• xrellx@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Conventional ammo is their answer to a modern drone swarm? I thought Rhein was better than that. Like, cool, you took out eight stationary drones. Now do a half mile wide swarm of eighty thousand coming around the ridge at speed.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Idk man, if I was going to try to shoot down a drone, I’d just use birdshot.

        And assuming each of the eighty thousand drones costs $200 each including ordnance, that’s a very significant expenditure on an attack. And I’m not even sure if it would be feasibly possible given limited bandwidth to control them.

        • Bread
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t know mate, that’s only 16 million. The price of an F-22 is $150 million. Spending a ninth of a jet to win a war by strategically targeting the capital seems pretty cheap to me. Bring it up to the full cost and you have 750,000 drones. You are going to get overwhelmed by drones no matter how much ammo you have. It is too much.

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Oh, if you’re talking about drones which can operate over long distances you’re talking about $20,000 drones, or more expensive. You’d need satcoms and that isn’t cheap or lightweight.

            • Bread
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I am talking about small commercial drones that act like suicide bombers. They go one way and can be real cheap. Just deploy somewhat locally.

              • droans@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                You ever seen a commercial drone?

                They’ll work wonderfully at crashing into a window and falling onto the cement.

                Plus you’d need to be within a very close radius to control it.

                • Bread
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Exactly, that’s the point. They crash into things and explode.

                  If you have 750,000 drones, they don’t all need to be that accurate. Some are distractions, others carry explosive payloads. I have built drones. They can be done relatively cheaply. Bigger drones that carry more weight will cost more, sure. However on a military budget it is all just peanuts. You can get more range out of a drone than most people realize if you have the right antennas for it.

                  You could also have mothership drones that guide short range drones.

                  • droans@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    They won’t cause any damage. They’re just a bunch of thin pieces of plastic and a camera.

                • Bread
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Not necessarily. A semi truck full of drones could be parked in an isolated area, set up and take off. A single semi could take down a capital. You could realistically either smuggle it in the country or build them there. A lot of parts can even be 3D printed.

            • oatscoop@midwest.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Tech gets cheaper each year and software becomes more advanced. You don’t need wireless control when each drone can autonomously navigate to and identify a pre-programmed target.

              The block II tomahawk cruise missile had that 40 years ago. That image processing and satellite communications capability is available in modern smartphones.

      • takeda@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        They move much slower than missiles, there videos where people were able to shut them down with regular weapons (you don’t see that with missiles) so why automated system using conventional weapons wouldn’t be effective?