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Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

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301–310 of 369 posts

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tannerite is, though. (And where it isn't, blasting charges for mining are. And where those aren't, fertilizer probably still is. Explosives are hard, yet also far easier than you'd think)

Buy those things and you’ll end up on a list and under surveillance quickly.

Doesn't that imply you're already under surveillance? The list that we're on is: anyone who is alive and can be surveiled.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course you can. There’s always an escalation to beat the latest weapon. There’s a myriad of possibility. Flak guns, modified chaff, glue, directed energy, hunter killer drones, etc.

kumarvvr's point was that you[1] have to consider the collateral damage of shooting down drones. If you make an enemy drone crash there's a possibility that it could crash in to a school or a hospital. That would be bad. [1] The person defending something, not you . Your comment makes it clear you believe in defence at any cost.

When you need to defend, it's too late.

If you're at a point where you need to take specific action in defense of a drone, you are already have crossed the rubicon where you are in conflict, and the outcome of that action may include harm to others. Any other constraints around the application of violence is wishful thinking at best -- there are too many variables in these scenarios.

The obvious solution that will happen is heavier licensure requirements and criminalization of unlicensed operation. You'll have toys and professional devices, and there will be a presumption that a drone is bad unless proven otherwise.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly do you mean by that? Is there some famous story I’m not aware of? ...I can’t help but sense some crazy coming my way.

Not the parent commentator but I assume this is a reference to a medical doctor having access to a significant contagion. For example the CDC keeps stocks of eradicated but virulent diseases.

Pretty much. It doesn't have to be much more than having access to the contents of a decently large hospital, IIRC.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that this article is talking about drones because it's newsish, where bribery and guns are less so. But, that's not really how the economics of violence works. It's more of a whatever-works, and whatever you can get your hands on element. Guns, bombs, hard men, threats and bribes are still in use. Infantry still exists, even though ICBMs exist. They don't have to choose. This is quasi military conflict we are…

There must be a reason then that these drones don’t feature in death tallies? Death by friendly fire far far exceeds lethality of these drones worldwide. They’ve been in documented use over 7 years at this point. Why are they less effective than Facebook posts at killing people?

Hand grenade toting drones more or less came of age during the ISIS shenanigans and Syrian civil war. Both those conflicts are/were hot enough and had enough state resources pumped in that you had guys taking pot shots at each other with AGTMs. Basically the other sources of casualties were too much background noise for drones to be noteworthy.

When a cooler conflict comes around, think whatever the 2020s, 2030s equivalent of the troubles is, drones will certainly rack up a much greater market share of the casualties by virtue of the lower background noise. They just aren't that useful in a "low but still tons of real armaments around for use" intensity conflict.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#305
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High value targets will justify expenditure of more resources. For most targets a few men with AK-47s might do the trick, but for the well protected target this would be a pretty decent strategy. It certainly would strike fear into the hearts of men otherwise protected against more pedestrian threats, which is probably part of the point.

So how will a drone attack me in my house? Mind you my house is not a hard target but is air conditioned, so I keep the doors and windows shut. How will a drone attack me in my car? I don’t have a great car, but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter. So assuming I’m safe in my home and in my car, I guess other opportunities exist to kill me, but you need to have an operator ready with a drone in p…

A drone need not enter a home to cause havoc within. I do not believe the assumption that one is safe within a home/car is a viable one.

To discuss specific implementations of an attack would seem to violate both a personal code and what I imagine to be the spirit of HN.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you managed to detect and track an incoming drone you could ‘jam’ its camera with a high-powered laser - or something that threw up a curtain of flares or burning magnesium, or whatever.

Does that work for a fleet of 10 drones? 100 drones? 1,000 drones?

A drone swarm dropping hand grenades is like targeted artillery. Experience from WW 1 is that it's straightforward to defend against artillery fire, just retreat into a shelter. A target that's worth five dozen drones with grenades can afford a bunker.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#308
post #123

As I read the article, there was not actually a single confirmed death by explosive armed drone. I suspect that ultimately it’s likely impractical To kill people by drone as compared, on a cost basis, to other more pedestrian means of killing people. Drones may be cheap, but drones that can lift more than 2 kilos aren’t. The logistics of getting a drone near enough to the intended target to kill them are going to be…

There was that movie where the mobster told the incompetent hitman - "Just walk up to them, put the gun to their head and pull the trigger. That way, you can be sure."

Then he put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger (because his uzi attack had failed to kill the target)

Anyway, hard to beat the classics. Until the drone can lie in wait, identify the target itself, home in on it and explode at point blank range, well then we haven't gotten close to the traditional approach.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#309
post #123

As I read the article, there was not actually a single confirmed death by explosive armed drone. I suspect that ultimately it’s likely impractical To kill people by drone as compared, on a cost basis, to other more pedestrian means of killing people. Drones may be cheap, but drones that can lift more than 2 kilos aren’t. The logistics of getting a drone near enough to the intended target to kill them are going to be…

While I agree with your premise, I would just like to point out that in Mexico, the number of missing people far outweigh the number of confirmed deaths. Not all cartel murders result in visible bodies on streets, and many of them do take care to hide their trails.

Re: Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

#310
post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High value targets will justify expenditure of more resources. For most targets a few men with AK-47s might do the trick, but for the well protected target this would be a pretty decent strategy. It certainly would strike fear into the hearts of men otherwise protected against more pedestrian threats, which is probably part of the point.

So how will a drone attack me in my house? Mind you my house is not a hard target but is air conditioned, so I keep the doors and windows shut. How will a drone attack me in my car? I don’t have a great car, but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter. So assuming I’m safe in my home and in my car, I guess other opportunities exist to kill me, but you need to have an operator ready with a drone in p…

For some it will be the perfect terrorist tool, tools that cause terror do not necessarily need to always kill.
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