Quote:
Originally Posted by Suhiir
Don't expect the current effects of cheap drones to last.
They're VERY effective at the moment because basically no one has developed a defense against them but that will change FAST. Simple jamming or an EM pulse will drop them in a heartbeat.
|
Simple jamming isn't stopping the drones on both sides from hitting their targets in appreciable numbers.
Yes, the future is going to be directed energy weapons (DEW) applied to every armored vehicle -- presumably as part of the active protection (APS) system -- if the APS detects a signature similar to the very fast spinning rotors of a quadcopter; send back a short high frequency radar burst to that target to fry the drone.
Or lasers (they're just getting deployed now) will appear in large numbers to counter drones.
Either way, a LOT of coding would be necessary to accurately depict weapons effects for both lasers and DEWs in Steel Panthers since they're a totally new "rock-papers-scissors" paradigm versus the current projectile weapon system used in all Steel Panthers since 1994.
Issues to solve would be:
1.) Size issues -- laser size is rated in kilowatts with targets being:
10 kw = Mortar shells and small drones
50 kw = artillery shells and heavier drones
300 kw = combat aircraft, etc.
2.) Lasers can be affected by dust/smoke/weather conditions; to an extent that projectile weapons aren't.
3.) Microwave (aka Radar based) DEWs are largely unaffected by weather; but are a current unknown-unknown -- in that we don't have public open source data on just how much radar energy is needed to disable/damage current threat profiles -- commercial drones like DJI Mavics should be relatively easy; but a combat aircraft like the F-16 -- IDK how well that would work, given that F-16s have been tested for operations in a nuclear environment with nuclear-generated EMP.