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> If the drone is hovering and there isn't much wind then the mortar round will fall straight down and detonate on impact. Dive bombing. These drones should be

> If the drone is hovering and there isn't much wind then the mortar round will fall straight down and detonate on impact. Dive bombing. These drones should be dive bombing. WW2 strategy to increase precision and placement of the bomb. Only lesser-trained pilots glide-bombed or otherwise avoided dive-bombing in WW2. I don't think the let-go at height maneuver is historically considered very good. By dive bombing, you set forward-momentum on the bomb and more accurately place it, compared to dropping it from a hover. The bomb also reaches its target faster, and the pilot has the ability to line-up the shot (especially useful if the enemy is a moving target). I'm very much unimpressed by the "let go at height" videos, its just not good piloting IMO. But if these drones were dive-bombing instead, maybe I'd have a bit more respect. I'm not necessarily saying that the pilots have to dive-bomb, but maybe an AI could control that kind of pass.

someweirdperson 5y ago
Aircaft with fixed wings have pretty stable fast forward motion. Diving makes use of that, and the initial speed and vector of the ordnance is the speed/vector of the aircraft. After deployment, high g is needed to avoid hitting the ground. A multi-rotor drone (what the videos seem to be shot from) cannot fly fast, and cannot pull the high gees after drop. Dive bombing won't help much. Likely even a controlled flight into the target (kamikaze) would end up slower (final velocity) than just dropping, making the drone a much easier target for small arms fire than just the bomb alone. Fixed wing drones - different story. Getting them back to the ground in a reusable way requires effort, simply flying into the target seems to make more sense. The big reusable ones usually carry self-guided amunitions. A combination of remote controlled, fast, high payload, high-g capable, and reusable would likely not be cost-effective (losses to be expected in any case).
- dragontamer 5y ago
  > A multi-rotor drone (what the videos seem to be shot from) cannot fly fast, and cannot pull the high gees after drop. Dive bombing won't help much. Likely even a controlled flight into the target (kamikaze) would end up slower (final velocity) than just dropping, making the drone a much easier target for small arms fire than just the bomb alone. Every one of these drone-drop videos is several seconds between letting go of the bomb, and the bomb colliding with the target. If they actually want these drones to reliably hit a moving target, or even a vehicle in combat, they'll need to do something. That's a lot of hang-time and delay in these "drone drop" videos. Once the bomb is let go, there's going to be another 20+ to 30+ minutes before the drone operator is able to fly another drone into the field, and that's if the drone operator has a 2nd drone with him. Maybe it will be hours, or maybe the next chance to drop a bomb never comes ever again. You really want to maximize the chance of striking the target with these operations. A huge number of WW1 and WW2 operations were summarized as "Flew for 4 hours, missed my bomb, flew home". You want to minimize that kind of thing. Especially if these drones are considered somewhat expendable.
  - nradov 5y ago
    Dive bombing is a silly idea for rotorcraft. It just doesn't work aerodynamically. Sophisticated militaries will strike moving targets with precision guided munitions. Generally either laser guidance with a designator mounted on the drone, or some kind of pattern recognition built into the bomb itself (could be optical, IR, or millimeter wave radar). For example, something like the GBU-44/B. Poor militaries and insurgents will make do with whatever they can get. Either wait for the target to stop moving, or just lead it a little and hope.

someweirdperson 5y ago

Aircaft with fixed wings have pretty stable fast forward motion. Diving makes use of that, and the initial speed and vector of the ordnance is the speed/vector of the aircraft. After deployment, high g is needed to avoid hitting the ground. A multi-rotor drone (what the videos seem to be shot from) cannot fly fast, and cannot pull the high gees after drop. Dive bombing won't help much. Likely even a controlled flight into the target (kamikaze) would end up slower (final velocity) than just dropping, making the drone a much easier target for small arms fire than just the bomb alone. Fixed wing drones - different story. Getting them back to the ground in a reusable way requires effort, simply flying into the target seems to make more sense. The big reusable ones usually carry self-guided amunitions. A combination of remote controlled, fast, high payload, high-g capable, and reusable would likely not be cost-effective (losses to be expected in any case).

dragontamer 5y ago
> A multi-rotor drone (what the videos seem to be shot from) cannot fly fast, and cannot pull the high gees after drop. Dive bombing won't help much. Likely even a controlled flight into the target (kamikaze) would end up slower (final velocity) than just dropping, making the drone a much easier target for small arms fire than just the bomb alone. Every one of these drone-drop videos is several seconds between letting go of the bomb, and the bomb colliding with the target. If they actually want these drones to reliably hit a moving target, or even a vehicle in combat, they'll need to do something. That's a lot of hang-time and delay in these "drone drop" videos. Once the bomb is let go, there's going to be another 20+ to 30+ minutes before the drone operator is able to fly another drone into the field, and that's if the drone operator has a 2nd drone with him. Maybe it will be hours, or maybe the next chance to drop a bomb never comes ever again. You really want to maximize the chance of striking the target with these operations. A huge number of WW1 and WW2 operations were summarized as "Flew for 4 hours, missed my bomb, flew home". You want to minimize that kind of thing. Especially if these drones are considered somewhat expendable.
- nradov 5y ago
  Dive bombing is a silly idea for rotorcraft. It just doesn't work aerodynamically. Sophisticated militaries will strike moving targets with precision guided munitions. Generally either laser guidance with a designator mounted on the drone, or some kind of pattern recognition built into the bomb itself (could be optical, IR, or millimeter wave radar). For example, something like the GBU-44/B. Poor militaries and insurgents will make do with whatever they can get. Either wait for the target to stop moving, or just lead it a little and hope.