I don't suspect this type of vehicle to be a hard counter to fpv drones/small unmanned aerial attack, but I do expect it to be the natural evolution of close to medium range air defense for armored manuever, especially because nothing about the air defense capability of a Skyranger system mounted on a Lynx platform precludes it from being a good all around generalist armored fighting vehicle or at least easily reconfigurable to one.

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[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The Skyranger turrets shoot programmable ammunition, meaning the rounds explode in front of the target, so shrapnell covers a larger area where the target may go. Should be good vs. any drones or really anything in the air that's not just a lump of metal.

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

It also is a functionality that has been pursued purely for the utility of urban combat/clearing operations where detonating a round just past an an opening is the best way to quickly eliminate an enemy without having to take down the entire structure they are hiding in.

So... a heavy investment into these kinds of vehicles by Ukraine is unlikely to be a poor choice as there is little risk that even if these vehicles don't turn out to be longterm useful for air defense that they will have been a wasted investment.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago

Probably also has the nice side effect of making missed shots less harmful, I assume the fragments have a lower terminal velocity and less damaging impact when they fall back to Earth.