I wonder how long until DIY weaponized drones are available to common criminals. It doesn't seem like we are prepared to deal with something like this.
Exactly. The drive by gang shooting may become a fly by soon.
To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
131–140 of 214 posts
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#132Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slow and easy to kill? Seen a drone race? At what range and with what weapon would they be easy to kill? How long would the kill take? At what range could the drone be killed at? Sure often drones fly in straight lines or hover. But in an adversarial environment they could easily move pseudo randomly and be quite difficult to kill.
Current point defense systems are already capable of placing a 20mm round with a muzzle velocity of 1000m/s onto a falling mortar shell in the last three seconds of its flight time. How hard do you think drones are by comparison?
> How hard do you think drones are by comparison?
Very. The calculation made for each round could be irrelevant before they travel 500m. Drones also have no obligation to approach at the same convenient high angle mortars do. 2-3 drones weaving between buildings faster than a human can aim? Sounds terrifying.
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slow and easy to kill? Seen a drone race? At what range and with what weapon would they be easy to kill? How long would the kill take? At what range could the drone be killed at? Sure often drones fly in straight lines or hover. But in an adversarial environment they could easily move pseudo randomly and be quite difficult to kill.
Here's a line of cops shooting at race drones. They would've had plenty of time to escape if they weren't sticking around to find out how long it takes to get shot down. These were race drones from 5 years ago and modern ones can be around twice as fast. Not to mention you don't want to dump a magazine upwards in your own territory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq0oCM37oZA
How about a super soaker instead of a pistol? Especially one of the CPS soakers that got banned https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=resgaF7MeR4
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#135My guess is that defences against those size and larger drones will improve to the point where they're null without total air supremacy.
You can't safely fly a Jet these days without enormous support, interference and then at great risk until the skies are very well cleared.
I think possibly the same thing will apply to drones in that 'just as cheap' technology will render them null.
Maybe not for the 'very smallest' type drones but certainly anything approaching the size of a car that sticks out on radar - a slow, lumbering, easy target for a range of weapons.
It's one thing for Azerbeijan or Libyans to face these things, much like American air power over Iraq, it's not a 'balanced situation'.
The moment someone tries to use these against a capable adversary we'll see what toys are hidden away and/or things will change very quickly.
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only once. Everyone has paid attention, and the next drone attacks will be suitably defended against. The fact is the "killer bot" scenario is just a one time thing. After it happens, all cities or armies or whatever, will have very solid defences installed against swarming or even just loitering bots. Flying drones are incredibly fragile and exposed. They are slow and easy to kill.
Slow and easy to kill? Seen a drone race? At what range and with what weapon would they be easy to kill? How long would the kill take? At what range could the drone be killed at? Sure often drones fly in straight lines or hover. But in an adversarial environment they could easily move pseudo randomly and be quite difficult to kill.
My university has been working with the army to engineer drone vs human engagements. They originally set out to increase the drones' efficacy against humans wielding small arms (shotguns/etc), but apparently found out that was trivial. The drones very, very quickly overwhelmingly surpass the ability of humans to engage and defeat the drones.
The research pivoted very early to "training humans to more successfully defend against small drone attacks". I'm not sure how much success they've had or what success is defined as for something like this.
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#137Drones are the new aircraft carriers. That is, pre-WWII, the dominant naval ship was the battleship. Heavily armored, with enormous guns, military planners expected that the battle for the Atlantic and Pacific would be carried out by these monsters slugging it out. Though there were hints that planes could be quite effective against ships, few admirals realized that the longer range of an aircraft carrier would make…
A drone with the same range as a missile would be indistinguishable from a missile. A drone without the same range as a missile would likely have its carrier detected and destroyed before it can get in range to release it's drones. Drones are great for irregular forces that can hide among civilian populations or in dense terrain to have short ranged air strike capabilities cheaply, but they are not substitute for lon…
Drones are distinguishable by the fact they are lumbering, slow targets.
Most of these Turkish style drones will be null in any real fight because there is (or will be soon) tech to instantly neutralize them.
The 'smaller' drones in civilian areas - yes - that's a different story, but thankfully they have more limited range.
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Slow and easy to kill? Seen a drone race? At what range and with what weapon would they be easy to kill? How long would the kill take? At what range could the drone be killed at? Sure often drones fly in straight lines or hover. But in an adversarial environment they could easily move pseudo randomly and be quite difficult to kill.
Current point defense systems are already capable of placing a 20mm round with a muzzle velocity of 1000m/s onto a falling mortar shell in the last three seconds of its flight time. How hard do you think drones are by comparison?
How would they do if the mortar shell engaged in rapid, unpredictable evasive maneuvers at low altitude behind cover most of the way?
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#139The article has a good intro, and then never goes on to discuss the "key strengths". It's just clickbait. They're also late to the party on this. The US professional military has been discussing this for over a decade. There have already been more than a half dozen articles on drones in Parameters, the U.S. Army War College's journal. "The coercive logic of militant drone use" [1] is worth reading. This covers how no…
> commercially available drones and fuel-expedient (?)
A transcription error that has been carried forward over several sources, apparently. The general undoubtedly said "field-expedient", meaning devices that can be cobbled together in the field. Take a commercial drone from ToysRUs and tape a hand grenade to it, and you have a field-expedient war drone.
Re: To protect against weaponized drones, we must understand their key strengths
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To counter them, you will need a very sizeable air force fitted with best radars possible to track them down individually, and strafe with a cannon Or, you know, currently fielded SHORAD systems and CIWS?
What are their range, and height of radar horizon? Even if that wouldn't be a problem, you will still need really a lot of that.
On the Phalanx, about 1.5 - 5.5 km?
Either self-radar or tied into a broader net.
That's current-gen, repurposed from something designed against cruise missiles.
Next gen will probably optimize for or supplement with lighter weight projectiles, depending on whether lighter or heavier drones proliferate.