this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024
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The first drones date back as far as WW2, so its even funnier that their being called the weapons of the future. Mind you the WW2 equivelents are very primitive by todays standards but still.
The german had the Goliath anti-tank mine, which allied soldiers would use as go-carts when they captured them. Also they were badically small RC tanks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_tracked_mine
And the United States had a full on flying drone. They used an early version of TV signals and required a chase plane to function. They were largely relegated to comabt training post war. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_TDR
There was also the V-1 flying bomb.
My father grew up in London during the Blitz. I remember being told by my grandmother that if you heard an engine and looked up and saw a V-1, you just started saying to yourself, "keep going... keep going..." because if you heard the engine stop, you knew you were dead.
And then my father told me you wouldn't even know if the V-2 was coming because it flew faster than sound.
Pretty intereting to hear about the V-1 and V-2 from the civilian side. My great grandfather helped reverse engineer the damned things furing ww2 and was always annoyed that the germans used them as terror weapons. He thought they would have been of better use as specialized rocket artillery for armored collumns.
He also worked on the Stuka air break system, which apparently was a pain in his ass since the aircraft he was given was mildly defective which caused him much annoyance.
They told me about that when I was maybe 10 years old. I'm 46 and I still think about how scary that must have been...
WW2 Germany also tested ground-to-air and anti-ship missiles with manual radio guidance.
It's funny how often I come into the comments and read something that belittles the article, when they clearly didn't read the article because they are getting basic facts wrong.
For those while care what the article actually says, someone copy pasted it below. But let this post be a reminder that the vast majority of responses to the article are simply people applying their prejudices and assumptions to the headline.
Why are you making this comment under mine? Im just pointing out that drone tech is surprisingly old and giving two examples.
Because they aren't talking about just any-old drones, it's about how they've become so cheap. So saying "well, drone technology is old so it's funny to see them calling it the future!" shows you didn't read the article.
Youre overanalyzing my comment, I saw someone talk about drones being the weapon of the future in the 90s and my brain went "lets talk about semi-obscure WW2 shit. I dont care about shit getting cheaper, I want to talk about obscure shit.
Fun fact early lever action rifles date as far back as the American revolution but due toa ship burning most of the prototypes were destroyed.