Wildman
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Military Memes
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Not sure, based on the ordnance and shooters in the article, I'd guess at least 4 hits per ship.
Didn't see if they're shallow enough to dive on.
Losing access to details about things like this is one of the worst things about retirement.
Wildman
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Lmao!
"Jones, take that shit off! You can't wear it on patrol!"
"Why not Staff Sergeant?"
<SSgt checks regs>
"Well fuck, I don't see anything saying we can't...ok! Everybody go get you masks!"
Wildman
Over Analyzer Extraordinaire & Attention Whore
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Wildman
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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EMgKwHPn4/
If you're ever in Charleston, SC, stop at the Hunley museum.
It's fascinating, very well done, and humbling.
That crew probably sank because of their giant brass balls.
If you're ever in Charleston, SC, stop at the Hunley museum.
It's fascinating, very well done, and humbling.
That crew probably sank because of their giant brass balls.
Wildman
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A cup would be all that's needed, at least under "normal" conditions...
Wildman
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Wildman
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The Marine Corps just found a cheap answer to one of the most expensive problems in modern war. It takes a machine gun every Marine already knows how to use, the M240, and turns it into an AI-guided drone killer.
The system is called Bullfrog, built by a Texas company called Allen Control Systems, and the Marines selected it this week to add teeth to their frontline counter-drone units.
HOW IT WORKS
Bullfrog is not a new gun. It's a robotic mount that uses artificial intelligence, computer vision, and precision robotics to turn an ordinary machine gun into a system that can detect, track, and engage drones on its own. The version the Marines chose is built around the M240, the 7.62mm machine gun that has been a fixture in the Corps for decades.
The robotic station handles the hard part, spotting a small, fast-moving drone, tracking it, and calculating the shot. It's accurate to less than one minute of angle, a very fine degree of precision, and it uses passive sensors rather than radar, so it doesn't light up the battlefield and give away the unit's position.
But it does not pull its own trigger without permission. A human operator always gives the final authorization to fire. The machine does the tracking and presents the solution. A Marine decides whether to take the shot. That human-in-the-loop design keeps it inside existing rules of engagement.
WHY IT MATTERS: THE PRICE OF A KILL
The reason this is a big deal comes down to money, and it's the same lesson coming out of Ukraine and the Middle East.
A single attack drone can cost a few tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes far less. The interceptor missiles traditionally used to shoot them down can cost hundreds of thousands, even millions. That math is unsustainable. You cannot win a war spending a million dollars to destroy something that cost the enemy a few hundred.
Bullfrog's answer is brutally simple. A well-aimed burst of machine gun ammunition solves the same problem for the price of the bullets. The company measures its cost per kill in the low tens of dollars. The M240 configuration fires 850 rounds a minute.
FITTING INTO THE MARINE TOOLKIT
The Bullfrog is being added to L-MADIS, the Marine Corps' lightest and most mobile counter-drone system, which normally rides on a pair of small all-terrain vehicles, one for command and control, one carrying electronic jamming gear.
Jamming works well until it doesn't. Newer drones fly autonomously, without a radio link to jam. When electronic attack fails, the unit needs something that can physically knock the drone out of the sky. That's the gap Bullfrog fills, a kinetic backstop for when jamming isn't enough.
The system is already in use or under contract with the Army, the Navy, US Special Operations Command, and allied forces including South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. The Marine Corps has requested more than $1 billion for its broader ground-based air defense effort in the 2027 budget, a measure of how seriously the drone threat is now being taken.
WHY IT'S SMART
The genius of it is that it doesn't reinvent anything. It doesn't create a new supply chain or a new weapon Marines have to learn from scratch. It takes a gun every Marine already knows how to feed, clean, and maintain, mounts it on a robotic station that never gets tired of watching the sky, and lets a human make the decision to fire.
Familiar weapon. Cheap ammunition. AI doing the tracking. A Marine making the call.
In a war where the sky is full of cheap threats, that combination is exactly what keeps a unit moving instead of pinned down waiting for something bigger and more expensive to come save them.
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