Chinese MALE, HALE (and rotary, small, suicide) UAV/UCAV thread

[valysre]

They have an assault rife firing fully automatic and it looks relatively pretty stable. You only need one shot for a sniper rifle and it just has to readjust afterwards. Once you have suppression fire going off, chances are they're going to see where it comes from.

My response was under the assumption that "sniping" occurs at a markedly longer distance than automatic suppressive fire.
Suppressive fire can be off by a meter and still serve its purpose. If the drone is flying about 30 meters from the target, this allows approximately 2 degrees of error in the aim of the gun. I believe this is possible with current drone technology.
On the other hand, sniper fire can only be off by about 5 centimeters. If the drone is flying about 100 meters from the target (somewhat farther than the automatic suppressive fire), then there is only about 0.03 degrees of error allowed. This precision is substantially higher, and I do not believe a hovering drone, even without recoil considered, is capable of such precise flight.

 

[AssassinsMace]

My response was under the assumption that "sniping" occurs at a markedly longer distance than automatic suppressive fire.
Suppressive fire can be off by a meter and still serve its purpose. If the drone is flying about 30 meters from the target, this allows approximately 2 degrees of error in the aim of the gun. I believe this is possible with current drone technology.
On the other hand, sniper fire can only be off by about 5 centimeters. If the drone is flying about 100 meters from the target (somewhat farther than the automatic suppressive fire), then there is only about 0.03 degrees of error allowed. This precision is substantially higher, and I do not believe a hovering drone, even without recoil considered, is capable of such precise flight.

Hence why I brought up drones that can see at night. More cover from possible return fire and they don't need to be as far away as a sniper does.

 

[valysre]

Hence why I brought up drones that can see at night. More cover from possible return fire and they don't need to be as far away as a sniper does.

Sniper fire (again off by at most 5 centimeters) from a drone 30 meters away from target is still 0.1 degrees of error permitted. I think this is still beyond the capabilities of a hovering drone to stay within.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Sniper fire (again off by at most 5 centimeters) from a drone 30 meters away from target is still 0.1 degrees of error permitted. I think this is still beyond the capabilities of a hovering drone to stay within.

Then why have guns on a flying drone at all...? Again suppression fire...? That's why I emphasized night operation. It probably can get closer than 30 meters and the enemy won't even know where it is. That'll do more keeping the enemy down than suppression fire spraying a machine gun all over the place will.

 

[valysre]

Then why have guns on a flying drone at all...? Again suppression fire...? That's why I emphasized night operation. It probably can get closer than 30 meters and the enemy won't even know where it is. That'll do more keeping the enemy down than suppression fire spraying a machine gun all over the place will.

I don't think you should've used the word "sniping" if you wanted closer than 30 meters.
You'd be surprised how loud drones are, I can tell the general location of one of the small ones that fits on the palm of your hand from about 20 meters away. A drone that can carry a whole gun can only be larger and louder.

BTW under the assumption that the drone has a precision of 2 degrees error in aiming (which I think is pretty generous, it's probably higher), the drone'd have to close to under 15 meters to land shots within 5 centimeters of where the drone is aiming. I think that's very close and quite easy to detect by ear.

 

[broadsword]

Gimbal stabilizers will help with firing accuracy. I wonder if any of those drones are equipped with them.

 

[AssassinsMace]

I don't think you should've used the word "sniping" if you wanted closer than 30 meters.
You'd be surprised how loud drones are, I can tell the general location of one of the small ones that fits on the palm of your hand from about 20 meters away. A drone that can carry a whole gun can only be larger and louder.

I'm surprised how quiet drones are. Out in the battlefield there's no lights. Are you going to turn on a flash light to see to expose yourself? Like I said before if you watch video of homemade suicide drones at work and the enemy doesn't notice them until it's too late and it's out in the daylight. Again Hezbollah flew drones over Israeli strategic areas without being discovered until is was posted on the internet. Don't you think the Israelis would have the technology to detect them? It just shows you how there's a lot assumptions about warfare that are not true. Who would've thought an M1 Abrams can be destroyed by essentially is a toy drone. Drones have completely change the battlefield and how people see it. One would think drones can easily be countered but apparently they're not. Nearly all anti-drone tech requires something to be aimed at the drone to make it work. At night you don't know where it is.

 

[Wrought]

If you know the bullets are not going to be anywhere near you, you're not going to be ducking as much. Then why do they have anti-drone guns? They have to pop up to aim meaning they're exposing themselves.

How on earth does anyone know the accuracy of any shooter? It may be human, it may be robotic, it may be a pistol or rifle or anything else from near or far or anywhere else. All of those rational thoughts come after soldiers instinctively take cover, because nobody is standing out in the open thinking over all the details when they are being shot at. Hence suppression.

You are asking to solve a much harder problem before a much easier one. After drones are precise enough to lay down suppressive fire, then you can worry about refining them into sniping platforms. But you need to walk before you run, and suppression has an obvious use case.

 

[AssassinsMace]

How on earth does anyone know the accuracy of any shooter? It may be human, it may be robotic, it may be a pistol or rifle or anything else. All of those rational thoughts come after soldiers instinctively take cover, because nobody is standing out in the open thinking over all the details when they are being shot at.

Hence suppression.

Hence why a sniper drone because after the first shot it's irrelevant if anyone hides afterward...

 

[Wrought]

Hence why a sniper drone because after the first shot it's irrelevant if anyone hides afterward...

It's the opposite of irrelevant, because forcing them to hide is literally the whole point of suppressive fire in the first place.