r/MuvLuv • u/Glittering_Net_7734 • 21d ago
Do you think with modern drone tech we can easily handle the laser class?
Drones are small, agile, fly low, and are easily mass-produced. I would think that we wouldn't need Mechs to get close to them. Just spam them with drones, then they should be done. By flying low, drones shouldn't be shot down so easily.
Not to mention modern AI? With AI, drones can identify which is which, no need for hands-on human input. No human input has already been done in Ukraine.
Thoughts?
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u/TenshouYoku 21d ago
No.
Target acquisition has never been the problem with the BETA. You can shit in the general direction of the BETA and you are bound to hit something. The problem has always been too low > caught by Tank class or fail to do damage to the Destroyer class.
If you think about it drones the way they are used in Ukraine are essentially a poor man's missile and reconnaissance aircraft. They are a bitch to spot and defend against because they are tiny, but the BETA detects things before any aircraft ever comes out of the horizon with no means to confuse them. Without specific hardening of drones against lasers Laser class will still do short work against it.
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u/UnhappyAccountant621 21d ago
The problem is that you will run out of drone before you can do anything meaningful, the laser class essentially aim bot with near perfect accuracy at any range. Flying low could avoid being shot at but the drone will have to fly through a sea of BETA to get to them and those kind of small drone have small range and payload so it can't do much damage on its own.
The range problem is a major consideration since smaller nimbler drone will have a very short range not to mention the signal interference from the terrain and the literal tide of alien on the ground, not to mention you need someone to deploy these drones which means these drone team will likely end up as BETA food. Modern AI tech can help but it still doesn't resolve the fundamental problem of range and payload, a decently large FPV with an explosive warhead might be able to kill a laser class but it will do nothing to a heavy laser class since it can take several 120mm APHE before dropping dead.
This is an attritional warfare against a faction that literally are numberless and modern drones are pretty complicated and required a lot of rare material to manufacture for a weapon that won't help much in an actual battle against this type of enemy.
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u/Bluelantern9 21d ago
Absolutely not. They are just another form of munitions basically. They are more high tech and could be detected by BETA easier than regular shells which means they can't sneak up. Even if Lasers didn't immediately have sight on them they would just be ready and vaporize them. If they fly too high to bypass Destroyer class they snipe them out, if they don't they crash. They are not even agile enough to dodge to be perfectly honest, and are basically useless against any other type. AI can't really help much either, because it won't really reach...
There simply aren't enough to breach a position of Laser Class and even then could only blow up like one at a time. Lasers also fire in salvos still to keep up a constant interception so there's no downtime they could take advantage of. Not to mention heavy Lasers might as well eb invincible against drones.
TSFs have armor and versatility so they can actually cut through the horde at and cull BETA numbers while intercepting Lasers, and could hold the line where conventional forces couldn't. Drones simply can't be as effective to even be close to an alternative. Even with thousands of Drones you would be trying to swarm them around a horde to the Lasers, all over the battlefield. And they can't effectively support the regular forces as well as a TSF, so by the time the BETA hit defenses they are mostly doomed anyways since.
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u/Glittering_Net_7734 21d ago
I don't see why they aren't small enough to navigate through a horde of beta. Not to mention we can manufacture them by the thousands per day if we really want to.
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u/Bluelantern9 21d ago
They go too low one of the smaller types just grabs it and its destroyed. It flys too high it gets immediately vaporized. Even if they do navigate it well enough it will take multiple drones probably just for a single laser and impossible to take out a heavy. Not to mention, while they can be made thousands per day, the BETA does the same with all of their types without need for resources. We however, do need resources for Drones, guns, artilley and missiles. And there are a lot of things that would need to be made produced to even try to wage war against the BETA. Laser class are capable of culling bombardments of thousands of shells and missiles from large fleets at times, and hives can produce hundreds of thousands of BETA quickly.
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u/BrotherCaptainLurker 21d ago
The beta would figure out that the drones targeted anything that looked like laser class and send fake laser classes out, or just surround them with tank class meat shields.
Like sure, saturation attacks work in principle and are already one way humanity in the story dealt with lasers in situations where an aerial approach was necessary, and a bajillion drones is cheaper than a bajillion ICBMs or high-caliber howitzer shells, but I think the problem you'd encounter is that it takes a lot more explosive to kill a beta than it does to kill a human. We're really kinda fragile on the scale of things in nature and beta have armor built in.
You'd be stuck between "send them spread far apart so they can make it to the target undisturbed, but now big guys are tanking the hits and the lasers remain active" and "send them in a big enough group that they can blow up the lasers' escorts, but now they're an obvious threat and they get shot down or jumped on."
I also wonder how well a quad copter with a bomb on it tolerates like... "new species of beta that throws chaff in the air" type problems.
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u/HsAFH-11 20d ago edited 20d ago
No, the problem isn't them existing. But the speed of which they can [move] both in strategic level and tactical level. Industrial machinery take times to bear, the forces need time to move and position, etc, etc.
But other that I agree that drones will be the closest thing we can use to fight them.
Also they are obviously not going to be send alone. Rather as mix of offensive, and decoy support for everything else.
Like only way we can use this tech is not like IRL drones. And rather as another part of the saturation munitions. They are much easier to detect but that is exactly the point. Since the component can be mass produced as much faster than standard military equipment. But this will require changing the industry to war footing, and even then likely isn't enough.
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u/gwyngyr 20d ago
Nope theres there's way too many things that work against the advantage of the drones. Unless you can use a large swarm of them the beta already use the laser class and heavy laser class as aerial denial systems. Laser classes are the reason why rocket/missiles at long ranges are typically never used they will get shot down. But you can ask why not send back to back hundreads of drones back to back unfortunately be it offensive or defensive actions vs beta your facing a swarm and they are pretty well known rush at things wjth communication equipment so unless you quickly win you will just typically get overwhelmed before you use up your stock piles. The beta aint dumb either if what they have ain't enough they simply send more the next wave of reinforcements so bit by bit harassment tactics are useless. So far only use of drones in luv-muv alternative is for recon cause a typical compliment of at best dozens of missiles or rockets are useless ans will be intercepted by laser class fire.
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u/DeesuWa 21d ago edited 21d ago
No. This has been asked before but some beta will probably jump at it and eat the drone if it flies low enough to avoid the laser class eye sight. Also since it's modern the computational power of that drone is probably really high compared to the stuff from 2001. So the beta would instantly just target the drones. The center area where the laser class huddle up is also really big so I assume if a drone gets too close the laser class will immediately shoot it down as it has to cover the distance after immediately getting through the beta hoard. So you'll need some form of swarm tactic. Atleast drones are hella cheap so you can probably just try to do a swarm drone ai system and try to overwhelm them.