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chriswaco t1_j6jg2uj wrote

Reply to comment by Scr0tat0 in Mass-market military drones have changed the way wars are fought by ChickenTeriyakiBoy1

You can buy a Raspberry Pi for $4 that has more than enough processing power. An IR camera adds another few dollars. The servos and grid fins would probably be the most expensive part. Apparently dumb grenades cost only $50-100, though.

I see a future where one party launches 10,000 kamikaze drones (whether anti-personnel, high explosive, or incendiary) to start or end a war.

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DataSquid2 t1_j6jhve1 wrote

I'm a bit surprised that this isn't happening already. We know drones are being used, but it sounds like it's at a smaller scale than I expected.

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PleasantAdvertising t1_j6kpejt wrote

Truthfully I think the world's militaries are doing a lot of drone development behind closed doors. Drones, lasers and railguns.

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Omegalazarus t1_j6lx83p wrote

I mean most first or second world militaries would just launch an artillery garage. That would come for about the same amount of destructive power. Consider that each missile in an MLRS (large truck sized) destroys a 250 meter square radius. Those were the stats from 20 years ago and that munition has since been replaced several times so you can imagine the destructive capability.

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karateninjazombie t1_j6kyonc wrote

They would if they could. It takes some serious production and procurement ramp up to have bazillions of drones to hand to use as loitering munitions.

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DataSquid2 t1_j6l808h wrote

I had though that production ramp-up is what militaries have been working on for a while.

I obviously don't follow the space since I said I was surprised, but with how long drone tech has been around now it feels like there has been enough time for that production ramp up.

Obviously I'm wrong, and I'm almost happy I am because when it is bazillions of kamikaze drones then war will be even more hellish.

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Omegalazarus t1_j6lvs8g wrote

I think it's because those type of drones aren't great for an advanced military. Kamikaze drones are a low speed, high interactivity, small payload delivery system. Each of those three criteria are not what you want. If you can avoid it.

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DataSquid2 t1_j6m22y1 wrote

That makes more sense to me. I didn't even consider a drone being low speed or having a small payload, but by military standards it totally is.

The thought of a swarm of kamikaze drones really is terror inducing though.

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Omegalazarus t1_j6m83v2 wrote

Yeah the terror aspect for sure. They did they on a movie years back. Someone tried to assassinate the president with suicide drones. It was a tense action scene.

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mynaneisjustguy t1_j6odu7m wrote

Drone swarms are already a thing I believe. Just not being deployed yet.

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Stoyfan t1_j6k5dnv wrote

>I see a future where one party launches 10,000 kamikaze drones (whether anti-personnel, high explosive, or incendiary) to start or end a war.

It would be a mistake to think that in the future there will be no way to counter this threat.

Every time when something as goundbreaking as small drones, or tanks, or jets appear on the battlefield, militaries will find ways to counter these new threats.

In the case of tanks, they way we countered that was with anti-tank guns/rifles. In the case of jets it was anti air missiles. In the case of drones, it be jamming, self propelled anti air guns and lasers (not available at the moment but work is being done right now).

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chriswaco t1_j6k7lyq wrote

Yeah, it's always a contest to stay ahead. Armor led to anti-tank weapons which led to ablative armor which led to molten warheads which lead to reactive armor, etc, etc. I remember when I first heard about reactive armor and couldn't decide if it was brilliant or idiotic.

You can block GPS easily enough, although motion sensors can help guide a drone too. You can have IR cameras but your targets can shoot IR light into the sky to mislead the drones. I'm not sure if you can send enough raw EM radiation into the sky to disable cheap drones - wouldn't surprise me.

It might work once, like the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, but never again.

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PrincessElonMusk t1_j6nhkip wrote

The challenge with blanketing an area with enough EM to interfere with all possible drones 24x7 is that you risk degrading your own capabilities that require use of EM frequencies.

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