Drones and UAVs in T2K

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Olefin

Sorry Leg but drones will be around and not as rare as you think - if you can build ultralights you can build drones - and there will be a hell of a lot of junked airplanes and other places for parts for drones - hell just find a good model airplane shop and you have parts you can use to build a drone - they may be lower tech but they will be around.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
However, drones require electronics to run them, radio receivers and transmitters, and all sorts of other electrically powered actuators, whereas an ultralight, with it's pilot sitting right there in the vehicle, avoids the need for all those near impossible to find, let alone produce, components.

If drones were so easy to produce in the later stages of the war, why aren't cruise missiles and other guided munitions more common then? Your argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it.
However, drones require electronics to run them, radio receivers and transmitters, and all sorts of other electrically powered actuators, whereas an ultralight, with it's pilot sitting right there in the vehicle, avoids the need for all those near impossible to find, let alone produce, components.

Yes, drones are essentially fly-by-wire aircraft tech plus RC gear. Running a drone stored in perfect condition with all the required gear? You just need the setup and maintenance know-how and hopefully a competent operator. Keeping one running with some amount of available compatible spares? Not too hard, again particularly if you have personnel with the right skills sets. Trying to keep one operating with makeshift components? Bloody difficult by 2000 I reckon. Any unit with multiple drones would very quickly be cannibalising some to provide parts for a small number of best-condition drones.

Any suggestion that operational military drones would be anything other than very rare by 2000 is kind of farcical. But a great hook for an adventure, due to that rarity.

[Legbreaker]

I believe these direct quotes from 1st and 2nd ed are very relevant to this topic:

Attachment 4501

Attachment 4502

Attachment 4503

[bash]

If drones are all destroyed by magic T2K EMPs then so is everything else electronic. No vehicle built after the 70s is going to be functional because those magic EMPs have fused every ECM in all engines. The only rocket launchers that work are blank ignited types. There's no working NVG anywhere.

So either the Heavy Weapons and Vehicle guides are pointless or the magic EMP isn't quite so powerful as it's described. This doesn't means drones or other high tech gear has to be common but the EMP as described in the books is vastly overstated.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by bash

If drones are all destroyed by magic T2K EMPs then so is everything else electronic.

You did actually read the section I posted right?

[bash]

Yes and the fact remains the magic T2K EMPs either worked as written or don't. If they work as written the logical conclusion is that everything electronic is toast. If control systems in factories (essentially giant Faraday cages) are fried then there's no way the ECMs in every HMMWV and M1 aren't also fried. So if you run the magic T2K EMP as written there's no need to ever crack open any of the Vehicle guides, the Last Sub adventure is pointless, half of the Heavy Weapons guide is useless, and the RDF guide is a waste of paper.

If instead you run the game where an EMP acts more like a real life EMP there's damage to power grids and some totally unshielded electronics but plenty of electronics survive. In that case there's no problem at all talking about drones and UAVs that existed in the timeline of the game and how they might be used at the table or in the co text of adventures.

I've never run games with the magic T2K EMPs because they don't make sense. I can concede magic Diesel engines that can run on alcohol but not the magic EMPs. That does not mean high tech devices are over abundant. In my games technology exists but is highly prized and often ends up the focus of adventures.

[pmulcahy11b]

Kind of reminds me of the car I had in college: "C'mon, start up...c'mon, radio work...c'mon, radiator don't have leaked too much fluid..."

[Lurken]

Originally Posted by bash

If instead you run the game where an EMP acts more like a real life EMP there's damage to power grids and some totally unshielded electronics but plenty of electronics survive. In that case there's no problem at all talking about drones and UAVs that existed in the timeline of the game and how they might be used at the table or in the co text of adventures.

You forget the loss of lives, the loss of knowhow, the loss of production capabilities, the loss of spare parts. That is in the nuclear exchange only. Then add starvation, sickness, desperation, exposure to elements. As a final kicker, add a war that drags on for another 2-3 years, grinding even more spares and materiel.

At the start of the war, totally plausible. Directly after the nuclear exchange, just a little burnt but can still operate. After the ongoing chaos, destruction and war it will be quite rare to find high tech stuff. As specified on the books themselves. That high-tech stuff is lost and will not be replaced. Except for the RDF, where they can enjoy of local high tech support of the Israelies and Saudies, and the nuclear exchange was lesser there.