Drug cartel assassinates its enemies with bomb-toting drones • Hacker News Board

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

#361

Post by CraigJPerry » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 5:27 AM UTC

dogma1138 wrote: post #354

CraigJPerry wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean the logistics aren’t there yet? Drones are used daily by bad guys for recon purposes. These bad guys are groups with caches of weapons and skilled bomb makers in their numbers. Why in 7 years havent They just put the two together? What in our arm chair analysis are we overlooking?

I think you greatly over estimate the number of competent bomb makers considering just how effective taking them out has been. Much of the military equipment in circulation is decades old, you have RPGs from the 70’s being in use. The logistics for drones isn’t there yet, the human capital isn’t there yet either I would give it 5-10 more years till these drones will be prevalent in nearly every conflict.

car bombs are an unfortunately regular thing in this world (e.g. Azaz last month). Along with suicide vest wearers (Afghanistan most recently) and of course the IEDs designed to avoid detection and jamming in Iraq.

In each of these theatres we have documented heavy use of drones for recon.

The problem is nothing to do with logistics or skillset.

Hobby grade drones (even the heavy lift types which can manage 20kg payload) are not viable weapons. Their payload is too small, their accuracy too imprecise in practice and the economics of a stolen car’s payload being 1000x that of a medium-large hobby drone renders these a plot line in a movie rather than a real thing.

Age of military equipment has nothing to do with anything.

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

#362

Post by xyzzy_plugh » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 9:20 PM UTC

meheleventyone wrote: post #267

imtringued wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Regulation will help here. This isn't useful until after the fact for evidence gathering. This is actually the most effective anti drone defense. The only meaningful benefit of a drone vs a firearm is that the pilot is unknown. If you can link a drone to its pilot then you can just use conventional law enforcement. This would force abusers to build their own drones and thereby limit the impact of drone attacks signi…

Or they’d just remove the serial numbers.

Sure, just like you can remove the serial numbers on guns, remove the license plate or remove the VIN of a car, etc.

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

#363

Post by moneytide1 » Tue, Sep 01, 2020, 11:06 PM UTC

generalizations wrote: post #151

rurp wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is part of what makes it so scary. The current changes are nothing new, it's just that we're approaching the point where these threats can be existential. Once that happens, unless something really massive has changed in human society, it's probably game over.

And that argument is exhibit A for why Mars colonization is so important. It gives us a second chance to figure out how to live with existential threats.

Extra terrestrial expansion will be the magnus opum of a species that has adopted science as a standard. For a few decades, such an inhospitable location will become a mecca for "the best of us" (off world or not).

The conditions necessary for successful mission executions will insulate this unique group of colonists from the existential threats created by citizens naturally responding to their failed government (drug cartel would not exist if humanity could find a place and purpose for everyone).

I'd imagine that this is our own version of the "filter" described in the root comment. The high standards of heavily funded interstellar ventures will bring together strong-willed, healthy, intelligent, empathetic, curious, and ambitious men&women to operate several light-minutes away from Earth. These are the types of people we should want to be breeding with each other for a few generations in order to produce higher quality citizens that will carry on the project (surely there will be medical implications rearing children in 0.5 G, see lifelong asteroid miner portrayal in "the Expanse").

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

#364

Post by DreamScatter » Wed, Sep 02, 2020, 1:36 PM UTC

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…

Actually, you can kill a person with a tiny drone the size of a hand palm, it only requires a tiny explosive to enter the forehead and kill the person.

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

#365

Post by ShinyObject » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 12:15 AM UTC

"group opposed to dictatorial Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro"

Gee what great, totally-not-editorialized analysis from yet another military think tank pr writer.

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

#366

Post by ric2b » Thu, Sep 03, 2020, 1:39 PM UTC

JackFr wrote: post #294

ashtonkem wrote: post #209

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…

Do you never leave your house or go close to the windows? If you do, there you go.

Do you never run into traffic or stop at red lights in your car? If you do, there you go.

I wouldn't assume you'd always see the drone coming, even if you hear it it can probably strike in just a few seconds, before you realize what it is.

If the attacker wants to avoid being identified a remotely controlled drone is better than an RPG, and probably more accurate as well.

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

#367

Post by linksnapzz » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 9:32 AM UTC

082349872349872 wrote: post #203

I've been ghoulishly interested in the various US poorly-regulated militia since Malheur, and rationales behind their fetish for twentieth-century weaponry. Reading that the "counterforce" against which they train resembles a BATF unit more than a military unit made me guess they might be hoping to contract for cartels, but that supposition was dashed upon finding that (at least on US soil) the cartels are far fonder…

Bundy & Co. are a militia in the same way the James Gang was, or for that matter, the Wu-Tang Clan are. Disgruntled armed rural whites have been the bete noir of the urban reportorial class for so long that any crime, no matter how absurd, committed by guys in pickup trucks wearing cowboy hats is treated like the Austrian Anschluss.

Guaranteed acre-feet of press coverage; for the titillation of Euros who exoticize && Other the culture of the rural America.

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

#368

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 08, 2020, 8:19 AM UTC

moneytide1 wrote: post #363

generalizations wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that argument is exhibit A for why Mars colonization is so important. It gives us a second chance to figure out how to live with existential threats.

Extra terrestrial expansion will be the magnus opum of a species that has adopted science as a standard. For a few decades, such an inhospitable location will become a mecca for "the best of us" (off world or not). The conditions necessary for successful mission executions will insulate this unique group of colonists from the existential threats created by citizens naturally responding to their failed government (dru…

[deleted]

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

#369

Post by moneytide1 » Tue, Sep 15, 2020, 6:09 AM UTC

moneytide1 wrote: post #363

generalizations wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that argument is exhibit A for why Mars colonization is so important. It gives us a second chance to figure out how to live with existential threats.

Extra terrestrial expansion will be the magnus opum of a species that has adopted science as a standard. For a few decades, such an inhospitable location will become a mecca for "the best of us" (off world or not). The conditions necessary for successful mission executions will insulate this unique group of colonists from the existential threats created by citizens naturally responding to their failed government (dru…

Magnum opus*

But that is not a useful term here because there is a finality to it. The filter and expansion just sets the stage for someone to one day be able to exist and conjure up something as vast as a Dyson Sphere (or Halo).