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So much money to be wasted

Drones are cheap to make but expensive to stop.

The result of the huge increase in drone use during military confrontations such as those in Ukrain or around Iran is a major rethink about defensive strategies and technologies.

Suddenly, as if by magic, we're seeing brand new "experts" pouring out of the woodwork and willing to sell their newfound expertise and insight to the money-rich militaries of the world.

It really irritates me when someone spends 5 minutes on ChatGPT to come up with a convincing pitch and then secures millions of dollars in government contracts to build technology that they hadn't even heard of until last week.

I have had first-hand experience of just how loose the taxpayers' purse-strings are when it comes to funding tech projects with little more than an impressive sales-pitch or an outrageously unbelievable promise.

Does anyone else remember the NATO bomb detector scam that netted one such snake-oil merchant over 50 million quid back around 2009?

Yep, that's how gullible and stupid our decision makers often are.

But hey, it's only the public's money, right?

The reason I raise this issue now is because I'm staring to see so many drone and counter-drone companies popping up from nowhere with little to offer aside from some 3D-rendered images and a fancy AI-generated video that shows how their fantastic, break-through technology will destroy enemy assets and protect against enemy drones -- probably.

Even the Ukrainian designed devices such as this interceptor drone are being copied by other companies and pitched to military around the world:

Now I'm not suggesting that these "out of nowhere" drone companies are going to be engaging in scams similar to those bomb-detectors but I am pretty sure they're going to be over-stating their own abilities and relying on "learning on the job" to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to deliver. I also have no doubt that many will simply fail to deliver on those promises but that won't be disclosed, even by the militaries that will have been duped. Nobody wants to be seen as a fool.

The reality is that these are incredibly simple craft that any half-decent hobbyist could knock up in their spare time. Yes, I am tempted!

The downside is that, in the form depicted in that video, they are subject to electronic countermeasures that would be trivial to incorporate into the type of offensive drones they're designed to take down. Another problem is that although they're fine for single-attack-drone interception, they're decidedly unsuited to dealing with multiple drones attacking simultaneously, as has become commonplace.

The problem is that these are really just FPV drones with a 3D-printed body designed to carry a payload and streamline them for extra speed. You still need a skilled pilot and robust radio-control and live-video links between that pilot and the craft. The amount of bandwidth available on the frequencies normally used for video links is decidedly limited and this effectively limits the number of interceptors that can be flown simultaneously.

While there's no doubt that these are certainly better than nothing, I'd love to know how much the companies that make these things are going to be actually selling them for. The reality is that a hobbyist could knock one of these up for around US$350 (with one-off prices) but I suspect they'll be sold in volume to the military for at least five to ten times that amount.

The tragic thing from my perspective, as one of the world's leading proponents of a hobby that has become vilified and denegrated by the media and special interest groups, is that pretty soon I'm sure we'll add drones to the list of prohibited or highly restricted items that the general public is forbidden to own or use without massive oversight.

We're told it's all about "national security" but that doesn't explain why in so many developed nations these days, the ownership and use of drones is now being age-gated, just like access to social media. How does denying a 13-year-old in the UK for instance, the legal right to own a drone protect that child or protect national security?

I recall fondly the days when kids would join the ATC and spend hours after school at a rifle range, learning to safely handle and use a rifle. This familiarisation provided an extra layer of safety and meant that if there was ever a real armed conflict, a much higher percentage of the population already had some of the skills needed to defend the nation.

Today, instead of teaching kids to manage the risks, we cosset them away and the thought of a 13-year-old having a gun in their hands as part of an education horrifies many parents. Is it soon going to be the same with drones -- the latest weapon of war?

Sometimes I think the world is becoming a really shite place.

Carpe Diem folks!

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