Rheinmetall Air Defence – Skynex truck-mounted engaging drone swarm

What Hacker News said

Cites ThrowawayR2 · 2022-03 · on “Ask HN: Are Tanks Obsolete?”

My understanding is that if a military is not protecting tanks with a screening force of infantry to counter ambushers equipped with anti-tank missiles (since, unlike video games, tanks/armored vehicles and infantry are intended to work together hand-in-hand to support each other) and if that military has not established air superiority or provided proper air defenses against drones (e.g. [this video] ), then yes, their tanks are going to be ineffective and vulnerable. But, as the proverbial doctor said, " If it hurts when you do that, well, then don't do that. " [EDIT] It also doesn't help if the opponent has several big friends with immense reconnaissance capabilities that are telling them exac

Cites ThrowawayR2 · 2022-04 · on “The tank is dead: Long live the javelin, the switchblade, the ... ?”

Then the drone swarm meets this and one or the other survives: [this video] (As an aside, it always fascinates me that arms manufacturers not only create ads and brochures but that they're often done rather well.) A lot of the breathless enthusiasm for drones seems premature. SAMs didn't make aircraft obsolete, air to ground missiles from aircraft and helicopters didn't make tanks and other vehicles obsolete, and there's doesn't seem to be any reason to believe that adjustments won't be made by the various militaries to provide protection against drones.

Cites ThrowawayR2 · 2022-05 · on “Shaped Charges – Sheet of copper going through 1ft of solid steel (2010) [video]”

Then then drones meet [this video] or [LINK] for which each round is even cheaper than the cheap drone it's aimed at and, snap, crackle, pop, no more drones.

Cites jasonwatkinspdx · 2022-08 · on “Military drone swarms and how to combat them”

Yes. There are a couple point defense systems originally designed to counter rocket and cruise missile attacks that can readily attack drones as well. Example: [this video] This specific system uses a magnetic coil to measure the muzzle velocity of the shell as it's leaving the barrel, and sets a timing delay for the shell to burst. So that combined with the radar means this thing can put flack in very precise places.

Cites ThrowawayR2 · 2023-09 · on “The US Military Is Getting Smaller, Cheaper and Smarter”

-brrt- Drone swarm, what drone swarm? [this video] And this is simply the first iteration of such systems. Drones are slow (slower than WW2 aircraft), short ranged, and not particularly stealthy. Improving any of those aspects raises the price significantly, defeating the point of cheap drones. They are a threat but not as magical as some seem to imagine.

Cites scotty79 · 2023-09 · on “A.I. and the Next Generation of Drone Warfare”

Have you seen modern anti-drone defence? [this video] Basically a cannon that fires sort of smart bullets that contain shape charge that aims at the drone as it gets close to it and detonantes. Also targets are smartly assigned so you can shoot down small swarm of drones with a short burst from the cannon.

Cites koonsolo · 2025-06 · on “Ukraine destroys more than 40 military aircraft in drone attack deep in Russia”

Oh please there are plenty of solutions, see [this video] for example. Bullets that explode into pellets thanks to an internal radar, etc.