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Why would you not deploy smaller drones via another platform? Small cheap disposable drones are a game changer. Drop them on a military base and have them seek

by rblatz 7y ago

Why would you not deploy smaller drones via another platform? Small cheap disposable drones are a game changer. Drop them on a military base and have them seek and distort any human shaped targets, any sources of RF radiation, anything that looks like a vehicle or plane...

chmod775 7y ago
> Drop them on a military base If you can get close enough to drop a bunch of slow drones, you can get close enough to just drop a bomb on the whole thing instead. Much more bang for your buck. Let's also not forget that small drones might become 'banned' much like chemical weapons did, if they ever became viable.
- nradov 7y ago
  Small drones will never be banned by international treaty. There is zero chance of that.
  - ta999999171 7y ago
    Why?
  - ClumsyPilot 7y ago
    Lasers were banned. Where does your certainty come from?
    - nradov 7y ago
      Lasers were not banned and are more heavily used now than ever before. Only blinding lasers were banned by treaty, and even with those China is semi-openly defying the ban.
      - Retric 7y ago
        “Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.“ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It’s clear what they where referring to, as the argument was a type of drone being banned not all drones. Saying they “banned lasers” is correct even if they only banned a subset of lasers. I am genuinely curious if you have a deeper argument. As small anti personnel drones seem suspiciously close to cluster munitions, but might be acceptable.
        nradov 7y ago
        It was not even remotely clear what they were referring to. There are many different types of lasers. Considering that the US, Russia, India, and China haven't even signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions there's clearly no political appetite for such bans among countries with large militaries. And such a ban would be unenforceable anyway because small drones are dual use technologies which don't require specialized manufacturing.
openasocket 7y ago
I'd argue we've had those for a while, just by different names: cruise missiles, anti-radiation missiles, smart glide bombs, etc. The SDB II has a 60 nm range with active terminal homing, including targeting anything that looks like a moving vehicle. Though I wouldn't consider the SDB particularly cheap, at around 200K each. I would certainly agree the these sorts of precision guided weapons are a game changer, though. I don't believe there's been a conflict yet where both sides have these weapons. Such a conflict would get very very bloody.

by rblatz 7y ago

chmod775 7y ago

> Drop them on a military base If you can get close enough to drop a bunch of slow drones, you can get close enough to just drop a bomb on the whole thing instead. Much more bang for your buck. Let's also not forget that small drones might become 'banned' much like chemical weapons did, if they ever became viable.

nradov 7y ago
Small drones will never be banned by international treaty. There is zero chance of that.
- ta999999171 7y ago
  Why?
- ClumsyPilot 7y ago
  Lasers were banned. Where does your certainty come from?
  - nradov 7y ago
    Lasers were not banned and are more heavily used now than ever before. Only blinding lasers were banned by treaty, and even with those China is semi-openly defying the ban.
    - Retric 7y ago
      “Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.“ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It’s clear what they where referring to, as the argument was a type of drone being banned not all drones. Saying they “banned lasers” is correct even if they only banned a subset of lasers. I am genuinely curious if you have a deeper argument. As small anti personnel drones seem suspiciously close to cluster munitions, but might be acceptable.
      - nradov 7y ago
        It was not even remotely clear what they were referring to. There are many different types of lasers. Considering that the US, Russia, India, and China haven't even signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions there's clearly no political appetite for such bans among countries with large militaries. And such a ban would be unenforceable anyway because small drones are dual use technologies which don't require specialized manufacturing.

openasocket 7y ago

I'd argue we've had those for a while, just by different names: cruise missiles, anti-radiation missiles, smart glide bombs, etc. The SDB II has a 60 nm range with active terminal homing, including targeting anything that looks like a moving vehicle. Though I wouldn't consider the SDB particularly cheap, at around 200K each. I would certainly agree the these sorts of precision guided weapons are a game changer, though. I don't believe there's been a conflict yet where both sides have these weapons. Such a conflict would get very very bloody.