• Bread
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    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
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      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
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        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.

          • Bread
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            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.

        • droans@lemmy.world
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          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
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            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
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              1 year ago

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

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                1 year ago

                They are explosive, all they need to do is find a target. Wars tend to fail when the leadership has all been assassinated.

      • oatscoop@midwest.social
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        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.