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[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

Are autonomous guns that are moved via servos and aimed via AI cameras a thing yet? I imagine simply trailers with 10-20 rifles that just blast any and all drones with mostly standard munitions. Projectiles should be much faster so it should be possible to shoot any drone down at close enough range, and it should be much cheaper so eventually you should be able to just defend against drone swarms with enough auto turrets.

I imagine we're still far from the technological peak of drone warfare.

[-] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 4 points 4 days ago

I'd imagine something with lasers that fry the drones would be more likely. Like that guy who built a mosquito killing auto-targeting laser for his backyard. No reloading and can shoot drones down all night and day as long as it's got power.

[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

Right! That exists, at $3 per laser shot.

[-] bitwize01@reddthat.com 3 points 4 days ago

There are weapons that use sensor fusion already, with computer vision being used mostly on the offensive side. The issue for fixed defensive emplacements is that the attack drones are quite fast, and small for their lethality. The fusion is built off radar, acoustic (sound) and visible spectrum, but isn't reliable and only recently portable. Humans (which have excellent sensing capability) have been in the loop with aimed jammers, and this has become standard equipment at the platoon level.

Timely detection is hard, and the interception is tricky too. Costly interceptors work better than bullets, and can protect a larger area, but even a 95% interception range isn't super effective, as we saw with some of the $1b radomes lost by US Forces this year.

Personally, I think we've sadly only seen the start of autonomous, self-guided 'suicide' drones. These are the weapons that terrify me. Not accountable, cheap, and they can easily be turned against civilian infrastructure. Computer vision is robust, but shrinking the sensor + decision maker still needs work (at least, thats what the unclassified info tells me)

[-] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yeah definitely scary - once you can mass produce drones or combat robots in the millions they become weapons of mass destruction.

I still imagine robots shooting normal caliber guns far better than soldiers can would be a game changer. There was this article about Iran simply producing massively cheaper and that is why they won the war, and overwhelm the expensive toys and defenses of the US. Just state owned weapon manufacturing with long term stability in planning. So if you can take down a drone with 100 bullets it's going to be cheaper than 1 expensive interceptor drone.

[-] Hawanja@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

What you just described I'm pretty sure the United States has, at least as air defense aboard Navy vessels. That is, I remember seeing a video with an automatic anti-air gun designed to shoot down missiles that sounds pretty close. This was during Gulf War I mind you, so the tech has been around for a while.
I dont' see why they couldn't put one of those on a truck or tank.

this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2026
494 points (100.0% liked)

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