Is the future of conventional warfare just going to be drones and smart missiles?
>>62884876No
Drones are going to be countered by small AA in the next couple of years but will remain in service because by forcing the enemy to have small AA you take some on the military budget and force more logistics.Swarms will counter small AA and the constant new weapon / new counter cycle will continue as it has for millenia.
>>62884876Yes
>>62884876
>>62884914Swarms are never going to be in reach of irregular forces (such as insurgents or rebels) though. And realistically it will be a long time before they're used by any nation that isn't the USA, the UK, and maybe France or South Korea.
>>62885633I think it'll depends a lot on which irregular forces, we have seen some big brains is Syria and some total retards in the rest of the ME.Cost isn't a huge issue because you could produce a swam for ~$100k if you have a coder that'll do it for love of blood.
>>62884914This.Also guns are cheaper than missiles in delivering payloads. Hence artillery and small guns of various calibres are still worthwhile.
Drones have existed in various forms since the second world war and have had large impacts in wars even before the 21st century.In Vietnam, in the Arab/Israeli wars, in Kuwait and Iraq, Serbia, drones played a part.When we proclaim a revolution in military affairs due to drones, we have to ask what actually makes them different to capabilities that existed before.The new main innovation seems to be in small drones, specifically due to cheap microelectronics, high density batteries and brushless motors.This enables truly cheap, small, short ranged precision weapons in a way that wasn't possible before.At higher levels of combat the developments are much more mundane and iterative.For FPVs Vs AFVs, this is just a new type of ATGM with similar countermeasures.For long range strike missiles we have improved autonymity and potentially new cost models, IE massed cheap low performance missiles that are still precise, however best practice hasn't changed much.In air combat larger high performance drones struggle to differentiate themselves from manned aircraft in terms of cost/capability.It's the lowest trophic level, the infantry combat where you will see the most disruption because here the quad drones and autonomous capabilities actually provide something almost completely new and countermeasures are more challenging.When you can hit an adversary behind cover from more than 1000m away for less than <$1000, things will very quickly become very wacky.
>>62884876maybe
>>62884895>>62884924>>62889459
>>62884876>Is the future of conventional warfare just going to be drones and smart missiles?If you are literal Russia tier shit hole, then yeah, you'll be on the receiving end of those things and there not a damn thing you can do about it.
