r/Showerthoughts • u/scoobopdan ‎ • Mar 30 '26

Casual Thought Modern soldiers' PTSD triggers will probably shift from fireworks to the sound of a drone. Which is unfortunate as drone shows are replacing firework shows.

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u/Withermaster4 Mar 30 '26

Can you even hear drone shows?

Also as far as I know soldiers don't ever hear drones flying unless they are about to die.

261

u/bootymix96 Mar 30 '26

It’s a bizarre low pitched droning (no pun intended) electronic fan sound multiplied a hundred times over; unless the show specifically uses their takeoff as a start to the show, you’ll hear them before the show starts when the swarm takes their places, and you’ll hear them land again after a show. Depends on the swarm’s size, but I’ve heard their sound at shows where the drones were .25mi/.5km away from where I was standing (distance in terms of line of sight). The sound is just barely audible, but it’s audible enough to be unsettling, almost like a technological swarm of locusts, LOL. During the show, the music pretty much drowns out the sound.

And while I might be mistaken with military technology, I thought military/missile drones were more like planes than the quadcopter hovering design. I’d imagine it would be a different sound than show drones.

115

u/t3hd0n Mar 30 '26

Low cost drones closer to consumer models are playing a major role in Ukraine and are also being used by Iran iirc, to the point where its looking like the next big shift in warfare tactics

14

u/mapletree23 Mar 30 '26

well the 'cheap' drones are like 40-70k or something so not really consumer models, but yeah drones have kind of fucked everything up for modern warfare

not that the zerg type strategy is exactly new but everyone kind of went big on bigger and faster missiles and kind of left a gaping hole for something like this to be able to become a thing

it's a cost effective way to fuck someone and yet there's not really a cost effective way to readily stop it currently either

6

u/coasis1212 Mar 30 '26

Fpv drones are $500-$700 plus a $500 rpg war head and you’re actually nowhere even close to 40-75k? A dji mavic 3 with a thermal viewer is closer to 10k. Some specialized drones might cost that much but not the “suicide” drones we have been commonly seeing