Re:Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unman...
by njarboe on Thursday April 25, 2024 @10:57AM
(#40158357)
It's already being done. Check out these Russian improvised "Turtle Tanks"[1]. A big, light, metal canopy to keep drones from exploding next to the tank.
Re:Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unman...
by FuriouslyAdrift on Thursday April 25, 2024 @02:40PM
(#40161387)
It's the evolution of the 'cope cage' that grew out of the shortage of active armor plates.
Ukraine hunted that tank down and destroyed it by drone, btw.
Re:Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unman...
by ethbr1 on Thursday April 25, 2024 @09:45AM
(#40157508)
Shaped charge warheads begat reactive armor begat tandem charges begat active protection systems.
I could see microwave-based APS (probably powered by a high energy consumable?) proliferating.
Re:Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unman...
by nerdponx on Thursday April 25, 2024 @07:18PM
(#40164254)
Is there ever a world (other than sci-fi) in which drones become a useful countermeasure against other drones?
Re:Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unman...
by pixl97 on Friday April 26, 2024 @01:30PM
(#40171988)
I mean it seems pretty likely that a smaller, lower range, kill drone could be developed that is designed for the express purpose of identifying other small flying objects and entangling them causing them to drop out of the sky.
The harder part I see is friend/foe identification, rather than just attacking anything else that's small and flying slowly.
I'm not convinced this is feasible in the short term; drone warfare is predicated on launching not just cheap drones but many of them. The new armor isn't steel or iron to survive the blast, but to shoot down attacking drones before they can explode. Most current defenses are ground-based missile batteries that can't really be directly protected by armor. Long-term, the most promising options are laser-based batteries, which today have insufficient power sources to stuff into mobile armored platforms.