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Drones are the new infantry and land mines. For sea battles missiles still dominate, since all you need to do is destroy the ship with the drones. Drones fly a

Drones are the new infantry and land mines. For sea battles missiles still dominate, since all you need to do is destroy the ship with the drones. Drones fly around and autonomously eliminate targets while maintaining perimeters, which replaces infantry doing the same thing. Drones are easy to launch from land-based bases and due to their limited range are best suited to land-based operations. Aerial drones are easily countered by autonomous weapons systems that fire on drones quickly and accurately. Drones are able to be disabled with a single large bullet, which makes their cost exceptional once countered. I expect that land based drones will become a pretty big thing, since they can take advantage of cover and camouflage.

wearywanderer 5y ago
The line between drone and missile is fuzzy at best. Most of the distinguishing characteristics often cited in these conversations are wrong. For instance, missiles are usually powered by rockets, but many missiles are powered by jet engines instead. Drones are usually meant to be reusable, but the first drones ever made were specifically expendable (which is why they are named after drone bees, which fly once before dying.) Loiter munitions are sometimes considered drones instead of missiles, but nobody doubts that a tomahawk cruise missile is a missile, and yet, a modern tomahawk is also a loiter munition that can cruise in a circle for hours. Sometimes autonomy is cited as a key characteristic of drones. But the first drones were pure-RC with no autonomy at all, while there are a myriad of autonomous missiles and non-autonomous human-guided missiles. So autonomy is not a distinguishing characteristic either.
- magicsmoke 5y ago
  It feels like most of the recent fascination with drones is due to overlap with civilian off-the-shelf technology and the fantasy of being able to buy something that could potentially go toe to toe with advanced militaries. When in fact, militaries have always had "aerial munitions with varying degrees of intelligence and maneuverability and propulsion methods selected based on speed/maneuverability/range tradeoffs." An off the shelf quadcoptor is as far from military weaponry as a hand calculator is from a supercomputer even if they're both calculating machines. It's weird seeing this fascination with drones yet not seeing an analogous fascination for Toyota trucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War
  - imtringued 5y ago
    >It feels like most of the recent fascination with drones is due to overlap with civilian off-the-shelf technology and the fantasy of being able to buy something that could potentially go toe to toe with advanced militaries. Yes, it's because it's a harmless toy that can turn dystopian. That's why people's imagination is running wild. It's like that Furby horror game (tattletail). It's the "your nightmares are becoming real" kind of stuff.
pixl97 5y ago
>Aerial drones are easily countered by autonomous weapons systems that fire on drones quickly and accurately If its military vs military then the drones wake up the counter defense which is then targeted by more expensive missiles.

wearywanderer 5y ago

The line between drone and missile is fuzzy at best. Most of the distinguishing characteristics often cited in these conversations are wrong. For instance, missiles are usually powered by rockets, but many missiles are powered by jet engines instead. Drones are usually meant to be reusable, but the first drones ever made were specifically expendable (which is why they are named after drone bees, which fly once before dying.) Loiter munitions are sometimes considered drones instead of missiles, but nobody doubts that a tomahawk cruise missile is a missile, and yet, a modern tomahawk is also a loiter munition that can cruise in a circle for hours. Sometimes autonomy is cited as a key characteristic of drones. But the first drones were pure-RC with no autonomy at all, while there are a myriad of autonomous missiles and non-autonomous human-guided missiles. So autonomy is not a distinguishing characteristic either.

magicsmoke 5y ago
It feels like most of the recent fascination with drones is due to overlap with civilian off-the-shelf technology and the fantasy of being able to buy something that could potentially go toe to toe with advanced militaries. When in fact, militaries have always had "aerial munitions with varying degrees of intelligence and maneuverability and propulsion methods selected based on speed/maneuverability/range tradeoffs." An off the shelf quadcoptor is as far from military weaponry as a hand calculator is from a supercomputer even if they're both calculating machines. It's weird seeing this fascination with drones yet not seeing an analogous fascination for Toyota trucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_War
- imtringued 5y ago
  >It feels like most of the recent fascination with drones is due to overlap with civilian off-the-shelf technology and the fantasy of being able to buy something that could potentially go toe to toe with advanced militaries. Yes, it's because it's a harmless toy that can turn dystopian. That's why people's imagination is running wild. It's like that Furby horror game (tattletail). It's the "your nightmares are becoming real" kind of stuff.

pixl97 5y ago

>Aerial drones are easily countered by autonomous weapons systems that fire on drones quickly and accurately If its military vs military then the drones wake up the counter defense which is then targeted by more expensive missiles.