Musings: Drones over destroyers


Message posted by Smythers (Member since 01/10/2010) on March 25, 2021 at 13:07:34 PST:


Once upon a time, back in 1993, a capability was born inside a hanger. This capability was stunning - Think 'nothing equals her even today'. But there was a problem. USSR had fallen, things were looking rosy so they folded her up and hid her away, skins and all.

Then some naughty, naughty NAUGHTY misfits got wind of her, and decided she was brilliant for their developmental testing of the US DoD defense network around the globe.

Why do I mention this? Because these drones around the USN are 'super drones' - Craft with way more than the normal range and abilities of commercial or even white world DoD capability.

Novel batteries, novel comms, jam resistant swarming capability that makes Golden Horde look positively archaic... and they are being flown and probing US defenses where these naughty naught NAUGHTY misfits like to play.

My thoughts? Somewhere out there is a shed where the cutting edge of batteries, electric propulsion and jam proof comms were perfected, thrown into a project and then all their work was slid into the dark because of their disruptive nature. And that is why a whole slew of projects from missiles to entire airframe systems are never revealed. Sometimes tipping the balance too far inside our favor could provoke a war (That's the thinking any how)

Until - IMHO - a curious misfit read through the after action reviews and decided it was just what they needed. And that is how it happens. Those who sharpen the tip of the spear are often given a stack of research material and told to develop tactics and equipment to see just how alert and sharpened the DoD estate is. They get the VLO gliders. They get the VLO WIG boats. They get the batteries and they get the clearance to haul in all and anyone who could aid them and refine this capability - not for use on the enemy, but to make sure the white world defense apparatus can cope with an enemy far more sophisticated than is anywhere else upon the globe.

This is what we are seeing IMHO - Misfits with big biceps and smart brains have found themselves a treasure trove of equipment - and are sat having a whale of a time launching these swarms from SDV on the sea bed and fading away once the unsuspecting vessels have been probed enough to get their minds thinking out the box and looking for ways to defeat this novel capability*.

*Novel capability that may come from an enemy in say 5 /10 years time, but when it does? The DoD estate is armed, ready and waiting.


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