But I wasnt thinking carrier like a ship, but a flying carrier, a mother ship . A drone that can loiter all day above a battlefield, then release dozens of cheap drones when needed could make a real impact. At the same time you could put money into the drone that gets there, recons, loiters, and returns, while using the advantages of cheap short range suicide drones as your expendable “ammunition”.
Why not both? A cheap disposable drone will never have much range, loitering, reconnaissance, so needs help getting to the battlefield (unless it’s your own town as in Ukraine). But even an expensive long range drone can only go so far. Think of the logistics hub as the military base only a couple hundred miles from Target, wherever there is an ocean. The loitering drone be battlefield over site and response, then cheap suicide drones as the ammunition
There is also the concept of a cargo plane which can drop drone swarms. A few drones are for jamming, some have radar, some have missiles to take out anti air systems and the rest are duds (to saturate defenses) or carry a payload for kamikaze to hit the actual target. The plane loiters outside enemy range while dropping 100 to 500 drones. Thing is, drones don’t need a large platform. You can even easily convert a small attack submarine to a subsurface drone carrier if you like.
Very informative, thanks!
But I wasnt thinking carrier like a ship, but a flying carrier, a mother ship . A drone that can loiter all day above a battlefield, then release dozens of cheap drones when needed could make a real impact. At the same time you could put money into the drone that gets there, recons, loiters, and returns, while using the advantages of cheap short range suicide drones as your expendable “ammunition”.
Why not both? A cheap disposable drone will never have much range, loitering, reconnaissance, so needs help getting to the battlefield (unless it’s your own town as in Ukraine). But even an expensive long range drone can only go so far. Think of the logistics hub as the military base only a couple hundred miles from Target, wherever there is an ocean. The loitering drone be battlefield over site and response, then cheap suicide drones as the ammunition
There is also the concept of a cargo plane which can drop drone swarms. A few drones are for jamming, some have radar, some have missiles to take out anti air systems and the rest are duds (to saturate defenses) or carry a payload for kamikaze to hit the actual target. The plane loiters outside enemy range while dropping 100 to 500 drones. Thing is, drones don’t need a large platform. You can even easily convert a small attack submarine to a subsurface drone carrier if you like.