3 ms·

> You don't want to shoot down the wrong one. This is the great thing about drones. If you're not 100% certain it's friendly, there's no actual harm in shootin

> You don't want to shoot down the wrong one. This is the great thing about drones. If you're not 100% certain it's friendly, there's no actual harm in shooting it down other than a small* hit to the budget. And I suspect going forward, that'll be a new military policy. If unsure, bring it down. * Small in relative terms to the military's budget. Not so small to me, and an average, working-class pawn.

Arrath 3y ago
There's also the concern of collateral damage: falling debris/shrapnel from the interception, if CIWS/CRAM were used you have all those rounds returning to the ground somewhere downrange, UXO if using proximity rounds and they don't self destruct properly, and so on.
- sillywalk 3y ago
  The CRAM has self-destructing rounds. "One major difference between the land- and sea-based variants is the choice of ammunition. Whereas naval Phalanx systems fire tungsten armor-piercing rounds, the C-RAM uses the 20–mm HEIT-SD (High-Explosive Incendiary Tracer, Self-Destruct) ammunition, originally developed for the M163 Vulcan Air Defense System.These rounds explode if they impact a target, but if they miss they self-destruct on tracer burnout, greatly reducing the risk of collateral damage from misses." [0][1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS [1] https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/centurion-c-ram-the-solution-that-isnt/ https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/centurion-c-ram-the-solution-t...
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Neat! Not foolproof surely but better than the alternative.
- chmod775 3y ago
  Given that the ex gratia payment per falsely killed Arab is generally less than $5k, sometimes less than $200, often nothing, I'm sure that's even less of a concern.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
I suspect that the small hit to the budget would be treated as a career-ending gaffe for Lieutenant John Doe

Arrath 3y ago

There's also the concern of collateral damage: falling debris/shrapnel from the interception, if CIWS/CRAM were used you have all those rounds returning to the ground somewhere downrange, UXO if using proximity rounds and they don't self destruct properly, and so on.

sillywalk 3y ago
The CRAM has self-destructing rounds. "One major difference between the land- and sea-based variants is the choice of ammunition. Whereas naval Phalanx systems fire tungsten armor-piercing rounds, the C-RAM uses the 20–mm HEIT-SD (High-Explosive Incendiary Tracer, Self-Destruct) ammunition, originally developed for the M163 Vulcan Air Defense System.These rounds explode if they impact a target, but if they miss they self-destruct on tracer burnout, greatly reducing the risk of collateral damage from misses." [0][1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS [1] https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/centurion-c-ram-the-solution-that-isnt/ https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/centurion-c-ram-the-solution-t...
- Arrath 3y ago
  Neat! Not foolproof surely but better than the alternative.
chmod775 3y ago
Given that the ex gratia payment per falsely killed Arab is generally less than $5k, sometimes less than $200, often nothing, I'm sure that's even less of a concern.

Rebelgecko 3y ago

I suspect that the small hit to the budget would be treated as a career-ending gaffe for Lieutenant John Doe