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-tiberius t1_je29jnj wrote

Reply to comment by CygnusX-1-2112b in How racing drones are used as improvised missiles in Ukraine - They are light, fast and cheap by speckz

A few years ago there was a choreographed drone display during the Super Bowl halftime show. I was horrified. If we can pre-program these cheap drones to dance around the sky, someone is going to pre-program a swarm armed with rudimentary explosive devices. The idea that some guy can buy these online, arm them, program each with an individual target, and launch dozens or hundreds out the back of a Uhaul is fucking terrifying. We need jammers. We need countermeasures. We probably need a watch list for people buying large numbers of these things.

Best they could give us in Afghanistan in 2016 was a Mossberg 500 and some birdshot. That shit was probably futile then, it almost certainly is now.

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ThePhotoGuyUpstairs t1_je2nvsp wrote

You've just made me reflect on the carnage that could be wrought by a swarm of tiny drones armed with small explosive packages, flown into the crowd from above at a Super Bowl or something.

And I don't know how you could stop it if a plan got that far...

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-tiberius t1_je2qquo wrote

Yeah, it's a terrifying possibility, and the more these drones show themselves effective in combat, the more likely I think it that some asshole will get the idea to try. Hell, ISIS successfully killed some French soldiers almost 9 years ago with a single drone loaded with C4. Thank god none of their adherents in Europe or the US were able to do the same, because they wouldn't hesitate.

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CygnusX-1-2112b t1_je2fgnc wrote

Yep, bingo on that. Birdshot is the current SOP for Russian forces, and see how well that's worked for them.

It is the most sobering realization to me that in all likelihood, if I were in a public place and an attack of this nature were to be enacted, my life would likely be forfeit. It's why I have to shamefully admit I don't go to many public places like shopping centers or malls.

A friend of mine builds FPV drones as a hobby, as well. If you've got them know-how, theyre incredibly cheap and easy to make. So you can't just flag drive purchases, but motors, wiring, 3d printer filaments, anything that can be used to make homebrew kamikaze drones.

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Boringredditor6 t1_je38iky wrote

You’re avoiding public places because of drone attacks that don’t happen? You need a good therapist.

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CygnusX-1-2112b t1_je3iexu wrote

Well... You're not wrong. Crowds make me irrationally nervous on edge and anticipating something terrible happening.

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