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Question for any war nerds: why are dummy drones and dummy vehicles not being used in Ukraine? Shouldn’t these be a feasible way of wasting enemy resources and determining their location?
Eg you dress up a shitty $500 plastic RC to look like a tank and you attach it with a $100 speaker to sound like a tank; enemy wastes a MANPAD and more importantly a hidden drone overhead can see where attack was launched from. Eg you create a larger / more visible drone with no payload on it and wait for enemy to fire at it.
I also don’t understand why “sound warfare” tactics aren’t being used. I saw a drone video from a few days ago where a tank shoots into a building a dozen times before leaving; 30min later Ukrainians pop out and retreat from their fortified position. The tank was ineffective at hitting them and inefficient at causing them to flee, but dropping a bunch of extremely loud screeching and beeping “speakers” above their position would be unbearable and force them to retreat. Annoying sounds were used in American torture programs for a reason.
Lastly is there any cost effective way to introduce a “Chinese stratosphere balloon” strategy? It takes expensive weapons to shoot down but you can fly nine dummies and one payload over Kiev and then just drop a bunch of small munitions, or no?
I don’t know what anti-tank weapons are used in this conflict, but modern ones include things like infrared sights. Even a purely visual system can be enough for the operator to decide that it’s a fake! But yes, it’s useful enough for people to try it.
Armies have played around with sonic weapons for ages, but you still have to overcome the standard defense: earplugs. Which are standard issue for troops operating firearms. I’m sure it’s possible to cause injury or discomfort anyway, but at a certain point, why not use normal explosives? The standard US frag grenade can be thrown like a baseball, costs $45 to make and will injure anyone within 49 feet. I don’t know that you can make a sonic weapon more efficient than that.
Finally, a saturation attack with balloons is possible, but I wouldn’t expect it to be efficient. You’ll have a hell of a time hitting any specific target from a drifting platform. Get low enough to have any precision, and you’re back to normal rifle or at least helicopter range!
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