this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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Didn't know where else to post this.

I was thinking while looking at Mexico's military force on paper vs say the U.S. for a hypothetical invasion/occupation. Like many modern non-NATO forces, it lacks heavy armor, combat aircraft, naval vessels, etc. But with dronewar now ascendant, could this be less a liability and more an advantage? Assuming one could rapidly equip and train their light infantry forces with a mix of both small and medium sized drones?

It seems it would be easier to acquire tens of thousands of commercial off the shelf drones and use old stockpiles of munitions and train young, gaming experienced soldiers to operate them then build or acquire increasingly rare tanks or fighters. And having such a light military means it should be easier to shift to this doctrine then say doing so with a lumbering NATO-style behemoth like the U.S. with it's MIC.

Could this be a cheap strategy especially for latin american nations to pump up their military forces in the face of U.S. aggression? Make it too costly to engage, as well as cozy up to China for cheap drone parts.

Besides drones, all the rest of the military spending would be best directed towards air defense systems. This is the only bottleneck I see since these are sophisticated systems on par with tanks and fighters. I mean the drones can save you from ground invasion but you can still be leveled from the sky. I suppose until we get cheap air defense drones, which I think might be the future. (imagine loitering long range air defense drones with simple stealth tech; the barrage balloon of the 2040s).

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[–] Des@hexbear.net 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

solid state lasers as a company or platoon level anti-drone weapon is my prediction

they will be also used to blind infantry (and civilians) at IR wavelengths.

and then, those shitty microsoft AR goggles will finally have an actual use case because you won't be able to throw on blackout goggles fast enough to protect against an invisible blinding beam

So down the road you get cyberpunk-style helmets with heavy visors permanently locked down, the whole world filtered through cameras and sensors.

[–] D61@hexbear.net 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

solid state lasers as a company or platoon level anti-drone weapon is my prediction

I'm probably going to be wrong at some point, but this seems to have been the thought for... decades. But its never materialized so I'm just tossing the idea into the "vaporware" pile.

If nobody could figure out how to get a laser to work when mounted to a whole ass navy ship with all that space for batteries and targeting systems I find it hard to belive that we'll figure out how to make a rig that works effectively either mounted to a small truck or carried by a team of light fighters any time soon.

[–] Des@hexbear.net 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

i could be wrong but i think they're already in use. everyone from the U.S. to China. early production models but there's tons of articles out there. so leaving prototyping but not mass manufactured yet

I'm not talking about sci-fi multi-megawatt lasers just kilowatt grade solid state lasers mounted on small trucks

enough to fuck a drone's rotors up or blind optics. but easily capable of going IR for mass blinding

[–] D61@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

eh... maybe you're right.

Just seems that its too easy to spot and kill the anti-drone trucks.

They'd have to be out in the open with line of sight and be able to track multiple small/fast moving drones, right?

I'm not talking about sci-fi multi-megawatt lasers just kilowatt grade solid state lasers mounted on small trucks enough to fuck a drone's rotors up or blind optics. but easily capable of going IR for mass blinding

Somebody just needs to break out the aluminum foil, shiny side out, and it'll be okay.

[–] Des@hexbear.net 2 points 5 months ago

oh yeah i'm sure they will be priority targets. we're still a ways away from ghost in the shell style tiny roll of quarters sized solid state anti-drone/anti-missile lasers

but i could see these systems becoming more compact over time until they serve as close in defense system on tanks, trucks, other vehicles.

tied into the vehicle power plant it would save weight vs some kind of automatic gun

closer on the horizon then say coilguns/railguns in combat i would think.