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0 pointsceejayoz11y ago0 comments

Anti-aircraft missiles are essentially drones.

0 comments

No, a drone can take off and land. Show me a SAM that can fly back to its launcher and be used at a later date.

I bet we could get a cruise missile to "land" on a runway. The only catch is that it usually does this concurrently with a planned rapid disassembly.

ceejayozOP11y ago

That's the "essentially" part. The key bit here is "cheap counter to the F-35 you can mass-produce in the hundreds or thousands for every F-35 you'll face".

Nothing says you can't have a few dozen/hundred drones with SAMs, either.

greedo11y ago

But you can't handwave away the difference without understanding how it would affect the cost of your "cheap counter to the F-35." Do you know how much an AIM-120 costs? How much it weighs? How much reinforcement the wing structure of a drone would require to carry, launch and land with this weaponry?

mikeyouse11y ago

> AIM-120 cost

$300k - $400k

> How much it weighs?

152 kg

> How much reinforcement the wing structure of a drone would require to carry, launch and land with this weaponry?

According to General Atomics;

"With a 1,500 lb (680 kg) payload, its wings are 'more than sufficient' to mount larger air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles."

1 more reply

serf11y ago

Well, no. Originally drones could not land. That's a modern feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_drone

baddox11y ago

In general, you don't want a missile to land. You want it to blow up really close to the bad guy.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

greedo11y ago

No, a drone can take off and land. Show me a SAM that can fly back to its launcher and be used at a later date.

stcredzero11y ago

I bet we could get a cruise missile to "land" on a runway. The only catch is that it usually does this concurrently with a planned rapid disassembly.

ceejayozOP11y ago

That's the "essentially" part. The key bit here is "cheap counter to the F-35 you can mass-produce in the hundreds or thousands for every F-35 you'll face".

Nothing says you can't have a few dozen/hundred drones with SAMs, either.

greedo11y ago

mikeyouse11y ago

> AIM-120 cost

$300k - $400k

> How much it weighs?

152 kg

> How much reinforcement the wing structure of a drone would require to carry, launch and land with this weaponry?

According to General Atomics;

"With a 1,500 lb (680 kg) payload, its wings are 'more than sufficient' to mount larger air-to-air or air-to-surface missiles."

1 more reply

serf11y ago

Well, no. Originally drones could not land. That's a modern feature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_drone

baddox11y ago

In general, you don't want a missile to land. You want it to blow up really close to the bad guy.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse