Tag: Robots

The Drone Wars

I first noticed it in the early days of the Russia/Ukraine war. Both sides were using basic drones to fly over troops or tanks and drop grenades or bombs. Now both sides are using FPV kamikaze drones to take out targets. A $400 drone built with parts sourced from China and the internet is now capable of taking out a $2 million dollar tank. The scariest part I noticed? There doesn’t seem to be any effective defense against them. They’re too fast, have no heat signature, and realistically too small and nimble for a missile to shoot them down.

The next time I thought about it was when the Oct 7 massacre happened. Hamas used drones to knock out Israeli sensors, which enabled them to cross the border walls. When the IDF launched their counteroffensive, I noticed all their tanks and vehicles now have cope cages installed. These are cages that sit above the vehicle to prevent a drone-born explosive from detonating directly on the vehicle, lessening its potential damage.

And then today I saw this brief video. It’s worth the ten second watch and then scroll through some of the comments. It’s mind blowing. I wasn’t aware of racing drones and how freaking fast they are. Turns out there’s an actual drone racing league that’s televised. The main point though is that a drone like this equipped with a small explosive charge would be near impossible to defend against.

Which makes me wonder, while we spent twenty years in the desert conducting conventional warfare against goat herders… what were we doing to develop drone offensive/defensive strategies? I suspect we’ve been caught with our pants down. I sure hope we have some secret project in the works, although I doubt it. If we had something I’m sure we would have seen it in action in Ukraine.

So here’s the future of warfare – spotter drones flying over the battlefield reporting back enemy action and providing GPS coordinates. Autonomous kamikaze drones flying at nearly 200 mph to take out targets marked by the spotter drones. Or, giant swarms of automated drones to take out targets. And don’t forget, these swarms of drones could be underwater as well to take out ships.

How are we going to defend our troops against that? Signal jamming? Fry everything in area with directed radiation/energy blasts? Lasers? I don’t think we’re ready. I pray I’m wrong.

The robot wars may be coming sooner than we thought. Might want to buy stock in Cyberdyne Systems while you can.

It’s Either One, Or The Other

  • The other day Tucker Carlson went on the air and made some crazy, outlandish, QAnon fueled statement about the Covid vaccines. The high priest of Covid, Dr. Fauci, immediately ran to CNN and expressed confusion as to why Tucker would be pushing conspiracy theories like that. CNN offered a helpful headline stating “Carlson suggested Covid-19 vaccines are not effective”. Except that’s not what he said. He asked a very simple question which you should also be asking. Either the vaccine works and we no longer need to wear masks and keep businesses shut down, or the vaccines don’t really work and so why is the government continuing to push them? It’s a pretty simple binary question. They can’t both be true. So which one is it? Most thinking people realize that vaccines do work. So why is Fauci and everyone in the Whitehouse continuing to wear masks? For god’s sake, Fauci and Biden double mask most of the time. Why? I’ve said it before… it’s an easy answer if you think about it. Mask mandates, social distancing, and keeping schools and businesses shut down can’t be enforced if you allow vaccinated people to be free. Anyone can just say they’re vaccinated and not wear a mask and we have no way to prove that. Oh, wait. What if we had some sort of paper people could carry around proving they’ve been vaccinated? Almost like a passport of some sort. Why do we continue to put up with this crap? This is doublespeak in it’s truest form.
  • Also on Tucker last night was one of his best monologs. I’d highly encourage you to watch it. He raises the question of unequal treatment in police shootings. On Jan 6th Ashli Babbitt was shot in the throat, from behind, by a Capital police officer. She died. She clearly wasn’t an imminent threat to anyone and was actually moving away from the officer who shot her. In the video you see a handful of SWAT officers just standing there, so they clearly weren’t concerned about their safety. The person who recorded the video had his door kicked in several days ago, all electronics seized, and he was arrested. The DOJ announced they’ve cleared the officer in the shooting, no charges will be filed. They still won’t release the officers name. Why? Meanwhile in Minnesota, an officer accidently pulls her service weapon rather than her taser and kills a young black man. Her name and picture are instantly plastered all over the news, mobs are at her house, manslaughter charges are filed, and the predictable riots ensue. Why the unequal treatment? Why is the Capital police officer seemingly exempt from the same treatment as the Minnesota officer? Where are the mainstream journalists asking these questions?
  • (Vice) President Harris has been put in charge of the migrant/border problem. Wait, not the actual current problem but the broader long term problem. Whatever. The good news is that she immediately had a press conference to discuss her plans for addressing the issue. Oh wait, no she hasn’t held a press conference since her appointment as long term border crisis mitigation czar. She did announce that she has no plans to visit our border. But Harris did tell reporters Wednesday that she was “looking forward to traveling, hopefully as my first trip, to the Northern Triangle,” with stops in Mexico and Guatemala planned. She said she would go as soon as possible, depending on restrictions put in place for the pandemic. A responsible leader always follows pandemic restrictions. Since she won’t be traveling abroad, she has some time on her schedule which she filled with a trip to a “woman owned yarn store”. I’ll leave you with a quote from the Washington Post, written by an actual reporter. “When Vice President Harris visited a woman-owned yarn shop in Alexandria last month, she mentioned a little-known fact about herself that left the fiber arts community a bit giddy. The new vice president is a crocheter.” Hold me, I’m swooning. I wish I could say this was satire.
  • The new ginormous motorcycle is due for it’s first 600 mile service. On my old bike I did all my own maintenance. But just like with older cars vs newer ones, this bike has more electronics than the space shuttle. I wouldn’t even know where to start. So, it’s off to the dealership for service. Except that the service department is booked out for a month. Sigh. Yet more evidence that my little town is exploding in population exponentially. I know it’s inevitable and you can’t stop it, but it’s still sad to see.
  • This post has been entirely negative, so I may as well keep up with the theme. I present you instructions on how to disable the robotic police dog that is starting to be used by several departments, including NYPD. Robotic police dogs. What could possibly go wrong?

Song of the day: Marilyn Manson – The Beautiful People (Official Video)