Comment by jonah
6 hours ago
That was true at the beginning of the recent conflict, but now there is an extensive domestic drone design and production.
Yes, a lot - but not all - are fly by wire. (And actually literally wire, or rather fiber optic cable to avoid RF jamming.)
Oh yes for sure - but most of the domestic production is still "plugging drone bits from China together".
I think they're definitely working on more autonomy etc but I think it kind of proves that even the current ones are actually pretty effective. A well designed drone with AI/autonomous capabilities is terrifying. People could point to switch-blade but the cost per unit for the functionality you get is just absolutely insane.
> "plugging drone bits from China together".
China has more or less stopped selling those bits to Ukraine
Reference?
And is China restricting sales of drone motors to the US? As part of the rare earth trade embargoes?