> The gap between consumer electronics and mil-spec capability keeps shrinking

My friend's brother works in munitions and had, in his spare time, designed and prototyped a missile that could be built for about 10k. He pretty much was ignored by the contractor he works for.

Shockingly, as of a couple weeks ago, they are all hot and bothered to talk.

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redgridtactical 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That tracks. The defense primes have zero incentive to make things cheaper — their business model is cost-plus. A guy building something for 10k in his garage is an existential threat to programs billing 500k per unit. Of course they ignored him until the geopolitical situation made it impossible to keep ignoring.

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srean 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> That tracks. The defense primes have zero incentive to make things cheaper

Same in medical imaging industry.

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Mars008 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Well, there are cheap portable ultrasound scanners and endoscopes.

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srean 2 hours ago | parent [-]

True.

I was talking about those that are meant for hospitals. Was peripherally involved with a fledgling startup that was developing something cheap. Hospitals straightaway said noway.

	▲	projektfu 39 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		They would be desirable in places with poor advanced imaging penetration like Brazil. Usually only the largest city in a state has this sort of imaging.

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infinitewars 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you build a tool optimized for human destruction, you are feeding a system where violence is the default currency

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Mars008 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We are heading to robotic wars where abilities and cost efficiency are the key factors. Like today drones in Ukraine war. Attack + defense + automation, + money + production

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redgridtactical 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I wonder what could have possibly sparked that... lol