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Not even 50 cal, a regular old assault rifle will do. The problem is hitting the damn things. They're small, can turn on a dime, don't reflect radar very well,

Not even 50 cal, a regular old assault rifle will do. The problem is hitting the damn things. They're small, can turn on a dime, don't reflect radar very well, and run cold enough to give IR tracking some issues. Army manuals like [1] typically call for a coordinated fire of small arms across a large volume of airspace to hit a drone, but advise commanders that hit probabilities are low. Their most urgent advice is to keep spotters looking for enemy drones, and to use concealment and camouflage as much as possible to avoid enemy drone surveillance. [1] https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/atp3-01-8.pdf https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/atp3-01-8.pdf, search for "UAS" (Unmanned Aerial System)

gaius 9y ago
Not even 50 cal, a regular old assault rifle will do. Could you hit a moving drone with a rifle? Even when I shot competitively at 500m, I probably couldn't. You can hit clay pigeons with a shotgun but a drone can easily manoeuvre beyond range.
- Zardoz84 9y ago
  I think that He was talking about firepower, not about easiness to hit the target. Even, you can strike down a drone throwing a small stone. Other thing is hitting it.
  - goldenkey 9y ago
    Right. And with missiles, missed shots cost a lot of money. With a high powered rifle round that has a relatively straight trajectory -- the cost is miniscule. So firing many times is no problem in the case of minor errors in accuracy. Even a gatling gun could be used -- warthog style.
- azernik 9y ago
  As I said: "The problem is hitting the damn things". Please at least read to the second paragraph.
  - gaius 9y ago
    Please at least read to the second paragraph. If you can't hit it with the weapon what is the point of even mentioning the weapon? You might as well have said you could fight a drone with a baseball bat for all you contributed to this discussion.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      ...because it's a reply to a post that mentions the same kind of weapon?
    - azernik 9y ago
      I was replying to someone who claimed a .50 cal could do the job. I was pointing out that firepower wasn't the limiting factor - you could do it with something smaller, but that wouldn't matter. The second paragraph was the main contribution; the first paragraph was a transition from the statement of the person I was replying to.
blackrock 9y ago
I would think that this is something Artificial Intelligence can handle. A perimeter defense would need to be established, with radars for long range scanning. And cameras for short range confirmation. It will also need infrared cameras to operate at night. A computer system would monitor the perimeter, for all incoming threats. This computer system must be very powerful, as it is processing a lot of data in real time. However, this kind of technology should now be in the realms of deep learning AI that is currently being developed now. Once a positive visual confirmation is made, to determine that the aerial object is an intrusion drone, then an alert can be given to the human commander, of the incoming threat. And a human can still stay in the loop to order the execution. Then, a turret mounted laser cannon, can be used to burn down the drone. Or even a rifle can be used to kill the drone with a kinetic impact. The accuracy of a bullet fired by a robot, should far exceed the skill of the best human sniper. But bullets still follow a parabolic path, so a turret mounted laser cannon is more flexible to destroy drones.
- goldenkey 9y ago
  There are plenty of rifle rounds with very low bullet drop rates. For example, the 26 Nosler has close to zero inches of drop at 450 yards (quarter mile.) By extending the turret's barrel length and adding additional rifling/twist, drop can be further decreased while power is increased. Unless the distances are greater than a mile, a high powered rifle round will have so little drop to be negligible. And a railgun could be used if the energy footpounds of smokeless powder is not cutting it -- but really, a small grain round with a large powder charge will fly straight for the distances we are concerned with here.

gaius 9y ago

Not even 50 cal, a regular old assault rifle will do. Could you hit a moving drone with a rifle? Even when I shot competitively at 500m, I probably couldn't. You can hit clay pigeons with a shotgun but a drone can easily manoeuvre beyond range.

Zardoz84 9y ago
I think that He was talking about firepower, not about easiness to hit the target. Even, you can strike down a drone throwing a small stone. Other thing is hitting it.
- goldenkey 9y ago
  Right. And with missiles, missed shots cost a lot of money. With a high powered rifle round that has a relatively straight trajectory -- the cost is miniscule. So firing many times is no problem in the case of minor errors in accuracy. Even a gatling gun could be used -- warthog style.
azernik 9y ago
As I said: "The problem is hitting the damn things". Please at least read to the second paragraph.
- gaius 9y ago
  Please at least read to the second paragraph. If you can't hit it with the weapon what is the point of even mentioning the weapon? You might as well have said you could fight a drone with a baseball bat for all you contributed to this discussion.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    ...because it's a reply to a post that mentions the same kind of weapon?
  - azernik 9y ago
    I was replying to someone who claimed a .50 cal could do the job. I was pointing out that firepower wasn't the limiting factor - you could do it with something smaller, but that wouldn't matter. The second paragraph was the main contribution; the first paragraph was a transition from the statement of the person I was replying to.

blackrock 9y ago

I would think that this is something Artificial Intelligence can handle. A perimeter defense would need to be established, with radars for long range scanning. And cameras for short range confirmation. It will also need infrared cameras to operate at night. A computer system would monitor the perimeter, for all incoming threats. This computer system must be very powerful, as it is processing a lot of data in real time. However, this kind of technology should now be in the realms of deep learning AI that is currently being developed now. Once a positive visual confirmation is made, to determine that the aerial object is an intrusion drone, then an alert can be given to the human commander, of the incoming threat. And a human can still stay in the loop to order the execution. Then, a turret mounted laser cannon, can be used to burn down the drone. Or even a rifle can be used to kill the drone with a kinetic impact. The accuracy of a bullet fired by a robot, should far exceed the skill of the best human sniper. But bullets still follow a parabolic path, so a turret mounted laser cannon is more flexible to destroy drones.

goldenkey 9y ago
There are plenty of rifle rounds with very low bullet drop rates. For example, the 26 Nosler has close to zero inches of drop at 450 yards (quarter mile.) By extending the turret's barrel length and adding additional rifling/twist, drop can be further decreased while power is increased. Unless the distances are greater than a mile, a high powered rifle round will have so little drop to be negligible. And a railgun could be used if the energy footpounds of smokeless powder is not cutting it -- but really, a small grain round with a large powder charge will fly straight for the distances we are concerned with here.