As we said in outro from one of the Anduril posts: "Anti-drone technology is so hot right now."
From Asia Times, November 11:
Both powers heatedly seek directed-energy weapon to neutralize drone swarm threat looming large over a Taiwan war
The US and China are locked in a high-stakes race to master drone-killing technology, with both superpowers aiming to outgun drone swarms that promise to reshape the future of warfare.
This month, The War Zone reported that China’s directed-energy counter-drone efforts are advancing, with multiple high-power microwave systems showcased at the Zhuhai Airshow 2024.
Among the highlights were three large mobile ground-based high-power microwave-directed energy weapons, designed primarily to neutralize drones.
The War Zone report mentions these systems, developed by China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC) and Norinco, include a microwave system mounted on an 8×8 light armored vehicle and another on a Shacman SX2400/2500-series 8×8 truck. It notes these systems feature planar arrays and radars for target detection and tracking.
The Zhuhai Airshow event underscored the rising global demand for counter-drone capabilities, driven by the increasing use of the weapons in armed conflicts, notably in Ukraine.
While The War Zone report points out that the capabilities of these new systems remain unclear, their development and deployment reflect China’s strategic focus on countering aerial threats.
The War Zone also reported this month that the US Army has achieved 170 successful drone kills using its Coyote Block 2 interceptors in various global operations, underscoring the anti-drone weapon’s increasing centrality in tackling uncrewed aerial threats.
The War Zone report said the US has deployed Coyote interceptors at 36 unspecified sites outside of the United States, including regions under US Central Command (CENTCOM), US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and US European Command (EUCOM).
The report says that the Coyote Block 2, produced by US defense contractor Raytheon, uses a high-explosive warhead and is part of the Low, Slow, Unmanned Aircraft Integrated Defeat System (LIDS), which includes mobile and fixed-site components....
....MUCH MORE
Things are moving pretty quick. From 2013's "Imagining a Drone-Proof City in the Age of Surveillance" To 2016's "There's A Drone Spying On Your Daughter and Using A Shotgun Is Frowned On In Many Locales......What to Do?":
My interest in anti-drone technology was probably intensified when I saw this guy at Economic Policy Journal back in 2012:
"If you're concerned about it, maybe there's a reason we should be flying over you, right?" said Douglas McDonald, the company's director of special operations and president of a local chapter of the unmanned vehicle trade group....We've probably all known the creepazoid military/law enforcement wannabe. They came out of the woodwork after 9/11 and dealing with them was just yucky. It's been a while for me but just seeing that in print reminded me of how loathsome the type is.
And "Dutch Police Training Eagles to Take Down Drones":
...back to Digg: A Compilation Of Animals Attacking Drones. Although the verticality achieved by the crocodile is impressive, it's probably not practical for police work or home use.
Unless you have a moat.
To 2018's "Disney Rumored To Be Securing The Set Of The Next Star Wars Episode With Anti-Drone Drones"
To 2020's "al-Qaeda's 22 Tips for Avoiding a Drone Attack" and "How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of 'ghosting' in the age of surveillance"
2024's Modern War: "Anduril Is Building Out the Pentagon’s Dream of Deadly Drone Swarms"
We last looked at Anduril in April 29's "Autonomous Fighter Jet Company Anduril And Anti-Drone Technology For Your Home" when they were defending against drones. Here they are on the other side....
And many more.
A couple recent posts that highlight the problem of drones:
- "On Ukraine’s ‘Transparent Battlefield,’ There Are Few Places Left to Hide"
- "Ukraine Is the First 'Hackers’ War'”
And the truly terrifying prospect of "Omniviolence Is Coming and the World Isn’t Ready":
A repost from 2019 that seems to have come true.
From Nautil.us:
In The Future of Violence, Benjamin Wittes and Gabriella Blum discuss a disturbing hypothetical scenario. A lone actor in Nigeria, “home to a great deal of spamming and online fraud activity,” tricks women and teenage girls into downloading malware that enables him to monitor and record their activity, for the purposes of blackmail. The real story involved a California man who the FBI eventually caught and sent to prison for six years, but if he had been elsewhere in the world he might have gotten away with it. Many countries, as Wittes and Blum note, “have neither the will nor the means to monitor cybercrime, prosecute offenders, or extradite suspects to the United States.”
Technology is, in other words, enabling criminals to target anyone anywhere and, due to democratization, increasingly at scale. Emerging bio-, nano-, and cyber-technologies are becoming more and more accessible. The political scientist Daniel Deudney has a word for what can result: “omniviolence.” The ratio of killers to killed, or “K/K ratio,” is falling. For example, computer scientist Stuart Russell has vividly described how a small group of malicious agents might engage in omniviolence: “A very, very small quadcopter, one inch in diameter can carry a one-or two-gram shaped charge,” he says.
“You can order them from a drone manufacturer in China. You can program the code to say: ‘Here are thousands of photographs of the kinds of things I want to target.’ A one-gram shaped charge can punch a hole in nine millimeters of steel, so presumably you can also punch a hole in someone’s head. You can fit about three million of those in a semi-tractor-trailer. You can drive up I-95 with three trucks and have 10 million weapons attacking New York City. They don’t have to be very effective, only 5 or 10% of them have to find the target.” Manufacturers will be producing millions of these drones, available for purchase just as with guns now, Russell points out, “except millions of guns don’t matter unless you have a million soldiers. You need only three guys to write the program and launch.” In this scenario, the K/K ratio could be perhaps 3/1,000,000, assuming a 10-percent accuracy and only a single one-gram shaped charge per drone.
Will emerging technologies make the state system obsolete? It’s hard to see why not.That’s completely—and horrifyingly—unprecedented. The terrorist or psychopath of the future, however, will have not just the Internet or drones—called “slaughterbots” in this video from the Future of Life Institute—but also synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and advanced AI systems at their disposal. These tools make wreaking havoc across international borders trivial, which raises the question: Will emerging technologies make the state system obsolete? It’s hard to see why not. What justifies the existence of the state, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes argued, is a “social contract.” People give up certain freedoms in exchange for state-provided security, whereby the state acts as a neutral “referee” that can intervene when people get into disputes, punish people who steal and murder, and enforce contracts signed by parties with competing interests....MORE
It gets worse.
If interested see also 2022's "The US Navy wants swarms of thousands of small drones" and two from 2021:
"Meet the future weapon of mass destruction, the drone swarm"
From The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists....
"Autonomous 'Slaughterbot' Drones Reportedly Attack Libyans Using Facial Recognition Tech"
