
New Marine Corps weapon that just destroyed an Iranian drone revealed - Vaslo
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/new-marine-corps-weapon-just-18349728
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bkohlmann
It used to be an act of war to shoot down another country's aircraft - and now
we've seen it happen twice on each side of Iranian / US tensions in recent
weeks.

One of the early questions about UAVs was what impact they would have on the
implications of force. I think we've got an answer: drones are fair game since
they don't have anybody in them. Still higher stakes than doing nothing, but
less so than shooting down a manned platform.

For instance, when I was on deployment near the Gulf on a carrier, we would
regularly have an Iranian P-3 fly very close to us even after repeated
warnings. Same thing with Russian Bears. We'd usually sent up an F/A-18 or two
to "escort" the visitor and would never think of shooting them down unless
fired upon. Yet, if a drone gets within 1000 yards, down it goes.

No judgment - interesting to see the rules of war evolve in real time with new
tech!

~~~
benj111
So what happens when one side thinks an aircraft is a drone and shoots it
down.

Rhetorical question of course, I just don't like the thought of getting into a
war accidentally.

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the-dude
Isn't this what happened to MH17?

~~~
benj111
Neither side has taken responsibility as far as I'm aware? I doubt the
culprits thought they were firing at a civilian aircraft, I don't think its
safe to speculate beyond that, it was an active warzone at the time.

Edit: Safe as in I don't think its safe to speculate that they thought they
were shooting down a drone v shooting some other military target.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Why is it not safe? The preponderance of evidence was that it was Russian
allied forces.

~~~
benj111
I don't think its safe to speculate that they thought they were shooting down
a drone v shooting some other military target.

~~~
ceejayoz
No one was doing that?

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benj111
The-dude was giving mh17 as an example of a plane shot down because they
thought it was a drone/ thought it was a military aircraft. Not knowing which
I covered both bases

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wafflesraccoon
This website is a nightmare, there is almost no information and the page is
almost entirely ads

~~~
adolph
Better link:

[https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29063/marine-anti-
dron...](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29063/marine-anti-drone-
buggies-on-uss-boxer-knocked-down-threatening-iranian-drone)

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slenk
According to Iran all their drones are fine.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-
denies...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/iran-denies-that-
the-us-destroyed-one-of-its-
drones/2019/07/19/e384595e-a996-11e9-8733-48c87235f396_story.html)

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vectorEQ
but its totaly ok to fly drones over enemy territory if we are doing it.

~~~
rolph
and its totally ok to fly drones over domestic private property with or
without surveillance equipment, and any countermeasure is considered to be an
attack or interference with an FAA sanctioned aircraft, although i think that
line is blurred a bit now.

looking at the rig in the article i see what looks like a microwave array,
with a lack of shielding for the biologicals mounted in the seats. no matter
how directed the RF energy there are side lobes and a back lobe, a simple
porch window screen[metallic] and an earth ground will keep the operators
safe. I have a feeling the photo in the article is a showtotype,and there are
tweeks to the final production that address issues and are not "top secret"
but are just not expostulated for the layperson.

~~~
panarky
I don't think "expostulated" means what you think it means.

~~~
rolph
perhaps auto-expostulated might help you. a congruence with self criticism as
in ?this is a good countermeasure system, it has some things to work out but
that doesnt stop us from displaying an approximate prototype?

www.dictionary.com/browse/expostulate Expostulate definition, to reason
earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has
done; remonstrate: His father expostulated with him about the evils of
gambling.

in other words constructive criticism that falls on deaf ears, and that sums
up my experience with hubric institutions

~~~
tlb
Kind of a stretch. "Explained" or "expounded" would fit better.

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stcredzero
The vehicle looks like the ancestor of something out of Halo!

~~~
jonwachob91
I was thinking it looks like a slightly modified John Deere Gator Utility
Vehicle [0] that had an RF system placed on top of it...

[0] [https://www.deere.com/en/gator-utility-vehicles/full-size-
cr...](https://www.deere.com/en/gator-utility-vehicles/full-size-crossover-
gators/)

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dmix
I was hoping they hacked a drone, flew it towards their ship for plausible
deniability, and shot it down as some sort of quid-pro-quo.

Although Iran is probably flying enough of them aggressively towards American
ships where they can just take their pick.

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guelo
Assuming the weapon is radio jamming I wonder how it knows which frequencies
to attack. Seems like any decent military would be able to come up with easy
countermeasures for jamming.

~~~
cjslep
Have you taken a dive into radio ECM and ECCM? I highly recommend it, it is
fascinating, and is highly complex. Modern ECM is much more involved than
"shoot high amplitude noise on all frequencies from a particular direction"
and even the declassified stuff is clever. It's a cat and mouse game much like
internet exploits. Makes questions like the ones you pose seem only surface-
deep.

