With drone technology getting smaller and smaller and most importantly - cheaper and cheaper. And smarter and smarter.

Will drones replace many facets of warfare in the near future?
Missiles?
Rockets?
Bombs?
Guns?

Smart bombs have almost replaced the use of general bombs for many reasons. As technology gets smarter and smarter and smaller and smaller. With even today’s technology they can target individuals, cars, specific parts of buildings/rooms. Just depends on the payload.

So these questions the military of the world will see.


For us here Will we see drones used in everyday life?
Traffic control - instead of helicopters?
Police use - tracking and stopping cars?

Besides Amazon delivering packages

Fire departments already use drones to survey fire lines and assess new risks. Construction companies and raw material suppliers also use them to monitor and count inventory on large jobsites that are difficult to cover in a short amount of time or where it's dangerous for people to be walking from one pile of material to the next because of all the heavy equipment that's moving through the area.

Just a couple of real-world examples of where drones are changing how people work right now.

"Drones" have been replacing humans for 1/2 century. Back in the late 1900s, automation began replacing the over-paid bolt turner on assembly lines. Now, nearly all large factories (Ikea, Amazon, etc.) are significantly automated. I toured an Ikea warehouse in Spanaway and they said that it only took a small number of people to run the warehouse. Amazon is the king of automation, with packages pulled, packed, and shipping with almost no humans involved.

Warfare has been replacing humans with drones for decades. Laser guided missiles and bombs back in the 1990s to now constant overhead drones and satelite coverage and eavesdropping and searching the net and all communications for key information and making humint type connections- gathering, storing, processing, evaluating information all day every day. Automated air quality tests for WMDs are everywhere. Facial recognition screening at huge ports of entry and travel, etc. Warfare today is mostly about intelligence gathering and access to information, and that's largely automated.

The use of drones has allowed the US to go from suffering 6 figure losses in war (Civil War, WWI, WWII, etc.) to low 5-figure casualties in even longer-spanning conflicts. And less civilian losses too. SO that's good.

Kinetic warfare/police use, sure. EOD uses drones for bomb inspection and disposal. We saw the Dallas PD used a drone to engage that Dallas shooter a few years ago.

Humans are on the cusp of science fiction style "Terminator" robots that can walk, jump, shoot, guard, fly, etc. The ones now are limited only on time and technology, which will come around in a generation or so.

Wars will be fought radically differently when one side has no concern over losing it's own human lives - just machines.

I don't know how this impacts humans. Most blue collar and a lot of white collar work will be eliminated and done by drones and robots. What will humans do for income, and all the idle luxury time?

In short, yes.

A quiet drone with an infrared targeting camera, capable of releasing smaller drones/munitions with a small amount of explosive aimed at an enemy's head will revolutionize ground warfare. Or a bigger payload for parked vehicles or other high value items.

Think facial recognition to the next level.

Hunts YOU down. Literally looks just for you (aka specified target).

Reminds me of something I saw a year or so ago.

Insect sized swarms of bots that hunt for someone (facial recognition, grid number, etc.) and some are armed with lethal xyz weapon, explosives, whatever. Extremely hard to defend against since they are in the millions in the atmosphere and working all day/night.

Who needs terminator robots?

Nope, 12guage shells will shoot out killer drones. Kind of like bean bag or pepper gas shells but with drones.

One of the reasons I got my job is because of drones. They have become a BIG concern for the military, and the use of drones being used against us. The Army is ramping up the number of stinger qualified people BIG time.

Heard that there are actually more “pilots” learning to fly big drones than there are actual planes.


Shaped Charge... virtually no weight and the blast is projected versus a shotgun type setup - weight of barrel and chamber needed to control blast of shotgun is heavy and way too big.

I have a friend who is a construction contractor and realtor.
She uses drones to view and photograph properties, says it saves her thousands of dollars and hours of her time.

So will directed electronic radiation. Think how a CB radio with 1 KW linear amplifier used to blank people's TV sets for a block or two back in the 70's.

RF jammers may be illegal in civilian hands but they're available anyway. As for the military, Electronic Countermeasures are a way of life for aircraft.


Unless drones become as large and heavy as a P-51 Mustang I don't see guns mounted on them due to recoil. I do see rockets and bombs however, just like on the Predator, Reaper, and a whole bunch of other drones currently sending terrorists off to meet Allah.

Also, the bigger the drone, the more endurance (time in the air) as it doesn't have to worry about the life support systems for a crew. Can also carry long range standoff weapons.

Who knows, maybe they'll retrofit a couple of B-52's with remote control and all kinds of super whiz-bang electronics (like "death ray lasers").

If weapons of war can be flown by "commuter pilots" who get to go home to their families every night after bombing the shit out of an enemy half way around the world, why not.

Not everyone will be replaced however as there will still be a bunch of people maintaining, launching, and recovering these drones.


Anyone ever read Dale Brown's novel's about space weapons and small plane launched satellites? He's an old Air Force B-52 crew dog and has written some very entertaining novels with some of his creations seeming to show up in our current arsenal.

Build drones.