Author Topic: "Switchblade" backpack drone  (Read 7622 times)

MicroBalrog

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Re: "Switchblade" backpack drone
« Reply #25 on: May 21, 2011, 09:36:41 AM »
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But something produced by an entire division of BAE is not what I'm talking about here. That's not really tech that's well within the realm of a small group of non-state actors engaged in asymmetrical warfare.

Not?

The main issue is that this device is man-packable.

Once these will become commonplace in military forces, they will be getting stolen. An IDF armory once misplaced its supply of eight (8) ATGM launchers overnight. Once Russia develops a competing device - which it will, I have no doubt - or once these devices begin making their way into the armories of U.S. aid recipients  - including places like Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Jordan, Colombia, Liberia...

What do you think will happen in one of these places when someone walks up to a soldier who gets paid $60 in a month and offers him $2500 for this device?
Destroy The Enemy in Hand-to-Hand Combat.

"...tradition and custom becomes intertwined and are a strong coercion which directs the society upon fixed lines, and strangles liberty. " ~ William Graham Sumner

birdman

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Re: "Switchblade" backpack drone
« Reply #26 on: May 21, 2011, 10:26:36 AM »
And that is the scary part.  Even if it has a CEP of 25-50m, the high initial ROF of a mortar would mean that with minimal setup, a couple of guys could be pretty much assured of destroying anything in a 100m radius of a pre-chosen coordinate (google earth anyone)...from 7km away.  Are we going to need centurion (phalanx for land) for everywhere now?  It's not like the mortar is hard to come by.