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Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones

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

#311

Post by Shivetya »

robocat wrote: post #248
anitil wrote: post #85

I actually work in the drone detection/jamming field. My only surprise is that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. We already see drones used for drug smuggling and privacy violations, as well as the use of drones to carry IED payloads. Drones are an amazing tool but as with any tool, they can be used in nefarious ways.

I presume the cheapest protection would be fine netting. Is there any indication of netting being used as protection against drones? Or would netting be to obvious that there was a target worth targeting?

well up until the point where it is an aerosol attack. protection is probably going to be down to specialized sensor arrays and some form of ballistic counter but these solutions will be expensive and harder to deploy than the attack.

drones open the door to all sorts of malfeasance that used to require state level backing to accomplish and counters are only coming into play if not concept

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

#312

Post by newsclues »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #308
JackFr wrote: 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,…

Fly a drone to a location and conduct surveillance for the target.

ID target and activate drone bombing protocol.

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

#313

Post by Communitivity »

darksaints wrote: post #309
JackFr wrote: 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.

Unless you are trying to send a message, it seems to me that the best assassination would leave doubt even as to whether the person was dead, or how they died. I think the parent's observation is spot on.

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

#314

Post by peteretep »

dogma1138 wrote: post #283
peteretep wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like more hassle than a mortar for about the same effect?

You can’t order a mortar on alibaba, and it requires much more training to use it effectively than flying a drone. Mortars are also large and heavy and require a crew to serve as well as spotters to direct fire which means you need to have people closer to your target and working communications. All of this complicates the logistics considerably which makes them less effective and more dangerous to their operators. E…

I’m not sure cartels have much trouble finding military hardware or people trained to use it

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

#315

Post by heyflyguy »

nl wrote: post #282
mschuster91 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the drone could position itself along the correct precomputed vector from far away, cut off electric, and glide the bomb to the target silently. An octocopter/ordinary drone can't do this - their electric goes out and they fall from the sky. For a glider you'd need an actual flyable airplane model (something like this: https://laughingsquid.com/a-15-foot-long-radio-controlled-ai... ), and these are expensive as fuc…

This is wrong. ISIS used[1] the X-UAV Talon. This is a off-the-shelf 1.7M wingspan drone plane available for about $150 without electronics (which are around $50-$200 depending on how elaborate you want to get). It's capable of 100km+ flights[3]. Here's a pic of one after being shot down in Iraq[4] [1] https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/commercial-dro... [2] https://au.banggood.com/X-UAV-Talon-EPO-1718mm-W…

Glad you posted this, was also going to post the images of the Skywalker X8 discovered in Syria and Mosul.

https://dronecenter.bard.edu/files/2016/12/Drones-in-Iraq-an...

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

#316

Post by gpm »

kumarvvr wrote: post #187
asdff wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the best anti drone would be a swarm of drones you send off to crash into another drone? You could model the schooling from fish or birds, then just have enough of them fill the air with enough density to guarantee a hit of the target within the error of the range finding technology.

The problem is logistics. For this solution to work, the counter swarm should be more capable than the incoming swarm (faster, more AI capabilities, etc), and their quantity should be more than the incoming swarm. You cannot have millions of drones everywhere, but the enemy just has to be lucky and send a million drones to attack you. Also, you can have advanced tactics, like releasing the swarm, but programming them…

The counter swarm can be cheaper/worse in some dimensions.

Smaller batteries since they don't need to travel far.

Nets or or even nothing instead of explosives, they need to stop drones not people.

The above two mean a lighter air frame.

The above 3 all mean more speed with the same motors (probably good) or less capable motors (seems like a bad plan).

Communications only need to be short range. Autonomy is plausible (but requires solving friendly fire).

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

#317

Post by Zenbit_UX »

mschuster91 wrote: post #270
asdff wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you could ever stop a low cost drone short of using a shotgun. Even if you had some sort of directed EMP technology, the drone could position itself along the correct precomputed vector from far away, cut off electric, and glide the bomb to the target silently.

> the drone could position itself along the correct precomputed vector from far away, cut off electric, and glide the bomb to the target silently. An octocopter/ordinary drone can't do this - their electric goes out and they fall from the sky. For a glider you'd need an actual flyable airplane model (something like this: https://laughingsquid.com/a-15-foot-long-radio-controlled-ai... ), and these are expensive as fuc…

> An octocopter/ordinary drone can't do this - their electric goes out and they fall from the sky.

Since you lack all imagination, the drone could position itself directly above the target before cutting off the engines and fall silently.

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

#318

Post by gleapsite »

ISL wrote: post #305
JackFr wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> violate both a personal code and what I imagine to be the spirit of HN.

Thanks for throwing up the Ethics flag.

Discussing/brainstorming this in a public forum is volunteering your brainpower in support of murderers.

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

#319

Post by Zenbit_UX »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #306
brendawalsh wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So simple in your scenario... The target just needs to jump in their nearest bunker, better hope they happen to be attacked outside their bunker eh?
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