Re:The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming
by fernly on Thursday October 25, 2018 @11:11PM
(#18306470)
What are the aerodynamic abilities of a drone swarm? That is, to what altitude can a swarm reach, to interdict an incoming aircraft? How fast? My impression of current drones is that they are fairly small, less than 2 metres diameter, which implies pretty tight limits on range, altitude, speed, and time-on-station. So even if you have thousands of them, a conventional bomber can come over at an altitude the swarm can't reach -- or a fleet of bombers can hang off the border for hours, probing at random, until the drones run out of juice -- or a fighter can make a fast pass, dodging the much slower-climbing swarm, and drop chaff or smoke or an EMP weapon to confuse the swarm.
Bottom line, I seriously doubt drones could permanently block access to a national airspace.
Re:The Era of the Drone Swarm Is Coming
by nyolfen on Friday October 26, 2018 @01:27AM
(#18306984)
look at airplanes a century ago and from the perspective of someone then try to extrapolate from those to an sr71 or a space shuttle in just a generation or two
Bottom line, I seriously doubt drones could permanently block access to a national airspace.