The sensible solution is probably just a recoilless barrel - literally just don’t seal the back of the barrel, and let the f=ma pass you by. Like a bazooka.
Traditionally, the reasons NOT to use a recoilless rifle are as follows:
The backblast is highly visible and gives your position away (the drone is disposable)
The energy blasted out the back is wasted, meaning less efficient ammo that you have to carry more of, for the same effect (an unsealed barrel can be lighter, and the drone likely won’t carry much ammo compared to the barrel weight anyway)
The back blast could hurt you if fired indoors (the drone is disposable, and plenty of drones are in the sky anyway)
Reloading could be hard (engineering problem, not actual problem)
PS: if you’re gonna fire an MG, why not a multi grenade launcher? Grenade launchers’ lethality doesn’t come from the f=ma so it’s inherently less recoiling.
That’s exactly what I was thinking (unsealed or partly sealed barrel). On a drone you also have a lot more freedom regarding the reloading mechanism because you have access to a battery.
I mentioned the MG because I’ve seen some footage of drones equipped with what looked like an LMG of some sort. And while an automatic grenade launcher takes away the problem of recoil, you get the issue of carrying enough ammo to be effective. Also, a drone equipped with an automatic grenade launcher seems to me like a complicated way to do what “bomber drones” are doing now, just without the launcher. I can see MG-equipped drones filling a different niche (high-volume suppressive fire).
The sensible solution is probably just a recoilless barrel - literally just don’t seal the back of the barrel, and let the f=ma pass you by. Like a bazooka.
Traditionally, the reasons NOT to use a recoilless rifle are as follows:
PS: if you’re gonna fire an MG, why not a multi grenade launcher? Grenade launchers’ lethality doesn’t come from the f=ma so it’s inherently less recoiling.
That’s exactly what I was thinking (unsealed or partly sealed barrel). On a drone you also have a lot more freedom regarding the reloading mechanism because you have access to a battery.
I mentioned the MG because I’ve seen some footage of drones equipped with what looked like an LMG of some sort. And while an automatic grenade launcher takes away the problem of recoil, you get the issue of carrying enough ammo to be effective. Also, a drone equipped with an automatic grenade launcher seems to me like a complicated way to do what “bomber drones” are doing now, just without the launcher. I can see MG-equipped drones filling a different niche (high-volume suppressive fire).