America Downs Cheap Drones with Million-Dollar Missiles. A Fix Is in the Works
7 points by JumpCrisscross
by foxyv
0 subcomment
I suspect we will see something similar to CRAM that is a little less aggressive for these drones. CRAM uses a huge stream of rounds because it has to target supersonic munitions. But a drone doing 200-300 knots could be taken out with a proxy fused shell shot from a computerized turret on a HMMWV.
In addition you will probably start seeing FIM-92k missiles (Stinger) on loyal wingman style Predator, Reaper and Viper drones using link 16 guidance from F-35 and E-3. There has already been an air to air kill with the Reaper.
Loitering munitions are all low-altitude, low-flight hovering weaponry. The best solution is to simply just use aircraft sorties or even helicopters to shoot them down with their autocannons/machine guns, but obviously you can't build a military industrial complex around that.
by 1attice
1 subcomments
By 2045 expect a couple dozen drones and anti drone missiles with your happy meal. :)
In all seriousness, I wonder aloud if blowing things up might be intrinsically cheaper than shooting down the means of said up-blowing.
I would wager that the floor is lower for s2s than s2a simply because there is so much s(urface)