I can imagine some kind of light grating (like a cope cage) preventing a net from getting into the propellers.
Personally, I think consumer-grade drones are around their maximum lethality in warfare now, and that countermeasures will gradually catch up before an equilibrium is reached. Much like heavy water-cooled machine guns were at their maximum lethality sometime during WWI, before stuff like armour, mobility, snipers, and accurate medium-range strikes (artillery and CAS) started countering them.
Especially now that a lot of military powers not actively involved in the war (US, a bunch of European militaries, China, India, …) see a very clear incentive to invest heavily in developing anti-drone capabilities. Before long, I think we’ll see highly effective “interceptor drones”, possibly even autonomous ones, that can track a given infantry unit and provide air cover (basically the development that happened for aircraft). I also think we’ll start seeing more and better purpose-built anti-drone weapons that ordinary infantry can carry (like MANPADS).
Drone arms race. This is fantastic.
Drones purposed for neutralizing drones purposed for neutralizing enemy vehicles.
Can’t jam em using radio? Jam them with nets!
What’s next??? Maybe they’ll accelerate the adoption of EDFs to prevent net from jamming the propellers?
Maybe fancy anti-netting systems- like an onboard pair of scissors!
I can imagine some kind of light grating (like a cope cage) preventing a net from getting into the propellers.
Personally, I think consumer-grade drones are around their maximum lethality in warfare now, and that countermeasures will gradually catch up before an equilibrium is reached. Much like heavy water-cooled machine guns were at their maximum lethality sometime during WWI, before stuff like armour, mobility, snipers, and accurate medium-range strikes (artillery and CAS) started countering them.
Especially now that a lot of military powers not actively involved in the war (US, a bunch of European militaries, China, India, …) see a very clear incentive to invest heavily in developing anti-drone capabilities. Before long, I think we’ll see highly effective “interceptor drones”, possibly even autonomous ones, that can track a given infantry unit and provide air cover (basically the development that happened for aircraft). I also think we’ll start seeing more and better purpose-built anti-drone weapons that ordinary infantry can carry (like MANPADS).
A drone with wire cutter propeller blades to shred nets and fibre wires.