[Goose]

It's such a great capability for Ukraine. Relatively cheap, no pilot at risk. Azerbaijan did a number on Armenian armor with them, and now that Ukraine seems to have degraded or scared away Russian air defense they will be very useful in an close air support role for the Kherson offensive as well.

Lets not get carried away. Russia's (and the US to a lesser extent) air defense never had the ability to prevent these drones from operating. It does have the ability to kill them with some significant probability. That is why Ukraine has used them skillfully, not ubiquitously. By now, Ukraine knows which areas are permissive and which are not. These drones are not "anytime, anywhere" weapons. They are absolutely not CAS weapons. They are far too slow and carry far too little ordinance to do that. They are useful weapons to be sure, but destroying two tanks, flying (slowly) home to re-arm, flying back and repeat is not something that is a serious threat. They also have to operate where they cannot be optically "seen". If you can see them, eventually a "golden BB" will kill them. Their unmanned nature gives them pretty slow "reflexes". They either need to operate at night or above about 10K feet to be "safe" from ground fire.

And they make such awesome videos!

Indeed they do! These drones are like snipers. They are hard to see and are unpredictable in their attacks. They can be relatively far behind Russian lines where it should be "safe" for the Russians but isn't. They are also long range enough that they can use a safe "corridor" to get inside defended zones and then transit safely to target areas. The Russians will probably never know how they got there undetected. Takes skill and planning but it is possible. Much of the transit can be outside of the active control range of the ground station using "fly to" points. Even more confusing.

[Goose]

It's such a great capability for Ukraine. Relatively cheap, no pilot at risk. Azerbaijan did a number on Armenian armor with them, and now that Ukraine seems to have degraded or scared away Russian air defense they will be very useful in an close air support role for the Kherson offensive as well.

Lets not get carried away. Russia's (and the US to a lesser extent) air defense never had the ability to prevent these drones from operating. It does have the ability to kill them with some significant probability. That is why Ukraine has used them skillfully, not ubiquitously. By now, Ukraine knows which areas are permissive and which are not. These drones are not "anytime, anywhere" weapons. They are absolutely not CAS weapons. They are far too slow and carry far too little ordinance to do that. They are useful weapons to be sure, but destroying two tanks, flying (slowly) home to re-arm, flying back and repeat is not something that is a serious threat. They also have to operate where they cannot be optically "seen". If you can see them, eventually a "golden BB" will kill them. Their unmanned nature gives them pretty slow "reflexes". They either need to operate at night or above about 10K feet to be "safe" from ground fire.

And they make such awesome videos!

Indeed they do! These drones are like snipers. They are hard to see and are unpredictable in their attacks. They can be relatively far behind Russian lines where it should be "safe" for the Russians but isn't. They are also long range enough that they can use a safe "corridor" to get inside defended zones and then transit safely to target areas. The Russians will probably never know how they got there undetected. Takes skill and planning but it is possible. Much of the transit can be outside of the active control range of the ground station using "fly to" points. Even more confusing.