Post: #1

Quote:Now hobby-sized drones can fly for up to two hours on solid fuel pellets. Read about it here. This technology isn’t yet commercial, but it probably will be in several years.

I don’t know how far a hobby-sized drone can fly in two hours. And I don’t know how hard it would be to program one to fly from wherever you are to a specific GPS location. But when those two technologies come together, how do you stop a weaponized suicide drone from attacking literally anywhere on Earth?

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/139490217676/drone-risks



How about a fleet of 20 suicide drones, each costing less than $1000 each and tipped with explosives, programmed to swarm a Prime Minster's or General's house when he's there? Talk about asymmetric warfare.

Post: #2

Cartels already use drones to smuggle across the southern border.

Drones have been used for over a decade in the middle eastern theater by western forces, for recon, and bombing.

It's only a matter of time before people who want to do harm, get keen on using drones as weapons against soft civilian targets.

I mean they have videos of drones shooting off weapons.

It's only a matter of time, prices are already dropping for drones/accessories - there are more registered drones than their are registered pilots by the FAA.

Post: #3

That is actually not that far fetched. A teenager already made a drone carrying a gun with remote firing:

(02-17-2016 01:45 PM)Roosh Wrote:  How about a fleet of 20 suicide drones, each costing less than $1000 each and tipped with explosives, programmed to swarm a Prime Minster's or General's house when he's there? Talk about asymmetric warfare.

Very interesting. We may soon see a micro-version of the Iron Dome anti-missile technology from Israel developed to combat rouge drones.

Post: #4

Funny. I recently thought of something similar myself while reading about some tech innovation.

How difficult would it be to have small drones powered by solar panels and programmed to fly to any destination in the world? GPS modules weigh nothing and are reliable. Google or Facebook has been experimenting with little airplanes for wireless connections that will remain in the air for over a year.

If such a thing could carry an additional 1-2 pounds you are talking about seriously dangerous possibilities.

Post: #5

In college I used to hang out with a bunch of guys who were RC pilot hobbyists. Hilariously a lot of them work for defence contractors now programming military drone navigation systems.

The technology for this has already been around for quite a long time. One of the guys I knew had this epic RC mini prop plan that he could control using VHF and UHF radio. He had a amateur radio license which he would use to control the plane. He always registered his RC plane's flight path with the FAA before take off, but essentially he could fly it below radar and never get detected. It would be trivial to attach explosives to one.

Post: #6

I actually designed a mercenary character for a story once that used drones like this: Funnily enough I called him "the X-mas elf"
BUt drone users are a common trope in cyberpunk or in the somewhat more tacky magiccyberpunk that is shadowrun (where they are called "riggers")

Post: #7

Well, I needed a reason to own a shotgun.

Post: #8

(02-17-2016 02:28 PM)philosophical_recovery Wrote:  Well, I needed a reason to own a shotgun.

I imagine that soon certain areas will have anti-drone sites like those used by military bases in the Middle East and Afghanistan to intercept incoming rockets.

Post: #9

I'm sure there's single target EMP systems to knock drones electronically out of the sky.

There's always nets, birds, etc.

Falconing just might make a comeback !

Post: #10

(02-17-2016 02:57 PM)kaotic Wrote:  I'm sure there's single target EMP systems to knock drones electronically out of the sky.

There's always nets, birds, etc.

Falconing just might make a comeback !

The Dutch police are training eagles to intercept drones.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-02/ea...vs/7132096

Post: #11

We gonna boycott this one next?

Post: #12

You mean like this?

Post: #13

There was a tv show that did something like that. I believe it was an episode of Legends. Looks like DoD needs some more funding...

Post: #14

(02-17-2016 01:45 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

Quote:Now hobby-sized drones can fly for up to two hours on solid fuel pellets. Read about it here. This technology isn’t yet commercial, but it probably will be in several years.

I don’t know how far a hobby-sized drone can fly in two hours. And I don’t know how hard it would be to program one to fly from wherever you are to a specific GPS location. But when those two technologies come together, how do you stop a weaponized suicide drone from attacking literally anywhere on Earth?

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/139490217676/drone-risks



How about a fleet of 20 suicide drones, each costing less than $1000 each and tipped with explosives, programmed to swarm a Prime Minster's or General's house when he's there? Talk about asymmetric warfare.

Whats even more crazy is that this is coming from from Dilbert.

"In another world, a dystopian future where comic strip artists are now military strategists"

Post: #15

One of the first times I listened to talk radio, it was about this very topic: given GPS technology and ever-improving computing technology, how hard would it be for a terrorist group to rig a large model plane or small private plane to fly in under the radar, home in on a specified set of coordinates, and then crash into a target, drop or detonate a bomb, or disperse a toxin?

This was in 1993. Chuck Harder, who was like a lunchtime version of Art Bell.

Even easier now. Google "arduino autopilot".

Post: #16

I knew I was onto something when I was designing a remotely operated belt-fed automatic shotgun turret 10 years back...

None of these technological advances really make terrorists more dangerous. They're just extra tools in the toolbox. The weaponized drone trick would work exactly once, or possible for one single day if they coordinated attacks, and from that point on any drone within 100m of a high value target would get neutralized instantly.

Post: #17

(02-17-2016 02:57 PM)kaotic Wrote:  
Falconing just might make a comeback !

There's something awesome about the idea of a cast of armoured falcons taking on a swarm of weaponised drones...

Post: #18

You lack oversight with a drone unless you're in clear proximity to the target, plenty of things can go wrong.

The speed and unpredictability of such a device however would be tricky to defend against unless you have armed bodyguards on the premises who can shoot them down but that has its own advantages and drawbacks.

Post: #19

There are a bunch of new anti-drone technologies either recently released or under development:

Anti-drone 12ga and 37/40mm rounds

Weapon-mountable electronic interference

Post: #20

We already had creep shots and women on tubes eating food. Expect more voyeurism about women once these things go on sale.

Post: #21

I can't decide if actual weapons or recording equipment on the drones would be worse. People won't raise as much fuss over these things if they're just being used to spy on people.

Post: #22

Curious how much of a payload this private drone can carry:

http://bgr.com/2016/01/07/ehang-184-pers...ion-drone/

Makes the prototype quad rotor machine gun and fire bomb look like a boy scout merit badge project by comparison.

Post: #23

If the drones were totally automated, they would need to have some sort of image recognition software in them if you were after a specific target, as even GPS has a small margin of error. You could add a larger explosive to make up for it, but you are limited as to how much payload you can fit into a drone. Even worse, long distance flights would require some sort of effective AI to avoid colliding with tall buildings and other obstructions. Lacking that, it would need someone to manually pilot that thing, which opens him up to jamming and radio direction finding. Even worse for the would-be drone pilot, your typical radio frequencies for commercial drones are in the 2.4 and 5 ghz range, which is pretty much line of sight and limited in range.

In the current situation, most commercially available drones you can buy have to be manually controlled by radio. So, if you were a would-be peeping tom wanting to get some racy footage of some woman, someone with a directional antenna and receiver should be able to zero in on your position and track you down. Of course, this assumes you have such equipment and are on the ball enough to use it. Any idiot can buy a drone but most people don't have the knowledge or inclination to employ effective countermeasures.

Post: #24

All of these objections will be overcome in just a few years. I do programming in a related field, and there's no doubt that open source software packages like OpenCV and other like software will be available for every one of the capabilities you mentioned. At worst, an actual programmer with mid-level skills will have to put together a control system. At worst, it will be as easy to program is using a smart phone.

Post: #25

(02-17-2016 01:45 PM)Roosh Wrote:  Talk about asymmetric warfare.

Well, with automated lawn machine guns, of course:





The technology for an autonomous face-recognizing payload bearing drone already exists. All its needed is some dedicated psycho to integrate it.