[BostonCard]

Thanks, Goose, for your thorough discussion, which was super informative.  It does seem like we are seeing a lot of people jumping the gun on the future of warfare, assuming that drone swarms will overwhelm defenses (this was in the context of a future war in the Pacific).  Notwithstanding the questions of jamming and communication range someone pointed out that at the end of the day, you are trying to propel an explosive charge a distance.  The greater the warhead, and the greater the distance, the more propulsion you will need.  This is a problem for cheap and even not-so-cheap drones, and that missiles have been largely optimized to maximize the size and distance a warhead is delivered in a way that drones generally cannot be.

As is often the case BC you said more in a few words than I did with many. I would only add "you are trying to propel an explosive charge a distance quickly."

Wish it was an original thought on my end, but I was repeating and paraphrasing a Twitter/X (or maybe BlueSky) thread.  I would have credited/linked, but I couldn't find the original.   It was a bit of rebuttal to some of the "tech bros" who were denigrating cruise missiles, by saying that they are pointless compared to a swarm of drones that cost orders of magnitude less, and they pointed out that the limitations are dictated by simple physics.

And yes, delivering a large payload over long distances fast makes it even harder.

BC

[BostonCard]

Thanks, Goose, for your thorough discussion, which was super informative.  It does seem like we are seeing a lot of people jumping the gun on the future of warfare, assuming that drone swarms will overwhelm defenses (this was in the context of a future war in the Pacific).  Notwithstanding the questions of jamming and communication range someone pointed out that at the end of the day, you are trying to propel an explosive charge a distance.  The greater the warhead, and the greater the distance, the more propulsion you will need.  This is a problem for cheap and even not-so-cheap drones, and that missiles have been largely optimized to maximize the size and distance a warhead is delivered in a way that drones generally cannot be.

As is often the case BC you said more in a few words than I did with many. I would only add "you are trying to propel an explosive charge a distance quickly."

Wish it was an original thought on my end, but I was repeating and paraphrasing a Twitter/X (or maybe BlueSky) thread.  I would have credited/linked, but I couldn't find the original.   It was a bit of rebuttal to some of the "tech bros" who were denigrating cruise missiles, by saying that they are pointless compared to a swarm of drones that cost orders of magnitude less, and they pointed out that the limitations are dictated by simple physics.

And yes, delivering a large payload over long distances fast makes it even harder.

BC