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China and Possible Drone Swarms
#1
I'm interested on everybody's take on it.

http://archive.is/Qbtc3
Ever make mistakes in life? Let's make them birds. Yeah, they're birds now.

                                                                                                                   ~ Bob Ross
                                                                                                             
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#2
I think that drone technology is going to develop a lot further over the coming decades and play an increasing role in combat all around the planet. I imagine that various forms of 'arms race' are likely to take place, in terms of both offensive and defensive uses of drones.

For example, if (for sake of argument) China develops swarms of attack drones, other powers are likely to develop swarms of anti-drone drones which deploy various countermeasures, including ECM and simply crashing into the attack drones.

Where this gets interesting is that it's not clear where the bottom level is in this kind of warfare. Meaning that just as China could hypothetically develop more sophisticated systems than the US in some ways - other countries (or even groups and individuals) that are otherwise much weaker than China could in turn develop more sophisticated systems than what China has (at least in some ways). And of course, it's not like the US (or China, or whomever) would find it impossible to rapidly turn any strategic advantage around - making up the ground in a particular area and then pulling ahead - aided by the fact that drones and their software are cheap and readily developed with a fraction of the resources that go into current big ticket weapons.

Coming at this from another direction - with the right control systems, there's no reason you couldn't have drone swarms of thousands or millions of units - essentially swarms of locust or wasp size drones. This would take us into how things are described in OA for some types of weapons - and could turn into rather strange warfare by current standards.

Todd
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#3
(08-28-2017, 12:36 PM)Drashner1 Wrote: I think that drone technology is going to develop a lot further over the coming decades and play an increasing role in combat all around the planet. I imagine that various forms of 'arms race' are likely to take place, in terms of both offensive and defensive uses of drones.

For example, if (for sake of argument) China develops swarms of attack drones, other powers are likely to develop swarms of anti-drone drones which deploy various countermeasures, including ECM and simply crashing into the attack drones.

Where this gets interesting is that it's not clear where the bottom level is in this kind of warfare. Meaning that just as China could hypothetically develop more sophisticated systems than the US in some ways - other countries (or even groups and individuals) that are otherwise much weaker than China could in turn develop more sophisticated systems than what China has (at least in some ways).  And of course, it's not like the US (or China, or whomever) would find it impossible to rapidly turn any strategic advantage around - making up the ground in a particular area and then pulling ahead - aided by the fact that drones and their software are cheap and readily developed with a fraction of the resources that go into current big ticket weapons.

Coming at this from another direction - with the right control systems, there's no reason you couldn't have drone swarms of thousands or millions of units - essentially swarms of locust or wasp size drones. This would take us into how things are described in OA for some types of weapons - and could turn into rather strange warfare by current standards.

Todd

It seems drones like these in the future wouldn't be able to take down tanks and other AFVs. it also seems they wouldn't be able to take down incredibly fast and durable aircrafts either. I'd imagine swarms like those could be destroyed en masse if they were coordinated very close together. Unless, they could move like a fluid and open up areas to let projectiles/laser/beams through.
Ever make mistakes in life? Let's make them birds. Yeah, they're birds now.

                                                                                                                   ~ Bob Ross
                                                                                                             
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#4
They could act as spotters for larger ordnance. A surveillance swarm could call down a missile strike, a kinetic impact, or a laser burst from a larger platform. My worry is that these sort of strikes could be triggered automatically - by motion detection, perhaps, or by facial recognition.
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#5
A convergence of a program similar to the NSA's SKYNET and something along the lines of Hanson Robotics' Mindcloud A.I. program might produce a tactically significant UAV force, with each drone having equal access to a stored library of maneuvers and strike protocols (thus removing the vulnerability of a "master" drone that controls the "slave" UAVs in its jurisdiction). If battlefield sensors are linked to the system via a Mindcloud interface, then the effectiveness of the system is enhanced, particularly if the UAVs are of the weaponized variety, like the Predator series.

Radtech497
"I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into... atoms." Ming the Merciless, Ruler of the Universe
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#6
(08-28-2017, 12:57 PM)Vaktus Wrote: It seems drones like these in the future wouldn't be able to take down tanks and other AFVs. it also seems they wouldn't be able to take down incredibly fast and durable aircrafts either. I'd imagine swarms like those could be destroyed en masse if they were coordinated very close together. Unless, they could move like a fluid and open up areas to let projectiles/laser/beams through.

As Steve says, they could call down bigger strikes from larger elements of the swarm or other weapons platforms.

If we're talking OA tech, from some centuries into the early timeline all the way to Y11k - then swarm elements could mount antimatter fragments that would be more than capable of making a bang big enough to take out a tank.

Or you could have a bird size unit that could mount an ACER round capable of taking out a tank. Particularly if it can fly up into the workings and such before detonating.

Of course, would be tank builders in OA presumably know this and design things accordingly.

Todd
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