4 ms·

If your country is an adversary of China, I would be scared. I've seen videos on YouTube of how the drones from Chinese drone light shows take off and return to

If your country is an adversary of China, I would be scared. I've seen videos on YouTube of how the drones from Chinese drone light shows take off and return to their launch areas. They have remarkable accuracy.

mountainriver 1y ago
We do that in the US as well, it’s just more regulated (for some reason)
- empath75 1y ago
  But the US can't manufacture them at the scale china can.
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    Why would you? A glide kit for a Mk84 has twice the range, 100x the payload and the same price tag. The warfighting America does isn't rooted in that domain (even if you can argue drones are smarter).
avereveard 1y ago
Eh that's easy enough with inertial or ground navigation and some kind of beacon on the charging bay, the hard part is in enemy territory under the fog of war, jamming, and spotting targets on the fly.
- overfeed 1y ago
  If the drones are self-guided there's nothing to jam[1], and what can you do after spotting a swarm of drones? Shoot $5m missiles at each one of them?
  - maxglute 1y ago
    Not to mention DJI has AESA radars on $8000 agricultural drones. COTS drones withsensors + sensor fusion on par with best smart munitions.
dji4321234 1y ago
These generally just use RTK and a base station; nothing interesting and extremely easily rejected by EW (since they need both accurate global positioning signal _and_ RTK signal). Inside-out SLAM strategies and on-device ML are much more interesting and are starting to trickle into COTS drones. For example, the latest DJI drones all use SLAM for return-to-home even when GPS denied: https://www.facebook.com/reel/440875398703491 https://www.facebook.com/reel/440875398703491 , and the latest Matrice 4 enterprise drones also have end-user ML model runtimes that can fine-tune flight plans using user-provided logic. Inside-out last-second targeting is also very popular in Ukraine, with off-the-shelf "find the nearest car/person in analog video, lock to it on signal lost, and send Betaflight MSP stick commands to hit it" modules readily accessible on Aliexpress.
bigyabai 1y ago
If GPS geolocation makes you scared then don't look up what America did when we invented the JDAM...
- originalvichy 1y ago
  It’s not GPS geolocation, it’s the fact that the use of supply chains for injecting a container filled with drones is easier to sneak in when you’re a massive exporter like China. Nukes might already be flying before China has to resort to these tactics against the US, but there are other potential victims like Taiwan or other neighbours who can have major hubs and infrastructure damaged like this before a major attack.
jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago
Boards don't hit back.
mensetmanusman 1y ago
Drones will be fine for defending territory that you already control. China has no intention of attacking a distant country besides taking control of Taiwan in 2027.

mountainriver 1y ago

We do that in the US as well, it’s just more regulated (for some reason)

empath75 1y ago
But the US can't manufacture them at the scale china can.
- bigyabai 1y ago
  Why would you? A glide kit for a Mk84 has twice the range, 100x the payload and the same price tag. The warfighting America does isn't rooted in that domain (even if you can argue drones are smarter).

avereveard 1y ago

Eh that's easy enough with inertial or ground navigation and some kind of beacon on the charging bay, the hard part is in enemy territory under the fog of war, jamming, and spotting targets on the fly.

overfeed 1y ago
If the drones are self-guided there's nothing to jam[1], and what can you do after spotting a swarm of drones? Shoot $5m missiles at each one of them?
- maxglute 1y ago
  Not to mention DJI has AESA radars on $8000 agricultural drones. COTS drones withsensors + sensor fusion on par with best smart munitions.

dji4321234 1y ago

These generally just use RTK and a base station; nothing interesting and extremely easily rejected by EW (since they need both accurate global positioning signal _and_ RTK signal). Inside-out SLAM strategies and on-device ML are much more interesting and are starting to trickle into COTS drones. For example, the latest DJI drones all use SLAM for return-to-home even when GPS denied: https://www.facebook.com/reel/440875398703491 https://www.facebook.com/reel/440875398703491 , and the latest Matrice 4 enterprise drones also have end-user ML model runtimes that can fine-tune flight plans using user-provided logic. Inside-out last-second targeting is also very popular in Ukraine, with off-the-shelf "find the nearest car/person in analog video, lock to it on signal lost, and send Betaflight MSP stick commands to hit it" modules readily accessible on Aliexpress.

bigyabai 1y ago

If GPS geolocation makes you scared then don't look up what America did when we invented the JDAM...

originalvichy 1y ago
It’s not GPS geolocation, it’s the fact that the use of supply chains for injecting a container filled with drones is easier to sneak in when you’re a massive exporter like China. Nukes might already be flying before China has to resort to these tactics against the US, but there are other potential victims like Taiwan or other neighbours who can have major hubs and infrastructure damaged like this before a major attack.

jxjnskkzxxhx 1y ago

Boards don't hit back.

mensetmanusman 1y ago

Drones will be fine for defending territory that you already control. China has no intention of attacking a distant country besides taking control of Taiwan in 2027.