Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by stickfigure 1833 days ago
This makes no sense. If we're talking about an opponent that can field fighter aircraft and missiles that can destroy anti-drone defenses at 50-100km away, they could just use those missiles instead of drones to destroy the "real" target.

Seems to me the likely scenario is some sort of cheap projectile automatic weapon mounted on a vehicle. It doesn't take much to take down a drone and they move incredibly slowly compared to "real" missiles. Sure, 22LR, why not.
2 comments
marcus_holmes 1833 days ago
iirc the "slaughterbot" concept is about tiny kamikaze drones. Enough explosive to crack open a skull in a drone about the size of a coin, and not much more expensive than that coin. Release hundreds of thousands of them for less than the cost of a single missile, and each of them will independently target and execute a single human.

I don't think any kind of conventional gun is going to do anything against this.

link
stickfigure 1833 days ago
That's still very much science fiction though. What kind of battery power density would you need to make it viable?

Also: Soldiers already wear armor designed to stop bullets. Not sure this is an obvious gamechanger.

link
klyrs 1833 days ago
Bullets are a truly silly approach. Grapeshot is already banned in war, and seems like it could be significantly more effective (but still they'll only tear a cone out of a cloud). As far as I can tell, the best defense is an EMP pulse to fry their electronics. If they aren't fully autonomous, jamming the radio might work.
link
klyrs 1833 days ago
> Sure, 22LR, why not.

Because they're subsonic soon after they leave the barrel. A swarm could have fairly precise directional hearing, so dodging such a slow bullet isn't out of the question.

link
eindiran 1832 days ago
I mean, you can drop in 5.56 or even magnum rimfire rounds like 17HMR (anything that is supersonic past eg 200m) and that issue is mitigated. The swarms could hypothetically still detect muzzle flashes, so that could allow them to respond.

But the real issue is that the threat is a swarm, why are you taking potshots at it. Whatever weapon you use should be able to consume as many of them as possible at once.

link
stickfigure 1832 days ago
Birdshot? Plus less risk of collateral damage when the misses fall back to earth.
link