Could a balloon release AI FPV drones?

>>63809339 (OP)
could a drone intercept a balloon?

>>63809404
The F-22 couldn't even get high enough to shoot at one.

Just use an ICBM to release a swarm of drones bro.

>>63809420
That is expensive. I am thinking balloons for a sustained campaign. Eventually the balloons get through and wipe out the enemies ICBM factory.

>>63809410
so a missile then, got it

>>63809423
Buddy you only get one shot with this before everyone launches IRBMs/ICBMs at your capacity to produce this.

anon's big takeaway from Operation Spiderweb:
>"what if we replaced the clandestine trucks with a more conspicuous and expensive delivery vehicle that the enemy can see coming for miles?"
truly, genius-level intellect

>>63809410
That's false, because it did. Also he have footage from a u2 doing shitties above it

>>63809410

>>63811079
>send 1000 balloons flying towards Russia
>ten of them carry a bunch of drones

>>63809339 (OP)
>Could a balloon release AI FPV drones?

it can do more

>>63811089
I hope they call him "balloon boy"

If China has AI drone balloons even the oil storage in Cushing Oklahoma wouldn't be safe. Better make peace.

>>63809339 (OP)
Could? Yes. Should? Probably not. Balloons aren't stealthy and have limited payload. Even if they get to launch it won't have a lot of drones.

>>63811294
oh no, surely china is actually a threat lol

>>63811307
>limited payload

>>63809404
Probably not. The whole point of a balloon is that it can float between 60,000 and 100,000 feet high for ages and most quadrotors can't reach that.

>>63811311
You keep bringing that up and it still doesn't happen.

>>63811342
>quadrotors can't reach that.
Not to mention quadroon burgers.

Has anyone tried to pop a balloon with a laser? Why is the Pentagram spending zillions of doll hairs on this?

Can an onboard software have a first person view?

>>63811245
So who made this?

>>63809339 (OP)
obviously could

>>63809404
yes, assuming it could reach the required altitude.

>>63809423
You don't have much control over a balloon's path and balloons can be detected and shot down.

>>63811245
Chinese people are so funny

>>63811089
the absolute state of the RAM paint

>>63809339 (OP)
They already do?
Ukraine uses small balloons with sensors to detect drones, it then drops interceptor drones from the balloon to intercept.

>>63809339 (OP)
I would love to design something like this. My idea was just a giant ass balloon floating as high up as possible and release a drone like a Fritz-X bomb. Minimal stearing, but would have kinetic and explosive damage. Main target would be like oil storage, dams, Nuclear sights, etc etc

>>63815983
Not knowing where the balloon would go exactly you better have a basically infinite list of pre-designated targets.

On the upside it could do all its navigation (i.e. knowing where it is) by simply looking down and using terrain matching. But then the bombs would need similar imaging and processing, and some control surfaces, but at scale that could be done really cheaply).

>>63818532
DARPA and the NRO put LIDAR on their high alt balloons to scan local wind currents, and then adjust altitude to avoid currents counter to their flight path, moving into more favorabe currents to push them in their intended direction.

>>63818548
Sounds expensive and complicated.

If you're e.g. Ukraine, and want to go after infrastructure and defence targets in Russia, I'd just have a target list so huge (e.g. transformer yards, oil distribution depots, down to rail signalling boxes,etc.). that it doesn't matter where the balloon goes, it'll overfly targets. The point would be just to cause expense and disruption, if your balloon + bombs costs $100k and you can destroy targets worth $1 million thats a giant win at scale. Sometimes you get lucky and happen to overfly something really expensive, other times not. Obviously you'd give a priority rating to targets in the nav computer to decide when it's best to drop, and I assume it would have to drop all at once since the lightened weight would cause it to gain altitude without complicated venting mechanism.

...whether this makes any sense I guess mostly comes down to how easily the Russians could shoot down high altitude balloons and at what cost (if they're using sam batteries or any kind of guided air to air missile it's probably a bad trade for the defender)

>>63818532
>Not knowing where the balloon would go exactly
If you could get it up into the jet stream its pretty predictable. Operation Moby Dick they use to do the same but instead of bombing they filmed USSR territories, sending over balloons every week to keep up with troop movements and spying before U2 and Blackbird Spy planes.

>>63818585
>probably a bad trade for the defender
That is really the ultimate goal of the program, death by a thousand cuts and the enemy has no choice but to waste money swatting them out of the sky. The Chinese balloons path that floated over the US was random but just think off all the juicy targets it floated over. Imagine you could get accurate enough to hit pipelines in the most remote locations at will.
Also could deliver supplies like explosives and intel equipment to imbedded spy networks. Drop chemical or biological attacks. etc etc
Possibilites are endless and it could be cheap and effective.

>>63811294
third worlders finally discover nukes in 2025

>>63818532
>Not knowing where the balloon would go exactly you better have a basically infinite list of pre-designated targets.
Not really.

All you really need is a geo-fenced engagement area and a very rudimentary AI that can identify a human. Essentially, just program the drones to know when they've entered enemy airspace, and then have them kill the first human they see. With how cheap that kind of tech would be to implement, you could wipe out the entire population of a mid-sized country like Iran for maybe $300 billion tops.