>>3471218 lb

These guys love saying that. The average person thinks of a remote controlled airplane as spiffy tech. For those of us who have done a lot of work with electronics and aerospace tech... We are less impressed by things someone finally got around to getting to work like the 1970s research it is based on implied.

"Oh, someone finally got a 'myomer' fiber working. About god damned time, how many years have they been tinkering with that, now?"

Drones can fly/operate without life support concerns. In theory, with IFR, you only need to take them down for maintenance intervals - which, if one of your design requirements for a drone is to minimize or remove the maintenance items you find on turnaround aircraft inspections ... You could have a drone flying a pattern for a week or more, depending on its propulsion system. You could have a fully automated support network that tanks itself and keeps drones in orbit for bomb-on-demand from troops on the ground, providing real-time data feeds, CAS/CAP, etc.

It's mildly terrifying in a skynet sort of way.

>>3471445

I think it is a bit of a case of lost control. The radical groups have been led to believe they are the future and think they are entitled to it. Even if their handlers try to tone it down - they can't.

They thought they had control over these radical groups - what they were doing was creating a monster they hoped to direct. Now it is doing what they trained it to do, and they have no choice but to try and follow through with it. If they try and abandon the radical platform, they will be run over by their own radicals. If they feed the radicals, they alienate the general public. All they can do is try and appease the radicals while hitting the main talking points that worked before. They have no platform other than outrage.