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Due to the nature of their deployment (ad hoc, improvised, crowd-sourced) swarms of quads in Ukraine didn't have much of a counter. Nobody had thought enough ab

Due to the nature of their deployment (ad hoc, improvised, crowd-sourced) swarms of quads in Ukraine didn't have much of a counter. Nobody had thought enough about it yet. All the work had gone into developing really sophisticated, cheap drones for consumer use, and strapping a bomb on them was all it took to weaponize that consumer technology. Nobody had spent a similar amount of time developing an equally sophisticated anti-drone system as a counter to a non-existent attack. There have been some garage-level technologies to mitigate their practical effectiveness, but that's not what I mean. I think we're in this period where quads are the meta, because not enough money has been spent thinking about the defense against them, but right now DoD contractors are developing the systems that will make cheap drones less effective in the future. I don't know what that will look like, but I'm sure it's a top priority to figure it out.

anonylizard 2y ago
There were no counters to cavalry for like 1000 years. The only generalized countermeasure to cavalry was cavalry of your own. This led to the dramatic territorial and genetic expansion of nomadic peoples, such as the Arabs and Turks. There are specific 'counters' like pikes, fortifications etc, but they only trade effectively against head on charges. Cavalry still held the advantage of tactical mobility, which meant they dominated reconnaissance, can pursue and annihilate defeated enemies, can retreat gracefully etc. There may be no counters to drones except for more drones. Or the counter may have to be highly strategical, such as devastating hack-based attacks that may involve use of advanced and dangerous AIs (Cyberpunk Blackwall...). Artilleries also had no counter for like 50 years. And completely reshaped military doctrine and strategy, made WW1 into a slog etc. WWII found a way to 'beat' artillery by armored thrusts to get behind them, but that is not easily achievable.
- ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
  Great historical context, ty. You're right that you may only find a counter to the latest tech once you've lost the war, or you may never find it and you'll only see the victors over you displaced by someone who does find a counter and now rules over you instead of your first enemy.
siliconc0w 2y ago
Lasers and microwaves can be mitigated, jamming doesn't matter if they're autonomous(and can also be mitigated), bullets have a hard time with fast and stocastic movement. It's gonna be done on drone. And they can lie in wait in low power mode and navigate buildings so, yeah better hope you get all of them.
- moffkalast 2y ago
  Well there is one limitation, flight time for drones is still garbage, and with more payload doubly so. You just have to wait 20 minutes and it'll run out of power.
- onepointsixC 2y ago
  Drone on drone is very inefficient. There is plenty of work on going for anti drone capabilities for small caliber cannons, direct energy, and aps. I would not hand wave mitigation as defeating.

anonylizard 2y ago

There were no counters to cavalry for like 1000 years. The only generalized countermeasure to cavalry was cavalry of your own. This led to the dramatic territorial and genetic expansion of nomadic peoples, such as the Arabs and Turks. There are specific 'counters' like pikes, fortifications etc, but they only trade effectively against head on charges. Cavalry still held the advantage of tactical mobility, which meant they dominated reconnaissance, can pursue and annihilate defeated enemies, can retreat gracefully etc. There may be no counters to drones except for more drones. Or the counter may have to be highly strategical, such as devastating hack-based attacks that may involve use of advanced and dangerous AIs (Cyberpunk Blackwall...). Artilleries also had no counter for like 50 years. And completely reshaped military doctrine and strategy, made WW1 into a slog etc. WWII found a way to 'beat' artillery by armored thrusts to get behind them, but that is not easily achievable.

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
Great historical context, ty. You're right that you may only find a counter to the latest tech once you've lost the war, or you may never find it and you'll only see the victors over you displaced by someone who does find a counter and now rules over you instead of your first enemy.

siliconc0w 2y ago

Lasers and microwaves can be mitigated, jamming doesn't matter if they're autonomous(and can also be mitigated), bullets have a hard time with fast and stocastic movement. It's gonna be done on drone. And they can lie in wait in low power mode and navigate buildings so, yeah better hope you get all of them.

moffkalast 2y ago
Well there is one limitation, flight time for drones is still garbage, and with more payload doubly so. You just have to wait 20 minutes and it'll run out of power.
onepointsixC 2y ago
Drone on drone is very inefficient. There is plenty of work on going for anti drone capabilities for small caliber cannons, direct energy, and aps. I would not hand wave mitigation as defeating.