- UK-made, invisible radio wave weapon knocks out drone swarms for the first time.
- Weapon has potential to help protect against drone threats as nature of warfare changes.
Anybody know if it has a phased array antenna? a) those are cool b) they can aim much faster than an antenna that needs to physically pivot
Judging by the picture I’m sure it is
It uses high frequency radio waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside drones, causing them to crash or malfunction.
At a range of 1km…
That‘s useful not just for drones. I wonder if this works against helicopters, too.
It sounds like it’s a directed microwave cooker. Works on people too, just not ones behind good cover.
Edit: ah, high frequency, my bad, it’s a gamma gun. Same principles apply I think, give or take the cover.
High frequency radio is still below the visible part of the spectrum, gamma is waaay above it.
Why does that title sound like it’s out of a 1940’s war reel?
Possibly because it’s presented how news used to be - a simple statement of fact without embellishment or click bait.
Would you rather:
You won’t BELIEVE how this weapon built by British boffins can yeet hundreds of Russian drones from the sky in seconds
UK slams dozens of drones with invisible radio waves
UK blasts rays of DEATH to doomed drones
Nice honkers
I wager the word “radio” also helps. Early 1900s would have had plenty of radio broadcasts being “the thing” going on, so that word probably helps prime the interpretation, even if not used in quite the same way.
So when can we start shipping them to Ukraine? Even from a selfish perspective its a perfect environment to field test this.
I would imagine that a demonstration unit has already been sent
Warzone’s always the best environment to test new battlefield systems.
Look at the difference in technology between the beginning of the first world war and the end. We started off with essentially standing in fields shooting each other over distances you could spit, and ended up with tanks. The second world war gave us nukes.
Will probably have AGI battle droids by the end of this war.
Nah, interesting point from Issac Arthur that the dumbest AI always wins assuming both are complex enough to do the job, the dumb one will have less processing delay to make each decision.
I wondered how long it would take for them to figure this out. Or simply take control of the drones.
This is massive. Hope the detail leak so we can use this in the revolution.
Step 1: take the magnetron out of a microwave oven
Step 2: …
Can we get the waves to produce “Hootie and the Blowfish: I only wanna be with you”? That would be quite epic.
These can only do “Hold My Hand”
Everyones got this… It was obvious
This isn’t just jamming signals, it’s microwaving the electronics from a kilometer away so it will work against fibre optic controlled drones as well
They’ll just use EMP tech to harden drones against this
Which will raise weight, costs, and reduce functionality. It’s like a U lock for a bicycle it’s not impenetrable it just raises the bar
Wrap it in a bit of aluminum foil
If you block the radio waves then isn’t that accomplishing the same thing as overloading it with radio waves?
maybethatsthejokeidk.jpg (unless…?)
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How is knocking out drone swarms different from knocking out any other communications?
I swear, such news are reminiscent of the notorious tech illiteracy in “Wraith Squadron” books from Star Wars EU. With that Bothan being, ya knaw, able to just check all of one planet’s communications from the orbit after arriving there. The author (not to insult him) didn’t even consider how preposterous it would be on our planet, which doesn’t know hyperspace travel and other SW-grade tech yet, to be able to process that amount of information, no “hacking” parts even being discussed.
Which is even worse when pre-Wraith parts of the series are pretty sane and Corran as a character knows what he’s doing.
Of course protocols used in such applications have DoS vulnerabilities that can be found and used. And a lot of existing equipment can be employed in that too. Just - why does the headline read so stupid.
As per the article:
It uses high frequency radio waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside drones, causing them to crash or malfunction.
Its not jamming the comms, its inducing currents inside the electronics of the drone to fry them.
Basically, EMP but directed.
Ah. OK. That’s nicer. Makes sense in the time of consumer hardware dominating frontlines.
They’ve been using wire guided drones in Ukraine lately so directly damaging the drones is useful in cases where you’re not going to be jamming them
