I wish they did consumer drones, period! They left the market!
Innovators Dilemna movement; why chase a competitive cut-throat consumer market when there's big cushy expensive whales of governments, a much bigger revenue stream.
Especially since drones have quickly become the leading "attritable" piece of equipment. Where-as a consumer will hold on to a drone for years!
DJI ate them for breakfast, turns out a single better implemented feature doesn't make a competitive product (or even a survivable niche, apparently).
At ~800g AUW, sub-250g requirements just put the nail in the coffin - the avoidance tech doesn't scale down - a 2kg drone need the extra same weight in sensors and compute and battery to power that extra compute as a 249g one.
The U.S. and Europe really shouldn't allow DJI sales: DJI is in effect part of the PLA, and they're amortizing military research across worldwide sales.
In peace time maybe. In practice on the front expensive industrial drones like DJI Mavic 3 Thermal/Matrice lasts around a week when operating by Arty units and ~one day in infantry according to russian sources from half a year ago.
Western militaries are still in the outdated mindset of treating drones as assets instead of consumables. Germany keeps sending >$xxxK observation platforms to Ukraine despite contacts communicating back survivability rates. That one fixed wing drone cost more than 20 Mavics or 50 domestic drones, and isnt better in any way.
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Innovators Dilemna movement; why chase a competitive cut-throat consumer market when there's big cushy expensive whales of governments, a much bigger revenue stream.
Especially since drones have quickly become the leading "attritable" piece of equipment. Where-as a consumer will hold on to a drone for years!
At ~800g AUW, sub-250g requirements just put the nail in the coffin - the avoidance tech doesn't scale down - a 2kg drone need the extra same weight in sensors and compute and battery to power that extra compute as a 249g one.
Was it expensive as crap? Absolutely! Can I hand my kids my phone and let them fly the drone and it not end up in a lake? Yep, that too.
Peace of mind has its costs
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Western militaries are still in the outdated mindset of treating drones as assets instead of consumables. Germany keeps sending >$xxxK observation platforms to Ukraine despite contacts communicating back survivability rates. That one fixed wing drone cost more than 20 Mavics or 50 domestic drones, and isnt better in any way.
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