"Chinese Drone Swarms" Topic

An interesting article on the future use of drones by the Chinese, and some of their possible tactics:

link

Someone has been playing Star Fleet Battles. :)

Thanks. Yes, very interesting. I have been wondering about the tactical possibilities / feasibility of drones used in swarms rather than in ones and twos for a while now.

I know the manned jet fighter and the surface ship have been declared obsolete many times before, and always wrongly, but this could be the beginning of the end for them. A drone can't match a manned jet fighter, but what about 50 drones?

Strategically this could be a game changer. I do not think China can ever catch up with the USA in carrier technology or numbers – in the foreseeable future anyway. But if there is a leapfrog in technology and they don't have to, it could be a whole new ball game.

no matter how many drones are in a swarm… if you can hack/block the data link of one of them, you can do the same thing to all. if you have the technological advantage to do it, numbers dont matter.
and against modern manned figthers, current drone.s are just flying targets. if you start to put tech into the drones like their own radars, elecyronic countermeasures, radar warning systems…their price will skyrocket.

no matter how many drones are in a swarm… if you can hack/block the data link of one of them, you can do the same thing to all. if you have the technological advantage to do it, numbers dont matter.

Not sure the US has the edge when it comes to hacking. Chinese hackers are causing allsorts of problems worldwide. The US could find the boot on the other foot with its own drones being hacked.

Not sure the US has the edge when it comes to hacking. Chinese hackers are causing allsorts of problems worldwide. The US could find the boot on the other foot with its own drones being hacked.

And yet another reason why not to rely overmuch on drones. They're great when fighting an insurgency, or hunting terrorist. But as soon as you fight an enemy on an equal footing…

Damon.

as far as i understand, why hack when you can jam? if they cant be controlled wont they fall back on inbuilt programming?

as far as i understand, why hack when you can jam? if they cant be controlled wont they fall back on inbuilt programming?

Looking at the article the plan is for quite a lot of built in capability – so I'm guessing active control is only for the final attack phase. Jamming 50+ frequency agile drones could prove tricky.

Isn't that just a guided missile at that point? Most of the anti-ship missiles now look like moderate sized aircraft (if not bigger). Why build a drone to do the same thing? So you can watch it on TV? They can do that already.

Why build a drone to do the same thing?

You can save quite a lot by getting rid of the pilot. No ejector seat for a start, plus all the equipement to convert electronic signals into things that can be understood by him/her – ie all the displays and the gear to give control feedback. Then there is the all the kit to convert pilot input into electronic signals – joystick, pedals, throttle, trigger, arming swithches etc. Then once you have the software written and tested you are sorted. No need to train new pilots – saving all those training aircraft, instructors, fuel etc. No need to keep pilots upto speed – so save on training flights/exercises, practice weapons, fuel, maintainance etc. Your drone pilots can train electronically – as that's what they are doing for real anyway.

i think flicking wargamer means that everything that a drone can do can be done by an antiship misil

i think flicking wargamer means that everything that a drone can do can be done by an antiship misil

Except visual target aquisition and confirmation! I guess a drone is a half way house between a smart missile and a fully piloted plane. It is just another option. It has advatages and disadvantages against both.