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> they didn't really prepare for the eventuality I didn't RTFM, but drone defense has been a high priority for the Pentagon and they've been rapidly testing an
by hackuser 10y ago
> they didn't really prepare for the eventuality
I didn't RTFM, but drone defense has been a high priority for the Pentagon and they've been rapidly testing and developing various options.
A big challenge is doing it cost-effectively, AFAIK. Legacy anti-air technology is designed for shooting down airplanes and uses missiles that may cost 100-1000x the drone; it's not affordable to build missiles to shoot down all of an enemy's drones. I've seen reports of sniper rifles, lasers (less than $1 marginal cost per shot, reportedly), electromagnetic weapons that fry the drone's electronics, old-fashioned anti-aircraft guns, etc.
Not only can drones carry explosives, but apparently the Russians very effectively use drones as artillery spotters in Ukraine, and it's not just a battlefield problem: What happens when someone targets a drone at major public events or at VIPs such as the U.S. President? How do you stop it?
- oxide 10y ago>How do you stop it? why not an anti-drone drone? would it be cost effective to fit a weapon capable of downing a drone onto a drone?
- dorfsmay 10y agoOr eagles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc_ovddVRKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc_ovddVRKE
- hackuser 10y ago> why not an anti-drone drone? would it be cost effective to fit a weapon capable of downing a drone onto a drone? A guess: It would cost the defender the same as the attacker. That's a big improvement over anti-air missiles, but you want the equation heavily in your favor. If you can do it with sniper rifles, for example, your enemy will almost certainly run out of drones before you run out of bullets.
- branchless 10y agoGotcha: http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/watch-japans-bizarre-net-wielding-police-drone-in-action/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/watch-japans-bizarre-...
- yincrash 10y agoThere was actually a company attempting to do this using nets: http://www.popsci.com/rapere-anti-drone-interceptor http://www.popsci.com/rapere-anti-drone-interceptor But their website seems to be replaced with blogspam though, so I assume they went out of business.