https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-a-team-of-marines-...

Moreover, as this War on the Rocks podcast shows, all levels of drones are being integrated.

Not to mention logistics. It’s easy to support one of something. Supporting spares, upgrades, obsolescences, etc (plus documentation and training) for hundreds of drones across the globe is another story.

> will likely take enough labor time to verify, let alone certify

All that to say that US desperately needs to copy Ukrainian model. Lots of small manufacturers and an excellent skunk works team for very quick iteration.

We absolutely can, we absolutely should, and we absolutely have been doing that.

When I get on a bus with other people, I can, with a fairly high degree of certainty, rest assured that the other passengers will not just randomly kill me to get something from me. That's because the people, just like me, have some level of comfort and their basic needs being met.

The further we slide away from that, the higher the risk for everyone. And to maintain that needs constant work, from everyone.

>You could kill me with a rock easier than you could kill me with a drone

How about dropping a rock from a drone so it isn't up close and personal.

The pearl clutching is just these folks out there who think, "if it wasn't for the laws people would be running amok murdering like the purge!"

These people are not to be taken seriously. "But what about" and "what if" are the most annoying things any person can say in a meeting to appear smart, and this is no different.

This is also why I'm building a cabin in the woods and I work for myself, but yeah.

> a bat (if you're fit)

Or if it has rabies.

The difference is the range of the delivery system. None of the options you mention allow you to remotely deliver a deadly payload without ever going particularly near the target location.

I change that slightly to "Good luck getting an explosive payload."

The difficulty for an attacker is the explosive payload, not the delivery mechanism. If it were easy for an attacker to get an explosive payload there would be car bombs going off every day as an easier delivery mechanism than use of quadcopters.

Thankfully it seems to be relatively easy to prevent people from making explosives, at least outside of warzones in countries with strict border control, because random people don't have a valid reason to buy industrial chemicals or equipment, and especially not chemicals identified as precursors for making explosive compounds. And for plants where such industrial chemicals are legitimately necessary to use, inputs and outputs can be measured, and detection taggants[1] used, and many other security measures, to prevent accidental or deliberate loss of control over such chemicals.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggant#Explosive_taggants

I can run away from a knife holding psycho or fight back, a drone can fly into my bedroom. Same argument for guns really.

You can’t do it from a remote location. That’s a significant difference.

And then war came, the enemy somehow managed to attack the area where you live - think that silly Red Dawn movie - and enemy troops are closing in on your area. What do you do?

1: Give up and let them take you and yours

2: Fight them in the knowledge that you'll be shunned by society which took your own advice to heart

Nope, I suspect you'd board one of those army transports which have been sent to evacuate civilians to a safe area where they'll live until the military has successfully beaten the enemy combatants. Then you'll return to your house which seems to have survived unscathed, fire up your laptop and write another post on how it is best to avoid the people who just saved you and yours. Don't hire them, don't date them, they're broken and can't be fixed

Happy 4th of July btw.

It takes a lot of callous and privilege to have this kind of opinion

This is a very interesting post - like, I think it's wrong, but the sentiment is fascinating.

At the very least they should be tested for heavy metals and for basic psychological sanity. Just being in physical contact with firearm and ammunition risks lead exposure. If abnormal, it should be addressed at once.

I do think that war would be better off being done remotely via automated floating and aerial weapons platforms controlled remotely if not semi-autonomously. I mean without soldiers on the front line.