Universities promise no frontline duty and perks if students enlist in military.
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Russia pressures university students to become wartime drone pilots
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Even if they don't end up in the cannon fodder assault units but a cosy bunker, they're going to be a priority target for Ukraine - drone operators are this war's equivalent of WW1 snipers; if their location is detected they merit as much firepower as is available, up to and including rocket-boosted glide bombs.
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![:\](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/civis/data/assets/smilies/slash-1x.png "Slash :\")
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"Drone operator" can mean a lot of things. We here in America picture Air Force personnel in endless air-conditioned portables packed with monitors, where they can go home at night to have a meal and sleep. For a Russian soldier, "Drone operator" probably means "Guy thrown directly into the meat grinder with no food, water, ammo or other logistical support, but unlike the conscripts around him he has a handheld drone."
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I'm sure this recruitment promise won't be a con; unlike basically all the previous ones.
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As an FPV veteran that started out with grainy analog video on self made quadcopters, I would probably become a 21st century Red Baron. Mais je ne voudrai eter un putain de putin.
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This is ridiculous, what the hell is this total nightmare even about, ultimately? The era of one or two complete random sociopath morons (for example putin+trmp), determining the fate of billions of others, must come to an end. Even though most might agree with that basic concept, nobody's willing to do what it takes.
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Don’t tell the students that they wouldd be drone pilots. Tell them that they’ll be competing in a video game tournament.
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I'm afraid that when it comes to recruiting, egregious lying is the norm for ALL recruiters. If not by commission, then by omission. They will tell you anything, and pressure you to get into the specialties they need warm bodies in, regardless of the hazards.Gamers fighting robots. I've heard of life imitating art, but this is not what I would have had in mind.
I believe we have seen several times how much promises such as this are worth in the Russian military.
As an anecdotal example, my scores on the Navy admissions tests gave me the option of anything in they had. But they pushed VERY HARD toward cryptography. I made some inquiries and discovered that the major Navy cryptography centers at the time were in Germany, listening to Soviet Navy comm traffic and decoding that. There was a platoon of Marines stationed with them, too.
Not to defend the cryptographers. But to kill all of them and destroy the facility if the Soviets invaded in strength to keep the Soviets from getting any intelligence on our spying methods.
I became a Corpsman instead. Kind of a lateral move, given the life expectancy of a Corpsman in the field in combat (like 10 seconds in first engagement), but my other choice - sniper - was a SEAL thing, and I didn't really want to do that, either, since their life expectancy was shorter.
It was a different world 50 years ago. But TBH, it was a lot less complicated.
But I'm fairly well connected to the adjacent groups with a lot of military members, and I've yet to run across anyone whose recruiter didn't lie in some way to them. Anecdotal all, yes, but the pressures to meet the recruitment targets are huge, and apparently, it doesn't matter to them if they get you in happy or pissed.
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I got a score that the Marine Corps recruiter had never seen before on the ASVAB, qualified for anything. Based on necessity he said I'd make a decent chopper pilot (too tall and nearsighted for fixed wing). Tempting in its own way, to be sure, but I ended up politely declining.
I would love to know how to fly a helicopter right now, but I'm not sure I would have done well and/or survived. That's just the job that needed filling at the moment.
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Yeah, operating a multimillion-dollar flying weapons platform over satellite is rather different than hoping there's not an FPV following your buddy back to the bombed-out-shell you're hiding in hoping you're about to find the other FPV operator first. Oops, you're flying wireless and the drone was too cheap to auto-recover after a directional 5.8 GHz jammer caught it!
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Do the Russians have a propaganda first person shooter like America's Army? If not, maybe they should make a drone game and 'recruit' the people who do well. I shouldn't give them ideas.
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Want to see what actually happens to Russian drone operators?
Battlefield video from Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces
(I recommend the Turrit Telegram client: it auto-translates into English)
Battlefield video from Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces
(I recommend the Turrit Telegram client: it auto-translates into English)
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There's definite differences. US drone operators often aren't even in portables. They can fly them from an office building in Colorado thanks to the satellite resources. Good luck to the other military getting at the pilot when they're literally on the other side of the planet.
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But all oligarachs continue to be allowed to vacation in the west, buy properties in the U.S. and Europe, and they continue to send their kids to European and American schools.
This makes zero sense, why not just drop the act and just get along with the west. They look absolutely stupid saying they hate the west but doing the opposite when it comes to education, vacations and property buying.
Sigh….
This makes zero sense, why not just drop the act and just get along with the west. They look absolutely stupid saying they hate the west but doing the opposite when it comes to education, vacations and property buying.
Sigh….
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Off topic, but is high scoring for the ASVAB still up in the low 100s? I took it back in 1980. Got a 103, which was considered outstanding at the time.
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An airforce recruiter asked one of my friends if he'd rather die of cancer when he told them he wasn't interested in killing people and/or dying in the process. Fuck them all and the university admins who allow their death stalls on campus.
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That's an especially odd retort given the sheer number of cases where military bases have serious "PFAS in the groundwater" problems because of heavy use of aqueous film forming foams for firefighting.
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Attachments
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ReadandShare
Ars Centurion
For reasons both similar and different, it's pretty embarrassing to be american these days too. America, China and Russia. What a world!
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Sign up to be an anti-drone warfare specialist. Here's your box of throwing rocks and a graphite Chernobyl hand warmer.
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To be fair, horses were used extensively even in WW2, especially for transport. Fully mechanised warfare was often just the tip of the spear. And the Red Army did have some notable successes with mounted cavalry units when forcing Nazi defensive positions (see e.g. the Korsun pocket).
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Up to $70,000: Who gets $69,999 and who gets $1? When is the payoff? Is it like Christianity - a promise to pay out after death?
Tax holiday: Where will the tax be taking this holiday? When it returns do my heirs have to pay it?
Free land: Is this land in Ukraine?
Drone operator: Someone who carries the drone to the front line and switches it on. Do I have to hang around for the drone to return and plug it into a charger?
Loan forgiveness: How much can I borrow and how long do I have to spend it? What was that? The money has already been spent on shot, powder and a musket. I have to collect my purchase from the corpse of the last person who took out a similar loan.
Tax holiday: Where will the tax be taking this holiday? When it returns do my heirs have to pay it?
Free land: Is this land in Ukraine?
Drone operator: Someone who carries the drone to the front line and switches it on. Do I have to hang around for the drone to return and plug it into a charger?
Loan forgiveness: How much can I borrow and how long do I have to spend it? What was that? The money has already been spent on shot, powder and a musket. I have to collect my purchase from the corpse of the last person who took out a similar loan.
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If that's not an actual Russian proverb it should be..
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The sad thing is that even if Russia "wins" all they will gain is a depopulated ruined area riddled with mines, booby traps and unexploded ordnance. And to top it off all under constant threat of Ukrainian missiles/drone/artillery strikes.
There will be no Wirtschafstwunder.
There will be no Wirtschafstwunder.
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I haven't found a lie mine told.
I got my nuclear schooling, got to be on a aircraft carrier, visited a dozen different countries (going ashore, several more I don't count that we operated off the coast of and I got to see with my eyes), my under graduate degree paid for completely (and thanks to G.I Bill improvements my certificate and most of a masters too that wasn't promissed), friends I'm still in touch with to this day, and all the vaccinations everyone could come up with.
It may have been helped that I came in having talked to several family member veterans and volunteered with WWII veterans at EAA. I came in and told them my plans and that they could either get me them or I was walking back out.
But one thing I can say is they didn't lie and thanks to checking into things myself I can't say they left anything out. I also spent nearly 6 months waiting for my bootcamp slot and actually did all of my workbook and online classes.
Not everyone's experience I know well enough, but it does happen and as far as I know has happened for each of my niblings/cousins/friends kids who have joined with the prep help I've given them.
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Différent type of drone. Those are big aircraft that cost millions and fly high up, mostly recon and maybe a bit of bomb truck duty.
When we’re talking tens of thousands, and now even a hundred thousand strong armies of drone operators, the operators are basically guidance systems in guided munitions. They need low latency to fly in to moving targets, even individual enemy soldiers.
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The FPV operators on both sides hide out in safe houses a bit behind the front ("safe" does a lot of work there). The meat wave guys don’t have drones; they barely even have guns.
It’s not conscripts on the Russian side (mostly). It’s very generous signing terms compared to absolutely dismal economic conditions. The state is running out of money though and so they’re having trouble recruiting. Conscription seems imminent.
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