[phoronixrly]

What a great time for this article! The US is having a mass hysteria event and it turns out you can churn out DYI drones for the fat sum of $12-13 each? What a time to be alive!

Edit: Hmm, considering that people are taking stars for UFOs lately, maybe a cheap drone is an overkill and a 20-pack of Chinese sky lanterns would be more than enough to keep the average US neighbourhood in a state of constant fear / see how long it takes for you to get to the front page of /r/UFOs...

[abracadaniel]

Judging from the posts I’ve seen, others have already started. Someone had a drone with a lit Roman candle going the other day. Or it was FAA compliant aliens. One of the two.

[gitaarik]

The only way to cover up real sightings is with fake sighthings.

[ActorNightly]

The interesting/scary part is that its not that hard to weaponise these drones. You can make one drop a home made explosive pretty easily, fully autonomous. and then dump itself into a body of water. All for way less cost than a gun.

[idunnoman1222]

I don’t know what drone you’re talking about but you absolutely cannot make a tiny Wi-Fi drone autonomous or drop things for less than a cost of a gun, every part of your statement is wrong. Currently anyone smart enough to build drone with 7 inch propellers and programmable GPS waypoints, improvised explosives … 3d printed release mechanism .. probably has a pretty good paying job and doesn’t see the value proposition of blowing things up

You know what you can easily do drive a truck into a crowd of people or fill your car with explosives in park it under a building and then blow up the entire building, but people aren’t doing that every day but continue whingeing about drones

[ActorNightly]

>Currently anyone smart enough to build drone with 7 inch propellers and programmable GPS waypoints, improvised explosives … 3d printed release mechanism .. probably has a pretty good paying job and doesn’t see the value proposition of blowing things up

This is true, but the thing is, at least in United States, its not a matter of lack of talent to build these things, its mostly a lack of need to destroy stuff. Given how things are going in the world, where an assasin is currently being celebrated, I dunno if this is gonna hold.

I will point you to this: https://www.reddit.com/r/ForgottenWeapons/comments/15gd3nj/m....

In the same way, it can very well be possible to make these things under $300 with mass produced kits. Hook up a gps chip to it, and its easy to make it waypoint navigatable without manual control

The advantage of a drone is that the level of separation between the assailant and the crime goes up so much that it becomes next to impossible for Law Enforcement to assertain a suspect.

[Max-q]

Autonomous isn’t a problem, the open source firmwares for drones include fully autonomous mode. I don’t know if this particular one does but it should be easy to port. The size and range, however, doesn’t make this particular drone very scary.

[bubaumba]

> home made explosive

With this a lot of damage can be done even without drone. As for weaponized it's not a future, it's a reality in Ukraine for years now. Defense against them is difficult to impossible. A bodyguard who can sacrifice himself may sometimes work.

[JKCalhoun]

It's not scary when it is just a hypothetical. If this were happening with some frequency it would be concerning. Until then I suspect there is something you are overlooking, oversimplifying.

(EDIT: I'm assuming you are talking about non-military use.)

[ActorNightly]

Its one of those things where once you can buy "kits" for it, you may see its use. Ukraine war videos popularized the idea of using drones to drop explosives.

I could see Cartels using this to take out targets.

[hermitcrab]

A rival cartel paid a British mercenary to drop 500lb bombs on Palbo Escobar in the 1990s.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/14/colombia.world

So it isn't an entirely new concept.

[numpad0]

I find it funny that the US is so obsessed with infantry firearms and surgical strikes that people think those are the best "ways to go" for certain things. I guess not a bad thing considering we don't need any improved means for those stuffs...

[aftbit]

Why even "drop" an explosive? Just fly it straight into the target.

[diggan]

> The US is having a mass hysteria event

What is this in reference to? The Chinese weather-balloon drama was years ago, wasn't it?

[mathgeek]

https://apnews.com/article/drones-new-jersey-what-to-know-e6...

[diggan]

Thanks!

> Authorities say many of the drone sightings have actually been legal drones, manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars.

> many state and municipal lawmakers have called for stricter rules about who can fly unmanned aircraft — and for the authority to shoot them down.

Hard to find a more American article than this.

[jbuzbee]

"Hard to find a more American article than this." Just wait until they start taking pot-shots at them and then it will be "real" America: BOOM! "Look Ma! I done got one!"

[edm0nd]

humans are the virus