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Comment by JackFr | Hacker News Reader

So how will a drone attack me in my house? Mind you my house is not a hard target but is air conditioned, so I keep the doors and windows shut. How will a drone attack me in my car? I don’t have a great car, but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter. So assuming I’m safe in my home and in my car, I guess other opportunities exist to kill me, but you need to have an operator ready with a drone in proximity. It just doesn’t make sense.

Admittedly, drones with IEDs can be used as a terror device, to kill someone in a group of people, but as a targeted means of killing I can’t imagine it being better than a mortar or RPG.

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Ask Ukraine how they lost billions in ammunition due to a incendiary grenade dropped with a regular drone.

Someone does not need to kill you in your vehicle or your house -- they can start a major fire while you are in there, drop a defensive hand grenade while you're playing with your family in the back yard, touch you with some high voltage wires, dust you in some ultra-potent synthetic opioid.

A lot of people DO leave their windows open, and it is beyond the point anyway, as windows can be blasted away with the first drone, and while you naturally will inveatigate, the second drone will get you -- just immagine 4 AM, you are sleeping, boom the first drone blasts your windows open, 5 seconds later the next one detonates a defensive grenade in your bedroom.

This is obviously for higher value targets, but I'd say an assasin has a much greater chance of evading capture from a mile away, than doing the deed in person.

> I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter.

You need to know you're running from something to run from it. Do you have set of mirrors or cameras to conveniently monitor what's happening above your car?

A drone need not enter a home to cause havoc within. I do not believe the assumption that one is safe within a home/car is a viable one.

To discuss specific implementations of an attack would seem to violate both a personal code and what I imagine to be the spirit of HN.

> violate both a personal code and what I imagine to be the spirit of HN.

Thanks for throwing up the Ethics flag.

Discussing/brainstorming this in a public forum is volunteering your brainpower in support of murderers.

> Discussing/brainstorming this in a public forum is volunteering your brainpower in support of murderers.

If you think that you in a few moments on the back of a napkin will come up with something that someone funded and fuelled by an ideology that they are willing to die for can't with months of planning, then that's arrogance of an epic scale. This is as ridiculous as don't talk about hacking/spoofing/phishing because otherwise the bad guys won't figure it out.

A worldwide forum discussion among dozens of creative people out to one-up one another on clever strategies for killing another human may well put an effective idea in front of someone who might put it into practice.

There are occasions for discussing mechanisms by which one might construct such a weapon. I feel that this moment isn't one of them. Just because we can talk about it (and must be willing to defend the right to talk about it) doesn't mean that we should do so in this context.

This is absurd. How are we supposed to discuss mitigation strategies for a problem if we can't talk about the problem?

This is a total head in the sand mentality.

> A worldwide forum discussion among dozens of creative people out to one-up one another on clever strategies for killing another human may well put an effective idea in front of someone who might put it into practice.

You mean writers forums?

> so I keep the doors and windows shut

Got armored glass? If no, then two drones will do the trick.

> I don’t have a great car, but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter.

Not if you stop at stop lights.

More realistically, the thing that gets VIPs assassinated is a predictable schedule. Assassination drones up the ante quite a bit, because one can park a drone in the bushes by your favorite coffee shop in the off chance that you’ve decided to get a latte today, while it’s much harder to successfully hide men with guns in a similar position.

> but as a targeted means of killing I can’t imagine it being better than a mortar or RPG.

I think you’re probably right that an RPG shot at your vehicle is worse for your survival odds, but I think you’re missing the element of risk. The problem with assassinating someone with an RPG is that you’ve got to get within shooting-back range. The chances of you getting shot before or after starting an assassination attempt is pretty high, which means that a successful defensive strategy is to create a wide cordon around the VIP to make attempts too risky. With a drone you don’t have to be anywhere close to the target, which allows for you to make an attempt on a hypothetical VIP with no personal risk whatsoever. If they spot your drone and shoot it down, you’re only out a cheap drone and some explosives, which is much better than getting shot at personally.

Again, for a soft target this is silly, men with guns are used to hurt and terrorize soft targets the world over; they’re cheap and reliable. But as a means to harass hardened targets, drones create new possibilities.

>but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter.

depends which shelf... $544 buys you a drone that goes 145 mph. $322 for 99 mph.

>So how will a drone attack me in my house?

With enough explosives to reduce it to rumble from outside?

>How will a drone attack me in my car? I don’t have a great car, but I’m pretty sure it can outrun an off the shelf quadcopter.

It can only outrun it if (a) it can see/hear it coming, (b) it can move freely (e.g. not in congestion)

Do you never leave your house or go close to the windows? If you do, there you go.

Do you never run into traffic or stop at red lights in your car? If you do, there you go.

I wouldn't assume you'd always see the drone coming, even if you hear it it can probably strike in just a few seconds, before you realize what it is.

If the attacker wants to avoid being identified a remotely controlled drone is better than an RPG, and probably more accurate as well.

For some it will be the perfect terrorist tool, tools that cause terror do not necessarily need to always kill.

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