Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

Scr0tat0 t1_j6j8jpm wrote

I wonder what drone-optimized grenades will look like in a couple years. 3d printed fins on a VOG are great, but I'm sure we can tweak it a little to make them fall a bit more straight.

59

chriswaco t1_j6jebc2 wrote

Maybe even give them "smart fins" and IR cameras so they hit the target more often.

23

Scr0tat0 t1_j6jewnq wrote

A large part of the appeal is how cheap they are, so I was thinking more along the lines of different shapes or weight distribution. Maybe even a rudimentary bomb sight for the drones? Just a readout of wind speed and direction and altitude/approximate freefall time on the screen for the operator. Shouldn't be too hard to do.

24

chriswaco t1_j6jg2uj wrote

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.

16

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.

8

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.

5

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.

5

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.

4

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.

2

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.

3

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.

2

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.

3

mynaneisjustguy t1_j6odu7m wrote

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

3

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).

7

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.

8

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.

2

Goonter_Poonter t1_j6kpxqo wrote

These are seeing heavy use in Ukraine at the moment and it looks like they tie tiny parachutes to help guide them, but from the videos I’ve seen they can be very accurate

5

teleheaddawgfan t1_j6jbxwm wrote

How long before the first one is dropped on someone in in the middle of Times Square? Or insert public place here…

32

intellifone t1_j6jiqtk wrote

I guess the good news is that all of these off the shelf consumer drones are prohibited by their software from flying in a lot of these places.

I have a DJI drone and it has a map of where I’m allowed to fly and it changes constantly (I live near several airports and military bases) and I basically can’t get the drone to turn on if I’m near downtown.

So someone would basically need to build a custom drone. I’m not sure if the open source software also links to FAA sites as well. But basically you’d need decent technical know-how to strap a bomb to a drone and bring it into controlled airspace. And anyone with that know how probably has a job and a house and isn’t going to risk that. That skill set would only be used in actual wartime where those restrictions are removed.

I’m not sure how easy it would be for a foreign military to manufacture their own handheld drones that can bypass those limitations, import them in any quantity to the US, and then have someone fly it in the US, not have the signals be picked up by all of the SIG-INT sites in major cities and then not be picked up almost immediately by authorities after the attack and pinpointed as an agent of a specific country and then have the ever loving shit bombed out of them by NATO.

10

espressocycle t1_j6kj72p wrote

Can't be that hard.

17

Kevin_Jim t1_j6mm6mz wrote

It’s super easy to make your own FPV drone without any engineering skills that won’t have an integrated No Fly Zone restriction.

14

TheRealBobbyJones t1_j6kpqpy wrote

I think you are overestimating the sig-int capabilities of the US. Are you saying that the government during peace time can track all drones and drones operators? With all the noise that a city like new York would have I would consider it highly unlikely. But even if it were possible there are ways around it. Also quads are very easy to make.

9

other_usernames_gone t1_j6mefp6 wrote

You don't really need to develop your own drone. You just need to hack out the part of the software that checks.

My first instinct would be removing internet access and then doctoring/deleting whatever map it has onboard.

5

Veylon t1_j6luabq wrote

Already been done. Five years ago, even.

2

intellifone t1_j6lvh43 wrote

In Syria. Active war zone. Get them into the US and operate them here

3

Veylon t1_j6pjcy2 wrote

You make a trip to Digikey and everything you need comes in the mail. You just need the know-how to put the pieces together.

And explosives. The explosives are definitely the hard part.

But, yeah, in general anyone who has the skills to create terror drones probably has better things to do with their time than create terror drones.

2

Timstro59 t1_j6iinnl wrote

I wonder when they'll start using remote control bodies like from the movie Surrogates.

14

Flextt t1_j6pcpqt wrote

I mean, maybe? Some day? Using your industrial capabilities to mass manufacture robotic combat drones however is much more likely to happen soon. Democracies don't unlikely to fight wars and when they do, public support can be tenuous. Drones potentially eliminate most of the human cost of warfare for the side deploying them.

1

obolobolobo t1_j6jbdhr wrote

The article is about ‘big’ drones but the iconic image of this war is of a ‘toy’ drone, like you’d buy your nephew for Christmas, with a vog grenade dangling beneath it.

8

Kevin_Jim t1_j6mmd31 wrote

You can fit a DIY explosive device in a toy drone.

5

gildedtoad t1_j6ljpsk wrote

Imagine dying to something in a Sharper Image catalogue.

3

Raskalbot t1_j6lu5sf wrote

This is fucking terrifying.

3

Logical-Direction361 t1_j6l1nmn wrote

What are we gonna do with all the poors that are supposed to go die in a foreign country?

1

SucksToYourAzmar t1_j6l7w55 wrote

Remember that COD game where Kevin spacey was a murderous villain who took over the world with drones? Ahead of it's time I guess

1

JasonVanJason t1_j6lwldl wrote

Dude they got suicide Drones taking down fighter jets, that is just fucking wild to me

1

Omegalazarus t1_j6lz17q wrote

"Then, as ... hobbyist drones and consumer electronics improved, a second style of military drone appeared...And it caught the world’s attention in Ukraine in 2022, when it proved itself capable of holding back one of the most formidable militaries on the planet."

I'm not sure I buy that thesis.

You can't see Ukraine effectively holding back the Russian army and see in depth the mini failings of the Russian army and still claim there one of the most formidable militaries on the planet.

I think you have to realize that they are just not that formidable and so defeating them isn't necessarily the result of some game changer any more than saying the Talibans defeat of Afghani forces with some sort of game changer because rebels defeated the government army.

1

pck3 t1_j6kc0wr wrote

Yeah I know told you they would

0