This is like WWI or more aptly the Spanish Civil War, giving us a taste of the next major conflict. Which will be nothing but drones clouding out the sun. They can make quicker decisions, carry bigger payloads, go longer and “save” soldiers lives. There’ll be little reason for forward deployments other than deploying air defense and limited support.

[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Drones won't get rid of men on the ground... But it gets to the point where a war is just sending men into a swarm of drones, and that just sounds unpleasant.

[–] Ooops@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Drones don't conquer areas. Drones don't search for explosives or hidden defenders. So no, this will not change the number of soldiers but just be an andditional wave before them taking over the job that precision-guided artillery is fullfilling now.

Also there are only very few situations where a new type of weapon actually replaced older ones. Not without decades and decades of the existing ones being adapted to new tech and tactics.

Your "we don't need forward deployments other than limited air defense anymore"-argument is the same wrong simplification we heard about the end of tanks after every single bigger engagement since ww1.

[–] Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You think they can make a machine do parkour, and they can make a machine navigate collapsed buildings, but they won't be able to make a machine that can clear a building?

[–] Ooops@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

No, they actually can't, they can make a drone that can parkour a know course. On a good day an unknown course strictly comprised out of known parts. The more autonomous the task, the harder it gets.

Contrary to public believe A.I. isn't actually intelligent but really dump. They can only work well with permutations of known things but are still rather helpless when confronted with unknown factors.

[–] Nurgle@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We’ve been using drones to search buildings for like 15 years already? Sure troops will be needed to secure a population, but drones will be the front line.

And the end of tanks since WWI… where tanks were first introduced? Wut.

[–] AnarchoDakosaurus@toast.ooo 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No drones won't be the frontline. You cannot use drones to physically hold an area, and they can be rendered useless in inclement weather or by signal jammers.

Not to mention, if you need to actually clear houses out like the U.S. did in Fallujah, you would needs tens of thousands of men. No amount of drones would suffice to replace them for this task.

And yes. People have been saying the tank is obsolete in almost every conflict it has fought in. Including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The drone has not made anything obsolete, but it has changed how effectively you can use soldiers and equipment.