Can drones to be a weapon of mass destruction? New — Yes.

Drones can be peaceful, and may be military.

We used to call weapons of mass destruction that can inflict massive damage to everything in the area of its application. For example, the machine does not kill indiscriminately, and a bomb or a gas can. As a weapon of mass destruction is what will come under international regulatory standards. Simply put, we tend to think that this is a very terrible weapon, which is something in a single instance. Here are just a weapon of mass destruction could be a simple drone, if I make a few dozen or hundred. Over such weapons now work some of the armies of the world, and here's why.

Drones in battle

Conventional weapons in a large-scale fight involves a lot — from knives to missiles with homing. For example, to shoot down the plane, the rocket with the ability to automatically follow a target would be an excellent choice. But such a missile is impossible for the collision of two military inside the building.

In recent years, in combat increasingly used drones. This can be a machine designed for reconnaissance, and there may be those who have themselves to attack. The us army is now working to use in combat not only one or several drones, and the whole ”swarm” of such vehicles. They will be able to effectively clean up the site and it will be difficult to oppose something, because a missile can knock out a missile complex, and with hundreds of drones to fight much harder. The question is, can it be considered a weapon of mass destruction and whether to introduce restrictive measures of its use?

First, we need to answer the question, how you will operate these drones. What's inside no pilot doesn't mean the machine is completely Autonomous. It can be fully controlled by the man adjusted his commands or do to be completely Autonomous, fulfilling pre-loaded in her job.

Can a drone be a massive weapon

Analyst Zach Kallenborn, an expert in the field of unmanned systems and weapons of mass destruction, describes the type of Roy, which he calls «armed fully Autonomous swarm of UAVs» or AFADS. After the launch of the AFADS will detect, identify and attack targets without human intervention. Kallenborn claims that Roy is the type of AFADS is an authentic weapon of mass destruction due to the amount of harm that he can inflict, and because of his inability to distinguish civilians from military targets. Simply put, like a big bomb a group of drones clean up the area and will not leave her nothing to live.

It's all a joke, but technically it is also a weapon.

These drones may seem like science fiction. But with modern technology it is not something unreal. Even ”civilian” drones are able to communicate among themselves and to perform collective tasks, such as irrigation or sanitation areas.

So the drones can be taught to fly to the planned square to activate the search system targets (men, tanks, vehicles, weapons) and attack the found objects. Approximately so works bomb CBU-105. Approaching the target, it ”scatters” 40 minibomb who find targets and destroy them. In 2003, such a weapon was successfully used by the us army for the destruction of Iraqi tank columns.

Features combat drones

The Clustered swarm should be much more efficient. Each drone will have a capacity of up to 150 kilograms. This will allow you to equip it with missiles GMLRS with a range of up to 70 kilometers, or even ATACMS missiles with a range of 270 kilometers.

Initially it was assumed that the drones will be delivered to a target using missiles. It will open on approach, throwing around drones in special aerodynamic covers. After slowing the drones themselves had to continue the flight. Later this idea was abandoned in favor of more classic use of drones.

The Creator of a swarm of UAVs known for his work with Honeywell on the drone T-Hawk, used in Iraq in 2007. The characteristic shape it is lovingly called «flying beer barrel». T-Hawk has no external propellers and driven by a fan inside the fuselage. Currently involved in the development of the company does not comment on the ongoing creation of new weapons.

T-Hauk. Such drones will be Roy.

the Effectiveness of combat drones

A Clustered swarm of drones will be much more effective than multiple warheads missile CBU-105, for two reasons. First, the CBU-105 can hit targets only in a radius of several hundred meters, and the cluster swarm can easily cover the area of several tens of square kilometers.

Second, released the CBU-105 bombs can interfere with each other if they find one goal. They do not communicate with themselves and 40 bombs can hit 5-10 targets. The rest will either be out of touch, or they will drop a few bombs. In the case of a swarm of drones they will ”communicate” with each other and clearly divide goal. In the end, 50 drones will hit 50 goals. That is only due to the drones with missiles to stop an entire armoreddivision.

Can we assume a swarm of drones with weapons of mass destruction

Zac Kallenborn believes that the classification of swarm drones to weapons of mass destruction may depend on how they will be adopted. Kallenborn said that according to a rough rule, a swarm of ammunition that is equivalent to a thousand hand grenades M67 is likely to be related to weapons of mass destruction. In this case, such weapons may be governed by international law.

When it comes to such a serious gun regulation might be a good idea, because drones can be easy to confuse a tank column with a column, which are buses with refugees. Of course, in war mistakes happen, but need to figure out how to make them as small as possible.

This is also the type of combat drones in particular for intelligence.

The recognition of the new weapons is the weapons of mass destruction may be complicated due to the fact that with a missile or a bomb, everything is clear — they are always the same. Swarm drones may consist of a dozen cars, maybe hundreds. It's different numbers and different firepower.

When there will be combat drones

The First test and operate the air system for swarm drones have already been completed. Developed system deployment, flying, automatic navigation, and search purposes. In fact, it remains only to begin the third phase of testing in direct combat application and make system in the US army.

USA is not the only player in this field and perhaps not even the leader. Turkey is already in a small amount put on the Syrian border tactical drones «Kargu». Currently, they are piloted remotely, but the manufacturers claim that the system has the ability to perform the task. It would be illogical to assume that such systems are not developed in Russia and China.

If such a system will appear only on one country, international regulators may not be connected, but if the technology in one form or another will be all, then there will definitely have to impose some rules. Otherwise, victims may be too many.