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Japan’s Minister of Defense Shinjirō Koizumi posed with a cardboard drone on Monday during a meeting with drone manufacturer AirKamuy. The AirKamuy 150 is a cheap pre-fab cardboard drone meant to die on the battlefield and it comes shipped in a flatpack like an IKEA shelf.

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[-] Bloefz@lemmy.world 136 points 1 month ago

At least they don't put people in them this time 😅

[-] django@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 month ago

Sending young pilots to death in a rapidly aging society would be bad.

[-] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago

Seems sending old pilots it's a win win then.

[-] kronarbob@lemmy.world 88 points 1 month ago
[-] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 18 points 1 month ago

Sell overpriced consoles with the tariff money they don't have to pay anymore... But to what end...?

[-] DandomRude@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

This is an approach that could never succeed in the U.S., because there the focus is always on throwing as much money as possible at the defense contractors so that the billionaires can get even richer.

A current example: the war of aggression against Iran that the U.S. is waging in violation of international law.

To my knowledge, not even a halfway plausible reason has been given for this. And so it becomes quite clear that this is simply about shifting state resources into the pockets of the super-rich - and U.S. citizens just go along with it, even though it isn’t even them who are dying by the thousands, but rather, among others, Iranian schoolchildren, hundreds of whom were murdered simply by a bombing of a school...

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

The usa military budget is non comparable to european military budgets, they pay for different things. IMO.

[-] Major_Tsiom@fedia.io 5 points 1 month ago

They do? What do you mean?

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

It includes costs for retired personnel and social security (social security is not in the military budget in most or any European countries) for example.

[-] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

In addition, they patrol the entire planets oceans, and are the main reason why you don't have pirates just taking ships constantly.

[-] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

(I'm not necessarily saying piracy is bad...)

But I feel like the violent enforcement of extreme inequality is what creates pirates, not what stops them.

[-] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

No, mass scale looting of ships is stopped by armed navies, along with the instant communication and remote viewing that make it impossible to do it without anyone noticing. You don't even need severe inequality for people to think about stealing 100 million dollar cargo moving slowly by itself.

[-] belochka@lemmy.world 34 points 1 month ago

That's the eco-friendliness we deserve, and from Japan no less.

[-] PyroNeurosis 27 points 1 month ago

This will never fly in Seattle! Too wet.

[-] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago

I saw the cardboard festival tent hold up to a couple days of rain. Thats probably more than the maximum mission time it needs.

[-] chaogomu@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

There are cheap and easy ways to waterproof cardboard, but I'm not sure why you would want to attack Seattle.

[-] IratePirate@feddit.org 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Microslop has its headquarters there. That's enough reason to flatten the city and salt the earth.

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 month ago

No, they're headquartered in Redmond.

[-] IratePirate@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

...which is basically just a bedroom community for Seattle.

We need to think big here, lads!

[-] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 16 points 1 month ago

They could use waxed cardboard like fruit boxes.

[-] IratePirate@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago

Trebuchet > wet lump of cardboard drone > boom! Your argument is invalid.

[-] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

It only needs to fly once. Honestly, it'd probably work.

But hey, I'm sure it's all irrelevant, I mean who would ever want to vindictively drone strike Seattle...

[-] sexy_peach@feddit.org 24 points 1 month ago
[-] Dadifer@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

The number of our amazon boxes will block out the sun.

Then we will fight in the shade.

[-] Major_Tsiom@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago

So… like a very slow missile then?

[-] FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 month ago

Doubt they have much carrying capacity for explosives like a shahed drone which is $25k, while these $2k cardboard drones are great for surveillance with little concern for loss.

[-] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago

Radar doesn't work very well on cardboard. Ukraine has already been using drones like this since 2023.

[-] StillAlive@piefed.world 10 points 1 month ago
[-] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 month ago

Origamikaze

[-] Muscle_Meteor@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 month ago

Thats one hell of a papercut

[-] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 8 points 1 month ago

But why would you use a drone to commit suicide?

[-] robolemmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

Surprise suicide?

[-] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

New Amazon assistance suicide subscription.

[-] jafra@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago

Suicide subscription might not be the most profitable business model.

[-] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Could be used as a family plan. Gotta do something about grandma when she becomes a burden.

[-] the_wonderfool@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago

I may have a forgettable life, so I'll make sure to have an unforgettable death.

[-] timroerstroem@feddit.dk 4 points 1 month ago

I guess that makes the "suicide" part easier to achieve.

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Excited to see one of these bad boys show up at the next WHCD

[-] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 1 points 1 month ago

For single use it's not a bad idea honestly but I can't imagine they would carry much and things like the wind might play a big factor.

[-] Manjushri@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago

According to the article, they are mainly intended as defensive devices. Think of them as anti-drone cardboard chaff.

AirKamuy Chief Engineer Naoki Morita said that the cardboard drone was mainly envisioned as a counter-drone device. The idea is to fly a swarm of drones in front of other targets and absorb blows. “This is regular cardboard, so no special foam board or material, so every cardboard manufacturer can make this plane,” he said.

But other uses are possible. Naoki said that the AirKamuy 150 could carry around three pounds, which is just enough to carry a small amount of supplies or munitions to a target and it’s not hard to imagine swarms of incendiary cardboard drones slamming into targets in the near future.

[-] HertzDentalBar 1 points 1 month ago

We really gotta stop using the term suicide I'm this context. It's silly this ain't no jihadi jeep

this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
226 points (100.0% liked)

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