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US Army Tests Swarms of Drones In Major Exercise (itworld.com)
itwbennett writes: The U.S. Army, curious about the potential threat and usefulness of off-the-shelf drones, brought consumer quadcopters and octocopters to the Network Integration Evaluation war games that concluded earlier this month at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and Fort Bliss, Texas. "During the exercise, which is used by the Army to help evaluate new technology, the drones were deployed as a swarm to simulate a threat,' writes Martyn Williams. 'Later, the Army expanded the trials to discover whether it might be able to make use of the same technology." The results are pretty much what you'd expect: "It has been proved that consumer [drones] can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, distraction tactics and, in the future, the ability to drop small munitions," said Barry Hatchett with the Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.
We're talking about Tracker Jackers.
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I could easily see drones being used to resupply both ammo and medical consumables. Heavy duty drones could also possibly be used to ferry the wounded off the field of battle...though I guess it also just makes another target.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
Cue the hairsplitters screaming "THEY'RE NOT DRONES!" and then pulling some definition of "drone" out of their ass that excludes whatever they don't like...
As has been demonstrated by a wayward military blimp recently, if you hang a long cables from drones and fly them into high voltage power lines, you have a pretty good chance of taking down part of the power grid.
US Army Tests Swarms of Drones In Major Exercise
"If I was you Major, I'd run..."
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
I would think the real threat would come from swarms loaded with TATP or some other easy to manufacture explosive. Simply attack a target by swarming it and then exploding upon impact.
What do you do when there are huge swarms of flying suicide bombers coming at you?
I could easily see drones being used to resupply both ammo and medical consumables. Heavy duty drones could also possibly be used to ferry the wounded off the field of battle...though I guess it also just makes another target.
The current medevac helicopters with white and red international medical evacuation markings are already targets for some enemies. The problem with the drone is that medevac (unarmed, marked) and casevac (armed, unmarked) aircraft not only provide quick transportation but also have medics and corpsmen (Navy medical personnel that go into combat with Marines) onboard to provide treatment during the flight. Drones would be a step back to WW2 and Korean War days where helicopters could only provide transportation.
Maybe a hybrid approach. If the landing zone is hot (under fire) medevac/casevac land somewhere "safe" nearby and the drones only ferry the wounded to them. Hopefully only a few blocks in an urban environment, 1/4 mile in undeveloped terrain?
http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/news/a17371/record-breaking-drone-swarm/
And I don't think anyone who knows anything about drones, consumer grade or otherwise, doesn't immediately grasp their potential for surveillance and munition delivery.
It's time to return shotguns to the Army.
Mount a small camera, pair with a viewing device, remote pilot "drone" with a kg or so of plastic explosive attached to it and detonate at target. Don't worry about "dropping" the munition. If it gets shot down, remote trigger detonation anyway.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
When the Navy runs economically based war games (simulations), fleets of small ships overwhelm and dominate similar budgets spent on large capital ships or fleets of mixed size.
Thing is, the Navy, Air Force, Army, etc. isn't about winning conflicts based on having the most powerful force we can field for a given budget. Shock and Awe play a huge part - the political power of stealth bombers, nuclear subs and aircraft carriers is in their ability to put a sense of dread and hopelessness into the enemy without having to fire a shot, or risk a life.
So, in this instance, I imagine that if you spent the cost of a modern B-52 on a fleet of small munitions equipped drones, you could probably pummel the hell out of any target within the drones' range, the death of a thousand cuts. There are some logistics problems, and the whole fleet could be overwhelmed with large air-bursts that exceed their flight capabilities, but if that same defensive firepower were targeted on the B-52, it would come down too. Obviously, consumer grade stuff isn't made to withstand any kind of challenge, but 100 small drones that can fly at 30,000 feet and an operational range of ~100 miles - that can be quite a threat.
Am I the only one thinking of non-lethal drones? Some examples.
- An "electric eel drone" that seeks out the face of enemy fighters, clings to it (think alien) and shocks them if they try to pull loose. Could be used in environments with civilians present. Think tazer + small drone + cell phone camera.
- Underwater drone that finds submarines, clings to them and sends out a tracking signal.
- Sea drones that entagles propellers of ships that needs to be caught with wire/net/mesh/etc.
Tiny drones that fly into soldiers like darts, inject nanites that coordinate to clot major arteries, and the victim suffers a stroke/cardiac arrest in 3...2...
I've been talking about swarms of A.I. drones for years, since they were always an obvious evolution. One idea I had for weaponry would be something like 2W lasers. Not that much power, portable, and not necessary destructive aside from blinding... But have a few hundred drones all focus their 2W laser at one location and it suddenly becomes noteworthy.
So, how long until some large well-funded organized group of nasty people get their hands on several of these and sets them to killing innocent civilians?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways