If Russia was stupid enough to attack Lithuania (or other baltic state) like people think might happen, if they have not prepared properly (as of today, they are not), they could overwhelm the air defences and take out more strategic value than the $500 million cost.

Edit: The only thing preventing that right now is the ongoing war in Ukraine, but if that ended, they could stockpile.

Edit: According to official Ukrainian data[1], the total number of Shahed-type UAVs launched by Russia in 2025 amounted to 54,538, including approximately 32,200 Shahed-type strike UAVs. https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/a-comprehensive-analytical-review-of-russian-shahed-type-uavs-deployment-against-ukraine-in-2025

Edit: Also I gotta go, won’t be around for awhile to continue this if it’s even worth continuing.

Hitting a well defended, mobile Ukrainian military force?

What on earth makes you keep thinking I’m talking about Ukraine? That’s twice now you’ve done this.

I’m talking about how unprepared others are for this, and you’re acting like we’re prepared for this, while we have an active war going on where we are not prepared for drone warfare and they are asking Ukraine for help because of it.

Not all military targets are well defended bases either, but even Iran has hit US and partner military bases with drones.

Evidence of what? That a Shahed is capable of hitting a military target instead of a apartment complex?

Of course it can, you’d have to be an idiot to think that’s not possible, but the military complex is better defended so it’s more likely to get shot down, using EXPENSIVE missiles because people aren’t taking action on what is happening in Ukraine and building drones to fight these things.

You think you can’t over saturate the air defences? Of course that’s possible, you just need enough drones to do it.

They’re already struggling in the middle east to deal with what Iran is sending because they are unprepared, and they are asking Ukraine for help.

They’ve used almost 1000 patriot missiles in the Iran war already, that’s almost 4 BILLION dollars lost, and you think they could effectively defend against 10x this 1 attack that Russia sent, and that spending 500 million to destroy more than 4 billion (it would be way more) is a waste?

Edit: And like WTF. UKRAINE is using drones to hit military targets and seriously hurting Russia, like dude, it’s possible. If Russia wasn’t fighting Ukraine they could stock pile 10k drones so easily.

I disagree. If Russia wasn’t a dumbfuck and targeted military assets of another neighbouring nation they could without a doubt saturate their air defences and take out very strategic targets which would make the following ground invasion easier.

The point is OTHER NATIONS are not prepared for it.

Russia saturating OTHER NATIONS air defences this way would be catastrophic if done properly.

Only Ukraine is in a position to defend against it properly and come out the winner in $ terms.

Meanwhile Russia sends more than that against Ukraine in the year, they sent almost 1/10th of that in ONE day and you’re thinking it’s a waste?

The point is to saturate air defences and take out military targets. Russia is being stupid with their drones and often going after Civilian targets, but clearly sending 948 didn’t do much damage because Ukraine had enough air defence.

If you saturate it, more drones get through and more damage happens.

So instead of this attacks $47 million and only 2.1 million doing damage, you could get a much higher bang for your buck from the initial assault. That initial assault would also weaken the enemy so the remaining attack would be more efficient.

Edit: I mean, look at the US and partners… they spent billion(s?) in a couple days being unprepared for drones.

And this is Russia and Ukraine in an active war both actively building and attacking/defending, where if one pauses an attack, the other can build up supply for defence.

Now, imagine a surprise attack. Russia could field 10,000 or more of these in a single day against a country not prepared for it. What is anyone going to do against that if they haven’t actively been preparing for it right now.

That feels like a higher % shot down than usual? Thats a 95.5% success rate which is wild.

This module enables the transition from a one-to-one sensor-to-shooter model to a networked configuration in which any sensor can provide targeting data to any available effector, optimizing engagement based on position, timing, and capability.

This sounds similar to what Ukraine has been doing to coordinate their artillery fire allowing them to be more specific in their hits than Russia’s more widespread barrages that use more ammo.

Fuck ya. Glad they can keep taking these out.

Hey Ivan, did you hear they hit our repair shop last night?

Ivan: damnit, how am I supposed to scam them out of repair funds now and wtf am I going to do with my last order of duct tape and elastic bands???

I feel like there’s a joke in there that hitting a repair spot is useless because they cant repair their shit anyway.

Hearing all those secondary explosions was pretty cool.

I like your dam analogy, I think its one of the better ones ive seen on this topic.

This kinda thing worries me a little if the tides of battle change and Russia can get access do it.

I hope they have a way to quickly take it down.

I thought God was Alanis Morissette?

And russia may not even possess the tech required to replace them at this point.

Even more likely after they blew up Russia’s 2nd largest microchip facility last week or whenever it was.

Oh man, I’ve been reading about this for days now, seeing satellite pictures / aftermath stuff, but I didn’t realize we had actual live footage of the direct hits on the target. This was great!

It’s great watching this in real time.

More and more strikes are hitting air defence targets making it harder to defend against meaning more strikes succeeding.

Happening during a shift change, would that mean more people were hit thus getting rid if more expertise, or the hit area would be more empty so fewer casualties?

Both are valid options, but not sure the likely outcome.