Effectivness of Drone Warfare Today and in the Past

[Arch Dornan]

I've been thinking on it's usefulness and with billions of dollars sunk into it, it's definitely what enemies and collateral damage civilians fear as the next evolution of American Fortunate Son on the skies.

Obama's famed for his reliance on it probably to keep US casualties low to stop the flow of pine boxes and it has the distinction of bagging the US a five star general renowned in Iran.

It's led me to believe if the US military had this level of technology at the time of the Vietnam War the killing rate will increase and the jungle will have more junk and holes left there. Can't say if they'll bag a five star general too like Suleimani if US intel was dedicated enough to find the Vietnamese version like Giap (I wonder if he does keep up with the news) to inflict a killing blow to morale.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Well first I'm not military nor super educated in the matter, so take this as a layrib's unsubstantiated opinion.

I think Drone Warfare isn't as advanced and effective as we'd like. Obama never met a drone strike he didn't like and used drones freely but, observably, the US kinda lost a good bit of power and got regarded as something of a paper tiger because he wouldn't commit boots to the ground and actually get the job done, instead just dropping bombs now and then and calling it a day.

I'm of the opinion that a Drone should be regarded as essentially a super long-ranged artillery piece. It's useful in battle and good for breaking that one thing over there but can't handle the entire job of war by itself. Nobody wants to go to war with no artillery available but conversely nobody wants to go to war with nothing but artillery available. This could change as robots get more and more capable but not now.

 

[CarlManvers2019]

This video might be relevant

 

[Arch Dornan]

Well first I'm not military nor super educated in the matter, so take this as a layrib's unsubstantiated opinion.

I think Drone Warfare isn't as advanced and effective as we'd like. Obama never met a drone strike he didn't like and used drones freely but, observably, the US kinda lost a good bit of power and got regarded as something of a paper tiger because he wouldn't commit boots to the ground and actually get the job done, instead just dropping bombs now and then and calling it a day.

I'm of the opinion that a Drone should be regarded as essentially a super long-ranged artillery piece. It's useful in battle and good for breaking that one thing over there but can't handle the entire job of war by itself. Nobody wants to go to war with no artillery available but conversely nobody wants to go to war with nothing but artillery available. This could change as robots get more and more capable but not now.

It obviously can't handle the entire job of a war at the moment but from what it functions as it's from what it does rather useful in keeping casualties low but it does give plenty of PTSD to the drone controllers.

It's a useful tool much like the rest of what arsenal a military keeps be it the airforce, navy, special forces, intel etc.

Only the real capability of it will be fully tested in an actual world war but when other countries have their own it won't be that easy to achieve air superiorty.

 

[Deleted member 88]

Drones are actually no longer just used by the US and its allies.

The Houthis, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, various transnational criminal organizations, among others have made use of drones, for both purposes of lethal attack as well as reconnaissance.

Honestly I think we still have not entered the true age of drone warfare. But we will in the coming decade or so.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Drones are actually no longer just used by the US and its allies.

The Houthis, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, various transnational criminal organizations, among others have made use of drones, for both purposes of lethal attack as well as reconnaissance.

Honestly I think we still have not entered the true age of drone warfare. But we will in the coming decade or so.

I'd have to assume drones are going to be pretty widespread. I mean, I have a little helicopter I play with in my backyard right now. If I can have that on a budget of about fifty bucks I imagine even the very cheapest national military or even country militia can have something significantly better.

I'm kinda amazed Israel hasn't had five hundred remote control helicopters, each carrying a single grenade, flying over their border from Palestine already.

 

[Arch Dornan]

Drones are actually no longer just used by the US and its allies.

The Houthis, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, various transnational criminal organizations, among others have made use of drones, for both purposes of lethal attack as well as reconnaissance.

Honestly I think we still have not entered the true age of drone warfare. But we will in the coming decade or so.

Yes indeed so when the technology is spread everywhere. The US just uses it more to unload their ordnance or do surveillance when waging their wars. When everyone has it what happens when a big fucking total war happens? Not something as simple as a bumfuck teensy weensy war of a superior army against a ragtag one that must fight like a guerilla it's so unfair they won't step out into the open nor will the superior army handicap themselves to their level.

Only then will we know what those drones can actually do.

 

[Zachowon]

Drones are actually no longer just used by the US and its allies.

The Houthis, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia, China, various transnational criminal organizations, among others have made use of drones, for both purposes of lethal attack as well as reconnaissance.

Honestly I think we still have not entered the true age of drone warfare. But we will in the coming decade or so.

Uh yes we still use drones very frequently, for various purposes..
We use them for recon, missle and bombs strikes when there is no planes in the air.
We use them for surveillance and all that.

Hell we have multiple 15 series MOS here in the Army for them.
UAV operators, maintainers and the like.

They will be used to preserve life, and sure they can make us look like a paper tiger, I dont care, they can think that until we are beating on thier leaders door..

 

[Arch Dornan]

They will be used to preserve life, and sure they can make us look like a paper tiger, I dont care, they can think that until we are beating on thier leaders door..

I'm sure past serviceman who died in the call of duty would agree especially if they didn't have the use of them.

 

[Arch Dornan]

Your predecessors would've love having this pre WW2.

It'll save lives and increase chances of bagging more five stars.

 

[Deleted member 88]

Uh yes we still use drones very frequently, for various purposes..
We use them for recon, missle and bombs strikes when there is no planes in the air.
We use them for surveillance and all that.

Hell we have multiple 15 series MOS here in the Army for them.
UAV operators, maintainers and the like.

They will be used to preserve life, and sure they can make us look like a paper tiger, I dont care, they can think that until we are beating on thier leaders door..

I’m not sure what your point here is? I never said the US stopped or wasn’t using drones.

 

[Zachowon]

Yes and we had early Remote control stuff back then, the germans did as well. Mainly used for testing or bombs over airceaft

 

[Zachowon]

I’m not sure what your point here is? I never said the US stopped or wasn’t using drones.

I miss read it and thought you put the US are no longer using instead of are no longer the only ones

 

[Deleted member 88]

My point is that the technology is no longer under the US and Allies Inc. monopoly.

I miss read it and thought you put the US are no longer using instead of are no longer the only ones

I never once insinuated anything of the kind?

 

[Zachowon]

My point is that the technology is no longer under the US and Allies Inc. monopoly.


I never once insinuated anything of the kind?

I just miss read the forst sentence

 

[Deleted member 88]

I just miss read the forst sentence

No biggie, it happens.

 

[Shipmaster Sane]

I've been thinking on it's usefulness and with billions of dollars sunk into it, it's definitely what enemies and collateral damage civilians fear as the next evolution of American Fortunate Son on the skies.

Obama's famed for his reliance on it probably to keep US casualties low to stop the flow of pine boxes and it has the distinction of bagging the US a five star general renowned in Iran.

It's led me to believe if the US military had this level of technology at the time of the Vietnam War the killing rate will increase and the jungle will have more junk and holes left there. Can't say if they'll bag a five star general too like Suleimani if US intel was dedicated enough to find the Vietnamese version like Giap (I wonder if he does keep up with the news) to inflict a killing blow to morale.

It was not the ability to inflict casualties that was lacking in Vietnam, the Viets had taken a million casualties by the end of the war and the NVA effectively dissolved afterwards due to the damage it took, it was the political will to continue a prolonged civil conflict.

 

[Arch Dornan]

It was not the ability to inflict casualties that was lacking in Vietnam, the Viets had taken a million casualties by the end of the war and the NVA effectively dissolved afterwards due to the damage it took, it was the political will to continue a prolonged civil conflict.

And that's part of the problem, the political will.

The people then failed to sell it as to why lives should be used up to continue fighting.

Wasting money's easier than the pine boxes coming home.

They still have that problem now even if technology does a lot to mitigate these problems encountered in foreign adventures to get VIP kills.

Anyone that actually has the technological solution to a tiring war bordering on another Vietnam will be a very rich weapon salesman.

 

[PsihoKekec]

It was not the ability to inflict casualties that was lacking in Vietnam, the Viets had taken a million casualties by the end of the war and the NVA effectively dissolved afterwards due to the damage it took, it was the political will to continue a prolonged civil conflict.

You got your acronyms wrong, VC got absorbed into NVA due to damage suffered, while NVA continued to fight the ARVN to the victory.

 

[Abhorsen]

Drone attacks are great for the opposer of a guerrilla war. They mean that there is a lower requirement for troops, and means that troops aren't being killed. This really blunts the anti war cause, as the war isn't directly harming many Americans anymore, which means we are much more capable of winning wars of attrition.