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Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by yding on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @04:07PM (#31758740)
If you're talking about DJI or equivalents they only have 30 minutes or so of flight time and can carry at most one bomb at a time. They can be useful in guerrilla situations but firepower wise it's not even in the same league as a tank with 40-60 cannon rounds and several thousand machine gun rounds.
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by wyldfire on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @05:08PM (#31759509)
What if the drone were so inexpensive and portable that you could consider it like you do ammunition? Then the flight time and payload is much less critical - it's just a pilot-able bomb.
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by dodobirdlord on Friday June 17, 2022 @12:39AM (#31774185)
This is called a guided missile, or a loitering munition, depending mostly on how quickly it gets to the target. They’ve been around for a while and are very useful but have not rendered tanks obsolete yet.
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by Firmwarrior on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @08:22PM (#31761139)
What if we just donated that money to all these hostile countries' citizens, and told them we'd stop the donations if they piss us off? Instead of dreaming of turning the future warzone from Terminator 2 into a reality?
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by _carbyau_ on Wednesday June 15, 2022 @10:27PM (#31761906)
Well, that (economic intervention) has effectively happened to Russia. And yet they are still going it seems. So to answer your question: Nothing would happen, at least for a few months it seems.
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by dolmen on Thursday June 16, 2022 @03:08AM (#31763277)
It's easier for infantry to carry one drone and ammunitions than a set of one-shot drones.
Re:Does the Tank Have a Future? by dodobirdlord on Friday June 17, 2022 @12:51AM (#31774248)
In practice it’s actually the opposite. A reusable drone has to have enough fuel to come back, which halves its range compared to a loitering munition that doesn’t come back. A reusable drone isn’t intended to collide with the target, and can’t be rocket-powered, so it will be much slower to reach and strike a target when the target is identified. It has to have the ability to land and to be rearmed, which adds complexity and thus expense.

Past a certain size a drone can fly high enough and far enough that it fills the combat role of an aircraft, but as far as man-portable systems go, well-resourced militaries demonstrate consistent preference for single-use guided explosives like the Javelin or Switchblade to maximize range and payload size and minimize time to impact.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AeroVironment_Switchblade

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGM-148_Javelin