Comment by MangoCoffee
1 year ago
Low cost swarm of drones for new defense technology.
We have seen consumer grade DJI drone use in Ukraine-Russia war by both sides.
AI to control a swarm of cheap drones to survey and kill?
1 year ago
Low cost swarm of drones for new defense technology.
We have seen consumer grade DJI drone use in Ukraine-Russia war by both sides.
AI to control a swarm of cheap drones to survey and kill?
The DJI drones are even too costly, the current gen of FPV drones used in the field capable of busting a BMP at 10km distance cost like 400 USD tops.
Longer range systems cost a bit more, but not a whole lot much more.
Improvements that are desirable are generally in terms of range, endurance, sensors and resistance to electronic warfare.
Copying the silent prop design from Zipline would also be neat to reduce the sound signature and give the enemy less time to react…
It’s not like you can hear a drone approaching, while driving APC/BMP, though. For bomber-type quads, sure, it probably can make a difference.
Is this a serious suggestion, or a warning for why there's no place for move-fast-and-kill-things startups in the defense space? No one should be working on this, especially not involving AI in any way.
In Ukraine, hundreds of small teams are working on new drones or other military tech, like radars, camouflage, shelters, demining, etc., but they are low on money.
I personally have some ideas based on my own experience in war, but I cannot make them while in a trench.
> No one should be working on this
Well, given the fact that people are working on it, and many of them probably don't like you so much, it's a good idea for "the people you call friendly" to work on it.
"Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we'd been spending on defense in a single year. But the deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap."