This is the story no one is talking about. Trillions invested in the US millitary industrial complex in terms of r&d, strategy think tanks, you fucking name it.
And yes, 1 fly boi w/ some 3d printed parts beats their ass. Not that the US approach to militarism is irrelevant, but a country can produce 10k drones for the price of 1 tomahawk. The US went way too far over its handlebars in terms of its monolithic approach to “high technology”, treating it like a moat. Afghanistan was the MS thesis publication on this, but man, Ukraine has been the PhD work.
As much as I love drones, the current tech has a lot of limitations. They’re awesome for small kamikaze stuff, but they don’t even compare to real weapons like a tomahawk if it really came down to heavy combat. With that said, drones offer so much more precision and a safer war.
- Power the weight ratio is pretty bad. 7” drones or smaller can’t carry a large load.
- Battery life is pretty awful with lipo and li-ion lasts longer but much less burst power for maneuvering.
- Range is decent, a few miles (Tomahawk can go 100’s of miles), but need a clear flight path and longer distance introduces more latency. Additionally any interference can ground you easily especially at very long range, granted you can program return to home.
- Wind plays big factor especially at high elevation.
- Not very stealthy. Granted a war zone is loud, but you can hear a drone coming pretty easily.
All that said, I’m very interested in where drone tech will be in 20 years.
