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That sounds like bullshit. Can a patriot missile even hit a 25cm wide target? Why would such a quadcopter even represent a serious threat? Sounds like this "Ge

That sounds like bullshit. Can a patriot missile even hit a 25cm wide target? Why would such a quadcopter even represent a serious threat? Sounds like this "General" was making an embellished hypothetical example of why this laser system is useful.

dtparr 10y ago
Given that you put "General" in quotes, I'm not sure which part you think is bullshit. If it's the part about him saying it, here's the youtube video[0] of a 4-star general in the US Army (Gen. David Perkins) making that claim. And he's not advocating for lasers (it's unrelated to this article), he's advocating for alternative options, and mentions cyber and something like "sema?". As far as could the patriot hit it, I would think the hard part would be tracking it. No idea what the RCS looks like on a quadcopter vs., say, a stealthy cruise missile. As far as threats for use in asymmetric warfare, we've seen cheap drones that are used for recon, and we've seen them used to drop ordnance. 0 - https://youtu.be/6v7nfB5bV3E?t=14m54s https://youtu.be/6v7nfB5bV3E?t=14m54s Edit: here's a link to a picture of an ISIS-modified drone used to drop grenades: https://twitter.com/AlexMello02/status/819259288950624256/photo/1 https://twitter.com/AlexMello02/status/819259288950624256/ph...
- underbluewaters 10y ago
  Huh, thanks for the link to the talk. That wasn't in the original article so I could hardly believe they got that correct. Still, I don't see how that's justifiable even if they can drop grenades. They won't be able to do it very effectively, and in fact if it's close enough to drop a grenade on troops you probably don't want to be detonating a Patriot missile in the same area.
  - dtparr 10y ago
    Actually, I think his whole point was that it wasn't really justifiable, but it wasn't the US Army that did it (I am curious who it was). Totally agree about the proximity thing.

dtparr 10y ago

Given that you put "General" in quotes, I'm not sure which part you think is bullshit. If it's the part about him saying it, here's the youtube video[0] of a 4-star general in the US Army (Gen. David Perkins) making that claim. And he's not advocating for lasers (it's unrelated to this article), he's advocating for alternative options, and mentions cyber and something like "sema?". As far as could the patriot hit it, I would think the hard part would be tracking it. No idea what the RCS looks like on a quadcopter vs., say, a stealthy cruise missile. As far as threats for use in asymmetric warfare, we've seen cheap drones that are used for recon, and we've seen them used to drop ordnance. 0 - https://youtu.be/6v7nfB5bV3E?t=14m54s https://youtu.be/6v7nfB5bV3E?t=14m54s Edit: here's a link to a picture of an ISIS-modified drone used to drop grenades: https://twitter.com/AlexMello02/status/819259288950624256/photo/1 https://twitter.com/AlexMello02/status/819259288950624256/ph...

underbluewaters 10y ago
Huh, thanks for the link to the talk. That wasn't in the original article so I could hardly believe they got that correct. Still, I don't see how that's justifiable even if they can drop grenades. They won't be able to do it very effectively, and in fact if it's close enough to drop a grenade on troops you probably don't want to be detonating a Patriot missile in the same area.
- dtparr 10y ago
  Actually, I think his whole point was that it wasn't really justifiable, but it wasn't the US Army that did it (I am curious who it was). Totally agree about the proximity thing.