The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: rangerrebew on June 13, 2021, 06:51:45 pm
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Silly String: Kid’s toy or newest weapon in drone warfare?
Coffee or Die | June 11, 2021
This article by James R. Webb was originally published by Coffee or Die.
Kids famously love Silly String battles, shooting each other with strings of synthetic foam. But parents — equally famously — do not, because the fun strings turn to crusty webs, sticking to hair, clothes, and just about everything else. Now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is putting the same concept to use against those small, screaming brats of the sky: drones.
This week, DARPA announced that its Mobile Force Protection (MFP) program tracked down another drone and blasted it with, well, a form of Silly String — until it fell out of the sky.
Behold, a 20-second demonstration of the raw destructive power of these grown-up children’s toys:
To be clear, DARPA did not explicitly state that what the drone is firing in the video is actual Silly String, describing it instead as “strong, stringy streamers.” The gooey mess is designed to clog up the propellers of interloping enemy drones and then rapidly dry, sending the oncoming drone crashing into the ground.
https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/silly-string-kids-toy-or-newest-weapon-in-drone-warfare/
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One can bet the formula was nothing compared to "silly string".
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One can bet the formula was nothing compared to "silly string".
Of course not the same, the "silly string" we knew of however is used in a similar manner (I find this very interesting):
To be clear, DARPA did not explicitly state that what the drone is firing in the video is actual Silly String, describing it instead as “strong, stringy streamers.” The gooey mess is designed to clog up the propellers of interloping enemy drones and then rapidly dry, sending the oncoming drone crashing into the ground.
According to DARPA, the system would be best used in population centers, where explosives used in missiles or even anti-aircraft fire would cause civilian casualties.
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Previous thread about this, https://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,439483.0.html .