Military drone swarms and how to combat them

Seems like small drones are the best weapon against big drones. Kind of curious that they seem to assume that the drone needs an operator. If I were defending against a drone swarm I’d want my drones to be piloted by AI.

A couple days ago there was news that the air force is going to start taking the &quot;Angry Kitten&quot; sdr pods they&#x27;d used to emulate adversary craft (for training).and statt trying to use it for electronic warfare[1] (cant find original link... this is similar but has a more tentative disposition on it happening or only maybe).<p>At the time I was mainly thinking jamming. I figure it&#x27;s probably a different class system to be able to directed-energy fry a craft. But even just throwing some EM spikes at it, having pulse emitting, might be enough to wreck elements of even a pretty capable aytonomous attack craft swarm.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.c4isrnet.com&#x2F;electronic-warfare&#x2F;2022&#x2F;08&#x2F;15&#x2F;air-force-may-put-angry-kitten-in-planes-for-electronic-warfare-edge&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.c4isrnet.com&#x2F;electronic-warfare&#x2F;2022&#x2F;08&#x2F;15&#x2F;air-f...</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32543156" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=32543156</a>

Neal Stephenson&#x27;s excellent (if a little over-long) book Termination Shock suggests another option for dealing with attacking drones. Not going to leave a spoiler here though.

Some questions to think about:<p>What is the smallest practical size for a military swarming drone?<p>How many could fit in one TEU?<p>How many TEU are shipped to your country every day?<p>How many drones could be shipped to your country before anyone notices?

If it hasn&#x27;t been mentioned, check out The Kill Chain by Christian Brose. Obviously Anduril is great in this arena, but also Epirus on using microwave tech to eliminate these threats.

Air Force has a giant herf gun called THOR.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tactical_High_Power_Operational_Responder" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Tactical_High_Power_Operatio...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;afresearchlab.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;directed-energy&#x2F;successstories&#x2F;counter-swarm-high-power-weapon&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;afresearchlab.com&#x2F;technology&#x2F;directed-energy&#x2F;success...</a>

Off-topic: I bought a drone in the US, during a recent visit. I live in Italy. I cannot use my drone here because of some BS from the drone manufacturer.<p>I hate how drone companies essentially dictate many things that don&#x27;t make any sense, such as the above one.<p>I wish there were an open-source firmware, or something, to allow us to use them more freely.

What about proximity fuse explosives? Would it be possible to disable the propellers on a drone by delivering a payload close enough to it?

tl;dr <i>There are numerous options to combat drone swarms, but all of them possess notable shortcomings.</i>

Could swarms fly in a V like geese for aerodynamics?<p>(Ps I never understood why a V Is better than a straight line?)

I feel like a sustained blast from screaming directed spy-1 radar ought to do the trick. Not sure why that isn&#x27;t also a strategy for hypersonic missiles

Slaughter Bots....coming soon<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yewtu.be&#x2F;watch?v=9fa9lVwHHqg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;yewtu.be&#x2F;watch?v=9fa9lVwHHqg</a>

30 people with shotguns loaded with buckshot?

So Lockheed recently showed video of its laser weapon. as the technology matures I assume energy consumption will drop, and intercepting drones or anything is no longer limited by number of misses, drones, or ammo but energy. Imagine nuclear aircraft carriers pumping an indefinite amount of energy at least in the short term into multiple lasers basically creating an energy barrier around the craft.<p>Not a laser expert btw.

&gt; Suicide drones are unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) furnished with explosives, which cause the drone to detonate upon impact with another object.<p>Don&#x27;t we already have a word for this: missle?

We must stop and outlaw all autonomous weapon systems right now.<p>No one can win this. The dollar cost per KIA is going to quickly drop below $20. And this will be for all optical hunter killer drones.<p>the only way to win is not to play

Ye Olde flak guns?

some kind of bullshit. Terms &quot;conflict&quot; instead of war. Promotion of DJI crap, while there are much better ones. Naming aircraft without pilot inside called a drone. Strong recommendation about switchblade, while switchblades got awful reputation in Ukraine, and instead used another weapons to kill occupants. And the most awful thing - the topic created by served military.

suicide drone swarm is non-economical and is a pure waste of high tech electronics in an explosion.<p>HD surveillance drones on the other side, especially land based drones, like robotic dogs or sea drones. to execute forward observer role, provide realtime recon will be future. with precise targeting and intel - hitting high value target becomes trivial

Who the fuck cares about &quot;drone swarms&quot;? Americans already bomb civilians to death with their regular non swarming drones with superior range altitude, payload capacity and maximum flight time yet the classic hackernews comment revolves around some inferior plastic toy Jerry rigged with improvised explosives.

The answer to combating military armed drone swarms is simple: Nuke the SOBs that use them. Dead men&#x2F;women&#x2F;theys don&#x27;t build, deploy or use armed drone swarms. Nuking them, in the long run, will save more lives, cost less and end conflicts sooner. Although it may not be PC to say it these days, the aim of war is to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible...and, like it or not, the most efficient way to do that is often to kill as many of them as you can as fast as you can. Wake The Folks Up by telling them the ugly truth about war. Good day.