Hacker News Reader

Comment by lm28469 | Hacker News Reader

You're making a lot of wrong assumptions, drones can be any size, nobody's talking about missiles to shoot them down, not all drones are kamikaze, &c.

If they're already being produced they do work for their intended purpose, Thales doesn't fuck around

View on HN

I wouldn't be surprised if the drones they can detect are the larger fixed wings long range ones and not the FPV types.

FPV drones, aside from EW and directed energy weapons, don't have any counter at the tactical scale (although fielding shotguns might help). Any counter will need to be infantry section/platoon scale to be effective, or at a minimum company level weapon system. The range of the AA countermeasure for an FPV drone will be on the order of 500m-1.5km, so covering a 1000s of km long front line is near impossible with current systems.

Even if the entire front is utterly uneconomical to cover, local defenses like these can be used to provide an umbrella to more important points. Field hospitals, ammo dumps, headquarters, maintenance depots, etc.

Helmet trophy like systems with shotgun cartridges?

I understand I am making assumptions bec of lack of information in the article.

Re shooting them down, if you can't shoot them down, whats the point of detecting them? And a drone being kamikaze only matters IF you can shoot them down. Because then it's a race between the drone rushing to kamikaze vs you shooting it down.

I will admit that I am just speculating here because I have a strange interest in militarized drones and little technical knowledge.

PS : Defending your position by saying that a company doesn't fuck around is not a very good argument.

You don't handle a dji dropping mortar rounds the same way you handle a fpv drone with a rpg warhead strapped under it nor the same way you handle a fleet of bayraktar pounding you from 5km above. I'm just saying you're mix and matching things which shouldn't be mixed and matched, the premise is wrong, no one is going to shoot down a $50 dji with a missile and no one will try to shoot a bayraktar with a shotgun. Just like you don't shoot a tank with a rifle or a moving plane with an unguided rocket launcher, you need the right tool for the right job

You can scramble them, shoot them with bullets, catch the drone/projectile with nets, shoot them with missiles, &c.

Again it's one of the main military company in France and it is partially owned by the state, I can assure you the fact that these things are being made is proof that they fulfil their role

Apar from shooting'em down, one could hijack them or mess with their GPS or RC signals or even fry their circuitry with highly directional microwaves.

>Thales doesn't fuck around

Thales fucking around:

https://english.nv.ua/business/total-isolation-of-russia/mil...

https://www.barrons.com/news/france-s-thales-accused-of-sell...

https://stopwapenhandel.org/killed-by-thales-military-techno...

https://strikesource.com/2023/10/18/french-connections-how-f...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com