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Comment by duskwuff | Hacker News Reader

Upon reading the headline, there was one question in my mind -- and unfortunately, the article didn't answer it. To wit:

Why was the drone 'rigged with explosives' in the first place??!

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  "By embedding a precision lethal payload into a remotely
  controlled, man-portable delivery system, Switchblade®
  provides warfighters with a valuable and more cost-
  effective alternative to existing airborne and land-based
  missile systems."

https://www.avinc.com/solutions/tactical-mission-systems

Is there a purpose for the military-technical jargon beyond sounding serious and sophisticated (and thus expensive)?

I'm not in that industry but if it's anything like other fields, I'd say this jargon has specific meaning to them.

If it's anything like it was ROTC, the jargon here is mainly to signal conformity.

Defense guys love that kind of language.

It's the kind of language that makes colonels' and generals' ears prick up.

Just like how the marketing verbiage for enterprise software ("scalable", "five nines", etc.) is meant to impress decision makers in the private sector.

People always come up with ways to judge the reputation/in-group-membership/status of someone they're meeting for the first time. We can do it with clothes or accents or special jargon or StackOverflow badges, but somehow or other we always do it.

The technical language serves to divorce the purchaser and the manufacturer from any moral responsibility by disguising what it's for. Nobody would buy a remote-controlled bomb for soldiers to blow each other up with, but a "man-portable delivery system" sounds much better.

The more technical the language the more dangerous the weapon.

Sounds like the "Slaugterbot"[1] to me.

[1]: https://www.sciencealert.com/chilling-drone-video-shows-a-di...

Also relevant:

http://daniel-suarez.com/killdecisionsynopsis.html

OK. But why was one rigged with explosives carried on a commercial passenger flight? I think it was going out for a demo, but surely it didn't need the explosives set up for the travel part of that trip?

Incorporate as an arms company, turn your criminal case into a civil case lol

> "By embedding a pound of weed in this cardboard box, we provide warfighters a non-lethal incapacitant that is compatible with currently-deployed logistic infrastructure"

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