5 ms·

A bird and a drone are pretty similar. Heck you could make a drone look and fly similar to a bird. Slow small object detection brings its own challenges. The r

A bird and a drone are pretty similar. Heck you could make a drone look and fly similar to a bird. Slow small object detection brings its own challenges. The realistic aspect though is a small drone by itself can’t do huge damage. And a swarm would surely be detected.

greedo 3y ago
Well, considering FPV drones in Ukraine are destroying aircraft, tanks, IFVs etc, that could be an issue. Langley houses F-22s that are basically priceless.
- dghlsakjg 3y ago
  A battlefield front line in Eastern Europe is a far cry from a USAF base surrounded by 3 letter agencies. I would bet that the people who invented drone warfare have some awareness of the risks.
  - llm_trw 3y ago
    Sounds like the perfect place to drop some biological weapons. >Crazy that Covid 2025 was first detected in Langley isn't it? What's worse is that this won't take more than a garage bio lab to do. Makes me want to move to Antarctica.
    - transcriptase 3y ago
      I wouldn’t worry about theoretical garage bio labs. It’s hard enough doing microbiology, molecular genetics, and bioinformatics even with a real lab full of experienced scientists and technicians. The idea of one or two people doing anything threatening even with millions of dollars ignores the fact that nobody has the requisite expertise to not only perform all the experiments and analyses, but somehow keep the equipment running without service contracts. Good luck getting an Illumina or Agilent tech to your clandestine garage operation to set up and calibrate your gear.
      - llm_trw 3y ago
        You sound exactly like the old sysadmins who were saying why mysql is a toy that you should never use for your website. Open source science is real and has a barrier to entry that's just your time. Anyone with a biology degree can set up a garage lab today that would have been state of the art in 2010 for under $20k.
        transcriptase 3y ago
        With all due respect, you sound like someone with little to no experience with the topic at hand. Having set up a state of the art labs in 2011 and 2015 and having what you’re imagining is the required education, I can assure you there’s nothing myself or anyone else can do with 20k today that’s even in the same arena as the former. And if you’re basing this solely on marketing claims for nanopore… I was a beta tester.
        bloatedGoat 3y ago
        The fentanyl crisis should serve as a warning here. Precursors can be made in labs elsewhere and smuggled in and assembled in a lab of nearly arbitrary quality if a hostile nation state was motivated. Perhaps $20k isn't enough but $20M is tiny for a government sponsored program and more than enough to cause catastrophic damage.
  - littlestymaar 3y ago
    Because the US definitively do not have prior experience of being hit by surprise from the air on their own soil…
  - AYBABTME 3y ago
    Drone warfare isn't invented though. Warfare tactics are ever evolving, the same as an MMA fighter can do whatever it takes to win. So it's not like there's an inventor of drone warfare, who wrote the rules and derived the consequences, and could predict the outcomes. Especially when warfare economics starts to go back to individuals/small entities having asymmetrical advantages over state actors. And when development in this space is incredibly rapid, accelerating and available to anyone with a laptop, a DIY CNC cutter and some off the shelf chemicals. Defending against these types of threats isn't something the traditional military orgs are equipped for. They are slow to move, react, plan. They have established doctrine to counteract a simulated opponent's doctrine.
  - bevekspldnw 3y ago
    One would also bet that some discarded “allies” from the Cold War operating from a cave in Afghanistan couldn’t pull off a surprise attack on American soil, killing thousands. And yet they did. For the record, that attack did include an aircraft slamming into the pentagon itself. Bloated intel agencies aren’t run by gods, they’re run by bureaucrats. They have, and will, fail.
    - tw04 3y ago
      > One would also bet that some discarded “allies” from the Cold War operating from a cave in Afghanistan couldn’t pull off a surprise attack on American soil, killing thousands. And yet they did. One would have to have been pretty ignorant then. It’s not like 9/11 was an isolated event. The same target was hit 8 years prior. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bomb...
      - bevekspldnw 3y ago
        Totally. Multiple agencies were aware of the plot in full or in part, and it was utterly down to mismanagement of national defense. The “inside job” has always really been distraction from the mundane truth it was a massive fuckup by the people in charge. So I’m very open to the possibility there are a lot of adversaries walking around the permitters of US bases with little drone kits having a blast.
    - NegativeLatency 3y ago
      And the very near miss of the White House or other nearby target https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93
  - greedo 3y ago
    Considering how poor the DoD response outlined in this article has been, they may have awareness, but that doesn't mean they're appropriately addressing the risk.
dhosek 3y ago
There’s a good reason why birds and drones are so similar. https://birdsarentreal.com https://birdsarentreal.com

greedo 3y ago

Well, considering FPV drones in Ukraine are destroying aircraft, tanks, IFVs etc, that could be an issue. Langley houses F-22s that are basically priceless.

dghlsakjg 3y ago
A battlefield front line in Eastern Europe is a far cry from a USAF base surrounded by 3 letter agencies. I would bet that the people who invented drone warfare have some awareness of the risks.
- llm_trw 3y ago
  Sounds like the perfect place to drop some biological weapons. >Crazy that Covid 2025 was first detected in Langley isn't it? What's worse is that this won't take more than a garage bio lab to do. Makes me want to move to Antarctica.
  - transcriptase 3y ago
    I wouldn’t worry about theoretical garage bio labs. It’s hard enough doing microbiology, molecular genetics, and bioinformatics even with a real lab full of experienced scientists and technicians. The idea of one or two people doing anything threatening even with millions of dollars ignores the fact that nobody has the requisite expertise to not only perform all the experiments and analyses, but somehow keep the equipment running without service contracts. Good luck getting an Illumina or Agilent tech to your clandestine garage operation to set up and calibrate your gear.
    - llm_trw 3y ago
      You sound exactly like the old sysadmins who were saying why mysql is a toy that you should never use for your website. Open source science is real and has a barrier to entry that's just your time. Anyone with a biology degree can set up a garage lab today that would have been state of the art in 2010 for under $20k.
      - transcriptase 3y ago
        With all due respect, you sound like someone with little to no experience with the topic at hand. Having set up a state of the art labs in 2011 and 2015 and having what you’re imagining is the required education, I can assure you there’s nothing myself or anyone else can do with 20k today that’s even in the same arena as the former. And if you’re basing this solely on marketing claims for nanopore… I was a beta tester.
        bloatedGoat 3y ago
        The fentanyl crisis should serve as a warning here. Precursors can be made in labs elsewhere and smuggled in and assembled in a lab of nearly arbitrary quality if a hostile nation state was motivated. Perhaps $20k isn't enough but $20M is tiny for a government sponsored program and more than enough to cause catastrophic damage.
- littlestymaar 3y ago
  Because the US definitively do not have prior experience of being hit by surprise from the air on their own soil…
- AYBABTME 3y ago
  Drone warfare isn't invented though. Warfare tactics are ever evolving, the same as an MMA fighter can do whatever it takes to win. So it's not like there's an inventor of drone warfare, who wrote the rules and derived the consequences, and could predict the outcomes. Especially when warfare economics starts to go back to individuals/small entities having asymmetrical advantages over state actors. And when development in this space is incredibly rapid, accelerating and available to anyone with a laptop, a DIY CNC cutter and some off the shelf chemicals. Defending against these types of threats isn't something the traditional military orgs are equipped for. They are slow to move, react, plan. They have established doctrine to counteract a simulated opponent's doctrine.
- bevekspldnw 3y ago
  One would also bet that some discarded “allies” from the Cold War operating from a cave in Afghanistan couldn’t pull off a surprise attack on American soil, killing thousands. And yet they did. For the record, that attack did include an aircraft slamming into the pentagon itself. Bloated intel agencies aren’t run by gods, they’re run by bureaucrats. They have, and will, fail.
  - tw04 3y ago
    > One would also bet that some discarded “allies” from the Cold War operating from a cave in Afghanistan couldn’t pull off a surprise attack on American soil, killing thousands. And yet they did. One would have to have been pretty ignorant then. It’s not like 9/11 was an isolated event. The same target was hit 8 years prior. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bomb...
    - bevekspldnw 3y ago
      Totally. Multiple agencies were aware of the plot in full or in part, and it was utterly down to mismanagement of national defense. The “inside job” has always really been distraction from the mundane truth it was a massive fuckup by the people in charge. So I’m very open to the possibility there are a lot of adversaries walking around the permitters of US bases with little drone kits having a blast.
  - NegativeLatency 3y ago
    And the very near miss of the White House or other nearby target https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_93
- greedo 3y ago
  Considering how poor the DoD response outlined in this article has been, they may have awareness, but that doesn't mean they're appropriately addressing the risk.

dhosek 3y ago

There’s a good reason why birds and drones are so similar. https://birdsarentreal.com https://birdsarentreal.com