Does the capability exist for drones to send their gps location directly to a weapons system that that continuously targets the earths surface under (or offset some fixed amount) the drone? The drone could then fly over a target and say “shoot here” to the weapons system. Or is there a middleman getting the numbers from the drone and then entering them into the weapon?
Good question!
AFAIK, there is a human doing the inputting, because I don’t think any military would want what would essentially be an autonomous killing system (that isn’t land mines.)
One minute after posting the question I stumbled upon an article that says Chinese made DJI drones continuously broadcast the position of the drone and the pilot. This info can be picked up by anybody within range (5-50 km) with the proper equipment and used to target. The is a video of the purportedly happening with the pilot barely escaping. DJI says neither they nor the user can turn it off. Stop using DJIs, I guess.
As far as an autonomous system - have a human viewing the camera to steer/confirm and push the button but at least the coordinates are already entered and the weapon is ready to fire.
Many if not all drones have targeting lasers that are pulsed and that pulse can be recognized by seeker heads. drone pilot picks a target and puts laser on it. Pilot inputs laser pulsing code “123456” missile, smart bomb, etc finds that beam and follows it to the target. the stuff I am aware of was like that 35 years ago. I would imagine they have WAY more sophisticated data sharing nowadays between drones and various weapons platforms. With only a handful of exceptions, a human being still pulls a trigger, even if targeting data is directly relayed to the launcher.
Source: grandpa was an engineer for a major defense contractor and actually worked on the tracking and stabilization systems for those targeting lasers. I know lots of random stuff about radar systems, missiles, etc, just from asking random teenager type questions about stuff.
I was thinking about something like this with connection to Javelins. From what I’ve read, the Javelin control launch unit doesn’t have any active pointing like a laser; it just has a really nice camera. The operator looks at the screen, picks out a target from the image, and tells the missile to hit that thing, then the operator launches the missile and ducks back into cover while the missile tracks.
It seems to me that it’d be fairly easy to modify that to use a camera on a cheap, disposable drone, so the guy with the actual rocket tube doesn’t even need to step out of cover to aim and launch. Or have a swarm of camera drones that construct a 3D map of the entire battlespace, and then a guy in a bunker points out the top n targets on that map, and n guys in the field all launch their Javelins, and they get automatically allocated to the targets.
Essentially a sighting drone. Sounds reasonable. DARPA probably has something related. I’ll see if I can find a link.
I am afraid the do. And it will come to haunt them. Just have a look at what the Turkish drone Bayraktar TB2 is capable of, what it achieved in Libya and in Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, and how fantastically it is selling. Oh! And it is saving Ukraine all on its own, apparently.
Now imagine what the USA and China are capable of.
I suspect nearly any combination of GPS/laser/camera targeting could be used on a drone. The only physical limiting factors would be the size and power requirements, and if you look at your typical smart phone, you can pack a lot into a small package these days.
The real question is if anyone has built such a drone. I suspect cost is the biggest factor. I just bought a new phone for about $1000, would you want to pay that much for something that has a high probability of not surviving the mission? The US wouldn’t hesitate, but other poorer countries might.
$1000 is practically free, as military hardware goes. A single round of ammunition for a tank can be four times that, and that’s just a lump of metal and some energetic chemicals. A Javelin missile is $78,000, and if your missile survives the mission, you’re not doing your job.
Besides, you could probably do it for a lot cheaper, if you’re not a rich country with an entrenched military-industrial complex. My most recent phone was closer to $100, and probably has most of the same capabilities as yours (certainly a camera, a GPS, and assorted communications technologies, which is mostly all you need). Heck, I can buy something that has all three of those, already installed on a ready-to-fly drone, for $50 at Wal-Mart.
The TB2 I mentioned above reportedly costs 1 million a piece. They say this is a bargain.
FAA regulations now require drones flown in US airspace to do exactly that, so that they can be integrated into air traffic control for local pilots; nothing to do with DJI specifically.
There’s some confusion here, in that “drone” is used to mean two completely different things. On the one hand, you have the likes of the TB2, which are basically unmanned warplanes, for delivering bombs, missiles, or other munitions directly to the enemy, same as any other warplane. For that, a million-dollar pricetag is, indeed, a bargain (especially since you’re not also risking losing a human pilot).
On the other hand, though, you have the small quadcopters and other drones very similar to what you can buy at Wal-Mart. These are mostly for recon and maybe targeting, and are either unarmed, or occasionally carry a single grenade or the like (the Ukrainians have apparently had some success with delivery drones “delivering” anti-tank grenades). These are much cheaper.
Yes, you are right. We are talking about two things simultaneously. Re-reading the OP, I believe the really cheap drones are what he meant.
I suppose once you have a camera and a GPS, (and maybe a compass to tell which way the camera is pointing) all the rest is software.