Not to mention China, worried about the drone armaments that lag behind Thailand's self-Defense Forces and Japan's "militarily backward countries"-SAKISIRU (Saki)

The Thai navy says a domestically developed maritime reconnaissance drone successfully took off and landed at the aircraft carrier Chakrinar Ebert in the autumn of 2021. The Japanese self-Defense Forces did not even challenge, and the aircraft fully produced in the country successfully took off and landed on the aircraft carrier, exposing the delays of the self-Defense Forces in this field in broad daylight.

Thai Navy succeeds in shipborne reconnaissance UAV

The airframe appeared in a video released by Symandek, a Thai company responsible for development, on November 17th, named MARCUS-B (Maritime Aerial Reconnaissance Craft Unmanned System-B, Marine Air Reconnaissance Unmanned system B), jointly developed by the Royal Thai Naval Research and Development Agency (NRDO) and Semgan Technologies.

The aircraft is characterized by fixed-wing VTOL (vertical take-off and landing aircraft). The power is the battery. It should be done in vertical motion without taxiing take-off and landing, which can be seen from both aircraft carriers and landings, and you can see the video.

The function of the airframe is to carry out reconnaissance from aircraft carriers and destroyers, and experiments have been carried out in the past to detect ships suspected of smuggling from destroyers. The total length is 2.5 meters, with a top speed of about 70 kilometers per hour, which is later than the previous one. It can carry 10 kilograms of luggage, can stay in the air for 2 hours, and has a maximum range of 160-180 kilometers.

In confirming the video, Probo (control device) uses many civilian items, such as DJI civilian items, flight data confirmation is Panasonic's hard book, flight route setting is free software MissionPlanner. In fact, the drone costs 12 million baht and about 41.5 million yen to produce.

Drones that can also operate on warships in combat operations

It is worth noting that there are reports that mass production will begin this year. In other words, the Thai navy has accumulated proprietary technology to use drones in such a radio environment (like the already successful Chinese and European and American armies), that is to say, there are a variety of radars running on warships.

In addition, warships sailing in the open sea are also quite likely to waver, but it can also be judged that they can be pierced even in such an environment. Using drones on warships like this also needs to accumulate know-how on the basis of overcoming other issues, which the Thai navy has overcome.

The significance of the accumulation of these know-how is self-evident. There is no need to carry humans on the main body of drones, so all equipment attached to them can be cut off. It greatly reduces maintenance and operating costs. Things like Global Hawk, which has a high cost of money and time, do not know that if it is the source of this livelihood technology, it will be more maintainable than manned aircraft.

Most importantly, unlike manned aircraft, it can fly for a long time and is very suitable for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

Instead of boarding the plane, because it is a cheap domestic product, it is allowed to fly easily and quickly in any environment (even in a Leesky environment, such as a confusing manned aircraft). Even in Japan, for example, when gathering intelligence at pirate handling and North Korean acquisition sites, home-made drones have cost value in every way, rather than flying away at the risk of shooting down expensive sentries.

In particular, this localization is of great significance, and even if it is shot down or crashed, it can be ready to replace it immediately. If it is made abroad, it will cost not only the cost, but also the time cost of long-distance transportation. Of course, it would be nice if we could develop a suitable country.

Japan has become a militarily backward country with drones

In a manner of speaking, under higher circumstances (such as, unfortunately, the launch of the Taiwan invasion), manned sentinel helicopters flying in order to spy on the Chinese army fleet approaching the southwestern archipelago are almost suicidal.

Unlike the erroneous bias of drones against weak interference waves, there are many types that can resist radio interference or move autonomously (even manned aircraft are meaningless if originally disturbed by radio waves), in Japan, the localization of drones for maritime reconnaissance is also essential. However, in Japan, which is supposed to be one of the few naval countries in the world, such efforts have not been heard. Even drones, which cost only about 45 million yen, do not plan to develop their own country.

As an aside, the Ministry of Defense has invested 6.5 billion yen in the Ling and 4 budget for the development of rail guns that even the US Navy has abandoned (although Congress intends to revive), but only by turning over a few per cent invested in it. It may be possible to develop such shipborne drones, but not.

As far as drones are concerned, Japan has finally become a military backward country second only to Thailand. Moreover, both the Indonesian army and the Egyptian army have successfully developed domestic armed drones. Not only the big countries in the world, but also the emerging countries have accumulated the know-how to use it as the industrial base for the former army of drones.

The last chance for the Minister of Defense on shore

After becoming minister of shore defense, the Ministry of Defense's indifference to drones improved and suddenly began to have a budget. In particular, last year's defense white paper, "these drones will be used in all battles in the near future", the positioning of the existence of regular warfare should be highly valued. But it's not enough. Before taking office, the minister of shore defense was considered to have secretly visited Japanese drone companies and was very interested in drones.

But it is not unusual to mobilize large, bulky organizations.

The pilot use of the Maritime self-Defense Force as a drone costs about 5 billion yen, but the Thai navy has been developing domestically since at least 2014. The Thai Navy started domestic development and production base as early as 2014, while the Maritime self-Defense Force began to discuss what to buy from abroad.

In other words, Japan is in a position where it must go all out to recover its delay. In resuming such delays, the process of rapid repetition of trial production, testing and improvement must also be carried out in parallel, rather than as cautious and cumbersome as traditional heavy weapons.

Weapons don't just have to have something. If we do not accumulate the know-how in this area, there is no point in formulating operational concepts. Between the Minister of Defense on shore, who understands the nature of drones, both in terms of software and hardware, as well as the foundation of the domestic industry, they have to be transformed into "raising the army before drones."

Even in Thailand, it cannot be said to deter the Chinese army if it does not overcome the seven-year lead in the cultivation of technological production basis. In fact, the Chinese army also flew drones to the southwest archipelago last summer, but it was still so that the Air self-Defense Force had to use F15 fighter jets to engage. There are obviously the same examples in 2013 and 2018. No matter how you think about it, attacking cheap drones with expensive and precious manned aircraft is also wrong in terms of cost.

If it goes on like this, it is even possible to lose in a war of attrition before fighting. There is no time left.