To be able to force a surrender, you’re asking this drone to do a whole lot…
It needs to be large enough to carry tank killing munitions, and it needs to be either fast, tough or stealthy enough to survive to make it into close range, then it also needs an antipersonnel weapon to prevent it from simply being shot down once it’s in close range, and finally it needs loud speakers that can be used to actually make surrender orders. (Adding speakers may sound trivial, but it’s an additional system that draws power and adds weight and volume, both of which are at a premium with aircraft of any kind). Oh, it also needs to be able to sustain a very long flight time, because it needs to hover there in place until troops arrive to escort the captured soldiers… (Which could take a while in a warzone)
At this point, you’re talking about a $20 million drone that requires at least two people to operate.
And forget warships, you can’t force a warship to surrender with a drone any more than you can with a missile.
To be able to force a surrender, you’re asking this drone to do a whole lot…
It needs to be large enough to carry tank killing munitions, and it needs to be either fast, tough or stealthy enough to survive to make it into close range, then it also needs an antipersonnel weapon to prevent it from simply being shot down once it’s in close range, and finally it needs loud speakers that can be used to actually make surrender orders. (Adding speakers may sound trivial, but it’s an additional system that draws power and adds weight and volume, both of which are at a premium with aircraft of any kind). Oh, it also needs to be able to sustain a very long flight time, because it needs to hover there in place until troops arrive to escort the captured soldiers… (Which could take a while in a warzone)
At this point, you’re talking about a $20 million drone that requires at least two people to operate.
And forget warships, you can’t force a warship to surrender with a drone any more than you can with a missile.
My point was to force surrender, you need tanks, ships, infantry. Drones prevent surrender, by being effective against those deployments.
A drone doesn’t force surrender either.