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Comment by somat | Hacker News Reader

I will take "stupid things that bother you for no good reason" for 200.

kamikaze drone is perhaps the most ridiculous term that has popped up in the last few years.

I despise it for at least two reasons.

1. Kamikaze was terminology specifically used to describe a "human" not a machine guiding themselves terminally into the target. this is what made it so horrifying.

2. If that is a 'sighs' kamikaze drone. why is the aim-9 sidewinder not one? by which I mean we already had perfectly good term to describe this sort of device. why not use it. It is a guided missile.

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I agree that the "kamikaze" or "suicide" description is nonsensical.

>It is a guided missile.

No, it isn't. It only uses rocket propellant for starting, then it uses a propeller and it's wings to stay in the air.

so it is a cruise missile then.

which is a sub class of.. a guided missile

It really isn't a missile, it uses a propeller to sustain flight.

Missile isn't defined by a kind of engine it has

> a flying weapon that has its own engine and can travel a long distance before exploding at the place at which it has been aimed.

I think there is great value in distinguishing between low cost single use drones and cruise missiles. Conflating them seems stupid, they have totally different operational uses and characteristics.

> I think there is great value in distinguishing between low cost single use drones and cruise missiles.

You can still do it by saying e.g. "low cost cruise missile".

> they have totally different operational uses and characteristics.

Such as? Shaheds are used for similar goals as e.g. Tomahawks missiles.

I think a problem with insisting on this dichotomy is that we will see more in-between missiles - e.g. Shahed 238 is a development of Shared 136 with a jet engine. Is it a drone or a missile and why?

I mean, cruise missiles are often using jet engines. You would not really travel far with just rocket engine on Tomahawk.

Furthermore word missile is often used in history for arrows, spears and stones exchange during battle.

So technically it could be considered a missile.

As I pointed out in my other comment, I think naming them "cruise missiles", greatly conflates two very different types of weapons.

Linguistically speaking UAVs seem closer to manned aircraft, so the fact that TV guided missiles and 'kamikaze' drones offer similar capabilities is more of a 'convergent evolution' thing.

One of the things that I think make them different is that UAVs are expected to be able to wait in the area of operations after being launched (how they do it? It differs between models).

But I agree that using the word Kamikaze specifically is a bit weird.

The most common version of naming would be loitering munition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loitering_munition

The Iranians beg to differ--the word "Shahed" means "Martyr"

The munition Shahid/Shahed in this case translates to Witness, شاهد

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahada#Terminology_and_signif... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahid_(name)

From the second wiki page "It is not to be confused with a different word, a religious term, written and pronounced differently, Shaheed (Arabic: شهيد šahīd, plural: شُهَدَاء šuhadāʾ; female: šaheeda), meaning "martyr"."

Can a machine become a Martyr?

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