shin_getter
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The Pentagon Wants To Arm Drones With Non-Lethal Lasers And Microwave Cannon
Robots armed with non-lethal weapons could revolutionize warfare and law enforcement.
www.forbes.com
Are nonlethal laser drones the new stun guns?
Made by a Russian company that specializes in stun guns and police equipment, a laser-equipped drone will provide a less lethal alternative for security forces, if used responsibly.
www.c4isrnet.com
Old Trend: Military technology evolves and destructive power gets applied in increasingly novel ways
New trend: the superior force can respond to sub-threshold level of force with any level of force, not just lethal force. With unmanned vehicles, just about no amount of firepower possessed by the target demands response in kind.
In this new world, anyone that don't wire themselves with a suicide belt can be captured, and no application of force involve risk to humans. This should have significant effect on all application of force below major war, which is the vast majority of interactions. It would be interesting to think how this change policing, politics and other human affairs.
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It is shocking that tactics like no-knock raids still exists today, ending in events like lethal shootout with homeowners, and flashbangs thrown into baby cribs. It would be safer for all involved to just break a window, throw in a swam of drones that rapidly monitors entire indoor situation (no knocks exists to prevent destruction of evidence, rapid monitoring enables this), announce police presence, means of verifying police action, by reliable communication methods, from phone service to internet, demand surrender and suppress the inhabitants if escalation happens. It is not like petty criminals normally pack broadband jammers around, so this tactic is doable today.
The removal of the human form factor constraints enables captures using what would be very strange situations today. One can imagine a fighter-bomber drop a "capture swarm in a box" that incapacitates the human targeted on the ground, which is than airlifted away via SAR type assets. This enables "precisely targeted capture" of leadership and other figures.
The ability to disable naked humans is one thing, further development should enable disabling vehicles without killing occupants. I suppose "low collateral" precisely targeted EFP to propulsion and mobility capability should do if microwaves don't.
The nature of robotics also means tricky standoff DEW and toxic chemical agents is no longer necessary: physical restraints works just fine against point targets, and highly agile multicopters with nets and sticky foam should be easy to develop. UGV with more beefy actuators enables non-entangling tactics, but the control system development would be very hard given how clumsy robots has been.
