PhilipTheBucket

Operators of the 424th Svarog Battalion of the Unmanned Systems Forces have destroyed an experimental Russian KOP-2 electronic warfare (EW) system on one of the fronts [KOP stands for "Detection and Suppression Complex" in Russian – ed.].

Source: 424th Svarog Battalion

Details: Ukrainian troops stated that this rare and expensive EW system was Russia’s attempt to counter Ukrainian drones.

The KOP-2 scans the radio spectrum across a wide frequency range, detects the channels used by UAVs and attempts to jam them with powerful interference. It is typically deployed to protect high-value military assets, particularly air defence systems.

However, under real combat conditions, the system failed to withstand attacks from Ukrainian drones. The first strike damaged the equipment and the second one destroyed the Russian system completely.

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Fark's title was "Women are smarter than men, and it's hurting their employment prospects"

Okay so here's what happened.

There is a mod of some AI-generated image forums who has been slinging out bans for "anti-AI trolling" to people who have never participated in their community, apparently more or less at random. Full disclosure, I am one of those people, and I'm confident I have never done any anti-AI trolling.

Apparently the justification for this is that other people are being aggressively hateful to this mod, coming in and being incredibly abusive, transphobic, insulting her for alleged alcoholism and making fake pictures of her and generally just being horrible. Conveniently, one of these people showed up in the thread where we were talking about it, on cue, and started slinging around horribleness which provided a convenient cover for people to say "And THAT's why we have to be really strict with the bans!" type of things. We never really got to the bottom of what the connection was between that and the random bans to other people who were longstanding accounts that didn't seem to be doing any of those things.

Anyway, now another abusive alt of the (now obviously bannned) abusive alt that originally stirred up trouble has made a pitch-perfect effort to inflame divisions and create a balkanization between the "pro AI" people, centered around dbzer0 and blahaj, and "anti AI" people, centered around everywhere else.

This is two identical posts, made to two separate communities which are guaranteed to have totally opposite takes on it based on their different levels of information about the issue, which will then lead everyone to assume that the other community is just being horrible about it on purpose when they draw different conclusions:

(Edit: The troll has now been banned, so I can't link to their posts anymore. Just imagine this post, except made by one of the trolls who are featured in the comments of that post, you can dig in the modlog or in spoiler text of some other comments to see some of what they were saying. Anyway, the troll posted the exact same complaint about being "unfairly" banned both to lemmy.world, where they got tons of sympathy and upvotes, and to dbzer0, where people who were aware of what they were up to gave them derision and downvotes.)

Like I said, if the goal is to create division and heated argument between two opposing "camps," this is pretty much as perfect as you can get it. I expect it to work, at least to a certain amount, to get people embittered towards one another and arguing about the issue impassioned that the other side is wrong and stupid.

I can't find the link right now, but there was someone on reddit who claimed that they used to do this professionally (trying to disrupt online communities so that organized shilling could succeed better there, because the previous coherence that they had had had been replaced by confusion and bickering, and then they could insert bullshit without it being pushed back on as strongly.) It's fascinating. What they described isn't exactly like this, but it definitely sort of rings similar to me. Just to throw that out there.

Also, UniversalMonk is involved, because of course he is.

Edit: Fun with grammar

A twin-engine variant of a drone capable of carrying a payload of over 12 kilograms, produced by the company "Darts," is now being provided to Ukraine's army in small quantities, a company representative told media at a drone demonstration event on July 18.

The "Darts" turbo-engine strike drone is capable of traveling over 40 kilometers (25 miles) and carries a payload of 12-14 kilograms as opposed to the company's pre-existing single engine drone which can handle a maximum of 8 kilograms.

Ukraine relies on drones to meet its defense needs, as materiel supplies fall short of providing necessary weapons and air defense amid Russia's war. Kyiv has employed drone and robotic technologies on the battlefield in an effort to minimize troop losses and adapt to evolving threats.

"In general, this is one of the most massive aircraft currently on the front. Today we are presenting its twin-engine version. That is, currently its single-engine version is being delivered to the troops, and now we are already starting to deliver the twin-engine version in small series," a representative from "Darts" told media.

Drone warfare has defined Russia's war against Ukraine, with both sides increasingly relying on unmanned systems for reconnaissance and strikes on the battlefield.

Ukrainian drones reportedly targeted Moscow on June 19, as the Russian capital encountered drones for the third night in a row.

Ukraine has significantly increased its own drone production. In June, Ex-Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Ukrainian companies have the capacity to manufacture up to 4 million drones annually.

Meanwhile, the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) were responsible for every third Russian target hit in June, Commander in Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on July 9.

"Thus, in June, every third enemy target — out of all those hit by the Defense Forces of Ukraine — was on the account of the USF," he said.

Ukraine for the first time captured Russian troops without the use of infantry, relying solely on drones and ground-based robotic systems, the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade said on July 9.

"For the first time in history: Russian soldiers surrendered to the 3rd Assault Brigade's ground drones," the brigade's statement said.

As Ukraine fights back with its drones, Russia continues to bombard Ukrainian cities with its own drone and missile attacks.

Russian attacks killed at least seven people and injured another 25 in Ukraine, regional authorities reported early on July 18.

At least one was killed and three injured in a Russian drone attack on Odesa overnight on July 19.

Russia has in recent weeks stepped up attacks on Ukrainian draft offices to disrupt mobilization, launching five strikes on enlistment offices in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Poltava, Kremenchuk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia.

Read also: With Trump-Zelensky ‘mega-deal,’ Ukraine’s drone makers hope to flood the US