225 Slant Six Dodge Dart to a 840 HP supercharged Hemi-equipped Dodge Demon 170.
The Reaper is "almost" large enough that it could possibly support a human pilot.
Note I said "almost" but the truth is, there are hobbyist micro-planes that are human piloted which ARE smaller.
 
braindrain said:
And have a fraction of the capability

And if you think they don’t have mechanical failures you are living in a fantasy world.
Click to expand...
“Quantity is a quality of its own.”
 

Ask the Russians about Ukraine's drones.

They perform as intended, are very deadly, and at a fraction of the cost of our Predators/Global Hawks.

Pentagon backs Ukraine-style push for small drone adoption

The US Department of Defense is launching an initiative to expand domestic drone production and equip frontline units with low-cost combat drones.
www.aerotime.aero

In a 1st, US to test Ukraine’s long-range drones for low-cost military UAVs

The US Department of Defense is testing long-range drones developed in partnership with Ukrainian manufacturers under the Artemis project.
interestingengineering.com
 

I'm not knocking Ukraine's drones or their performance, they are entirely different tools.
Their range is different, payloads are different, the conditions under which they operate is different.
I am saying we're discussing two dissimilar things.

We certainly can and even should adapt and adopt smaller, cheaper drones, but that does not automatically cancel out the use of kit like the Reaper.
 
That you can’t seem to grasp the fact that different tools are required for different jobs is simply kind of funny.

The cheap drones Ukraine is building cant do what predators or especially what a global hawk can do. That doesn’t mean they are not very good at what they are doing. Because they are.

I get you are rather upset that your little narrative is failing here but really you are just embarrassing yourself. Trying to compare the cheap drones that Ukraine is building to a global hawk is simply idiotic.

But please. Tell me what cheap drone is Ukraine making that has its own radar and can carry 3000lbs or remain in the air for over 24 hours.
 
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Rogue Valley said:
Ukraine manufactures FPV drones for a fraction of that cost and they work just fine.
Click to expand...
You do realize that the MQ-9 Reaper is several orders of magnitude more capable than a one way attack drone?
 
Rogue Valley said:
Ukraine manufactures FPV drones for a fraction of that cost and they work just fine.
Click to expand...

Entirely different capability and design. The US has FPV drones too.

A Predator is more similar to Ukraine’s Turkish-built Bayraktar TB2’s.
 
Navy has been run ragged for years
1st thing cut are training hrs
2nd is maintenance
 
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