Future of Wars = Swarms of Drones ?

[Aurangzeb29]

So this is a interesting developing concept.... but im suprised more military and strategic thinkers are not seeing the potential (or danger) it has for their countries defences.

Imagine your a General and need to take out a enemy Aircraft Carrier.... instead of trying to send a few expensive planes or missiles...instead send say 1000 Drones... how many can they possibly shoot down ? and for each one they shoot down at least 1 will get through.

A Commercial drone costs $100, lets say a military one will cost 10x that so $1000 dollars per drone lets say, even at that price $1000 x 1000 = $1 million dollars. It costs you $1 million to produce and a Aircraft Carrier costs in the tens of Billions. How many 1000 drones could you produce with 1 Billion dollars ?

Its insane, and it could change the entire dynamics of the modern battlefields.

I mean, you would have swarm after swarm after swarm of Drones flying in both directions trying to attack the enemies strategic assets, armies, airfields, - it would be like something out of star wars... and the most shocking thing of all perhaps is that the technology to do this is already in existence.

Some Military planners are talking about it: The idea, which FitzGerald outlines breaks down like this: instead of building large, expensive manned aircraft in tiny numbers (the military purchased just 187 F-22s, for $174.5 million a pop) the military could—in theory—build thousands of customized drones out of 3-D printed parts, using robotic assembly lines that run 24 hours a day. Then, writes FitzGerald and his co-author, Dr. Aaron Martin, Director of Strategic Planning at Northrop Grumman (which lost the contract for the F-22 to Lockheed in 1991), the military could deploy the 3-D printed drones in complex, infinitely configurable and no doubt terrifying swarms controlled by “digital pilots.”

Like the Mongol Horse Archers & the Invention of Gunpowder the 'Swarm of Drones' can change everything and it would effect nearly every military on earth as nobody could afford to ignore it and stick to conventional armies of Men, Tanks and Planes.

Imagine what the Chinese alone would do with this concept.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

So this is a interesting developing concept.... but im suprised more military and strategic thinkers are not seeing the potential (or danger) it has for their countries defences.

Imagine your a General and need to take out a enemy Aircraft Carrier.... instead of trying to send a few expensive planes or missiles...instead send say 1000 Drones... how many can they possibly shoot down ? and for each one they shoot down at least 1 will get through.

A Commercial drone costs $100, lets say a military one will cost 10x that so $1000 dollars per drone lets say, even at that price $1000 x 1000 = $1 million dollars. It costs you $1 million to produce and a Aircraft Carrier costs in the tens of Billions. How many 1000 drones could you produce with 1 Billion dollars ?

Its insane, and it could change the entire dynamics of the modern battlefields.

I mean, you would have swarm after swarm after swarm of Drones flying in both directions trying to attack the enemies strategic assets, armies, airfields, - it would be like something out of star wars... and the most shocking thing of all perhaps is that the technology to do this is already in existence.

Some Military planners are talking about it: The idea, which FitzGerald outlines breaks down like this: instead of building large, expensive manned aircraft in tiny numbers (the military purchased just 187 F-22s, for $174.5 million a pop) the military could—in theory—build thousands of customized drones out of 3-D printed parts, using robotic assembly lines that run 24 hours a day. Then, writes FitzGerald and his co-author, Dr. Aaron Martin, Director of Strategic Planning at Northrop Grumman (which lost the contract for the F-22 to Lockheed in 1991), the military could deploy the 3-D printed drones in complex, infinitely configurable and no doubt terrifying swarms controlled by “digital pilots.”

Like the Mongol Horse Archers & the Invention of Gunpowder the 'Swarm of Drones' can change everything and it would effect nearly every military on earth as nobody could afford to ignore it and stick to conventional armies of Men, Tanks and Planes.

Imagine what the Chinese alone would do with this concept.

Drone swarms are the expected plan. In the future countries will have airborne swarms patrolling their borders (and more importantly near their enemies) 365 days a year. Countries that have permanent overseas bases scattered around the planet will be at an advantage since they can have refueling stations worldwide which will help immensely with drone to drone refueling.

Look at the maps in this thread and you can see why these islands can be important for drone logistics.
Nations with far off tropical island overseas territories and possessions

Britain has pretty good coverage except for the Pacific

France has the Southern Indian ocean covered and the mid Pacific

The US has strength in the Pacific.
All three can work together and have the world covered.