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mrep | 9 months ago

> they just shook up the world's militaries

For the good ones, I doubt it.

Israel today has trophy [0] which can detect if an rpg is going to hit its tank and shoot it out of the sky.

(from wiki): The system allegedly relies heavily on high-speed computational technologies. Upon detection of an incoming projectile, the system automatically computes various parameters, such as the approach vector, nature of the threat, time to impact, and angle of approach. The defensive projectiles are launched by two rotating projectile launchers positioned on the sides of the vehicle. These launchers deploy a number of small EFPs (Explosively Formed Penetrators), forming a precise and closely spaced matrix, targeting an area in front of the anti-tank projectile.

And that's one country with 10 million people and a mere $46.5 billion in military spending. And BTW allies generally share tech (we the US suck right now (sorry)) but Trophy is being integrated with multiple allies [1].

Developing automated drone shooting destroyers I think we can do.

EDIT: To add, I bet those drones can be shot down by 1 minigun or shotgun shell which aren't relatively expensive.

Edit 2, the dutch already have a badass automated minigun too [2, 3].

Edit 3: multiple countries have similar systems but they are all mainly for boats. I think we can adapt the to army bases [4].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophy_(countermeasure)#Intern...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goalkeeper_CIWS

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AaUNipuygE

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-in_weapon_system

discuss

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serjester|9 months ago

There’s been plenty of anti missile systems deployed to Ukraine and the tank losses have still been absolutely insane.

Fundamentally it’s not about building anti-missile technology, it’s about doing it cheaply and at scale. That is a much, much tougher problem.

These drones cost less than a thousand bucks, and if each interception cost you 100k (the cost of a trophy shot) you’re going to lose a lot of equipment. It only takes one miss.

Now imagine scaling that system to protect an entire airfield. That seems next to impossible when these drones have a range of 10+ miles and are basically unjammable. You need China level surveillance across your entire county as a bare minimum.

mrep|9 months ago

Check out my edit 2. The Dutch already have an automated minigun. Bullets aren't that expensive relative to those shitty consumer drones which would get torn apart by them.

Also, ukraine doesn't have Trophy or any minigun/shotun defense system that I know of yet.

Having automated miniguns/shotguns near civilian areas definitely creates a challenge but I think our defense budget can handle that.

LorenPechtel|9 months ago

That's built to kill an inbound missile. And it's almost certainly possible to bleed it for less than it's own cost.

What we need is cheap systems that can be deployed in large numbers that fire wimpy short ranged stuff so it doesn't do too much damage when it falls back. Shotguns are good at this, the smaller pellets do not fall back with lethal energy.

tim333|9 months ago

Trophy systems are like $2m and drones are cheap.

mrep|9 months ago

Trophy is designed for fast moving anti tank missiles. These cheap drones can be shot down with a shotgun. I think we can make anti drone systems a little cheaper.