The Royal United Services Institute isn't the British Government; It's an explicitly politically independent body set up to provide expert advice to government and armed forces in the UK. It's funded as a registered charity.
I think the switchblade drones are probably useless. They were delivered long ago, so they should've seen action, but there haven't been any mention of successful strikes using them that I've seen.
The switchblade is very effective in scouting (they can scout for 20 minutes or so) and then dive into targets. They won't take out a tank, but are very effective against trucks and transports. The larger units are for tanks and armored transports. I suspect that the ghost drone is probably stealthy. You'd think that drones being slow would be easy to spot and shoot down. But doesn't seem to be the case. They seek infared heat and are deadly at night.
The real test is how effective they are on the battlefield. So far, I haven't found any footage or mention of switchblade being used in action. "Phoenix Ghost" could be more effective due to its longer range and fly time, for reconnaissance if nothing else.
I don't think that we can reliably know when either the switchblades or the ghosts are successful in blowing up targets. That information may well be classified. The government only announced their deployment because of all the criticism coming from Ukraine and the news media about how much effort the government is making to help Ukraine. I'm sure that there are plenty of activities that we don't know about and may never learn about. What we hear tends to be what is announced or intentionally leaked. If and when one of those drones fails to destroy itself and is captured by the Russians, they will probably trumpet it to the world, complete with pictures, just as we have done with captured equipment abandoned and left behind by retreating Russian troops.
Ukrainian "army" blow themselves up on their own mine.
They spot the first mine and even took a selfie with it.
Could not avoid the next one. Mines are their own. The guy is laughing at the fact that other guy is dying.
Same story with sea mines. Early on they put mines around Mariupol. That complicated their evacuation by the sea. Now Azov&Co are stuck there.
Ukrainian tank kills bunch of ukrainian soldiers taking selfies, from no more than 30 meters distance.
The lack of mention doesn't prove they aren't being used--you want to keep tactics secret to the extent you can.
Russian news reported the use of switchblade... against a tank.
Unfortunately, no link to a source again, but that is to be expected with barbos. If someone has the energy and desire to search Russian media, a suitable link can probably be found. Eventually, Russia will capture one of these drones carrying a warhead that fails to detonate, if they haven't already. These drones are cheap and easy to produce, so maybe Russia will develop their own versions. In a sense, this war could be labeled "The Attack of the Drones". Drone warfare has become a major battleground tactic.
Barbos: I'd be curious to hear from you if you think that there is any chance of a compromise between Russia and the west. What do you think it would take for the Russian people to accept Russian troops returning home?
No, the real test is how effective they are hitting supply lines because war is more about the shaft of the spear than the tip.
Seems to be a standard anti-mining exercise that's been planned for a year in advance. These are not unique and similar exercises have been happening in previous years at least since 2018.
