Get Drones Or Get Clapped?
Will the civilian tactical market see a boom in drone acquisition?
There's a point to this rambling, humor me....
It's been interesting over the years to watch the civ-side tactical market change, not only in what was desired, but was deemed non-eyebrow-raising, let alone needed.
When I started in all this, most guys had maybe some sort of belt kit or chest rig, that was the "basic acceptable kit" for a competent combat-ready civ and most folks thought you were a bit mad if you had a plate carrier.
Until the Great Plate Carrier Boom, then all the cool guys were grabbing up PCs, and you were uncool and unready, and definitely getting clapped in the streets if you didn't have armor (although funnily helmets were still largely ignored).
Then I think it was the Great Sustainment Boom, and if you didn't have pack capability for at least a day or two of supplies, you were useless and definitely going to die in a ditch if you didn't have sustainment gear, despite that being the realm of mad preppers two seconds earlier.
Then the Great Comm Boom where all the guys in the know figured out it was cool to talk to people further then shouting distance, and proceeded to pimp their gear with a variety of radios (thus kicking off a small secondary boom in the radio pouch market), and you were useless and uncool, and totally going to die alone in the woods if you didn't have comms. Thank this for the common knowledge of helmet-mounted earpro (and the blursed baofeng proliferation).
Then came the Great Suppressor Boom and all the high-speeds were gobbling up forbidden popsicles like, well...pospicles on a hot summer day, and you are currently uncool and probably going to get everyone in your boog crew killed if you aren't running a suppressor. You may as well be wearing white socks and rocking a 1911 without one... 
Then the Great LPVO Boom which.... well, basically you are letting the communists win if you don't have variable mag on your blaster (unless you are the coolest of cool NOD goon in which case the current race to the highest of high Height Over Bore Boom is in full swing and Eotech is king of something once...ever).
Currently we're in the middle of the Great NOD Boom, (coupled with the associated belated Great Helmet Boom), where all the cool guys in the know are busy snatching up nods, and you are uncool and useless if you can't mortgage your house to get some. You are pretty much an anointed avatar of freedom if you can pimp thermals...
But more importantly, here in 2022 this is accepted as a totally needed and non-weird capability item to have ON TOP OF all the other above stuff that, a mere 10 years back, people right here would have thought it "crazy" to own.
It's also been interesting to see how civ-side interest in various enhanced tactical capabilities has changed to reflect not only the military conflict of the times, and how people see their 'inner operator', but the threat level the gov is viewed as. And, here in the US we've been going pretty hard on both angles - 20 years of GWOT have either taught new lessons or re-confirmed old ones, and the whole time the crown has been getting more and more uppity. So the civ side realm has sucked up GWOT capability lessons and applied them as needed to how people at home see future domestic conflicts unfolding - and apparently the outlook is a lot grimmer than ten years back, simply judging by capability desirability.
So, this brings us to the current conflict of Ukraine + exploding idiocy at home.
If ONE thing is abundantly clear in eastern EU right now, it's that drones have changed everything. Ukies used them to great effect during the opening phases, and by many accounts now the Ruskies are returning the favor.
There probably hasn't been a bigger (and more underrated) breakthrough in individual and squad level surveillance, recon, and targeting capability since someone paired a radio with binoculars.
The question is, how soon (if ever) do you think it will take for the US civilian tactical market to catch on?
And then what - will it be largely ignored? Or a mad rush to equip with this new tech at the highest available level to maintain parity with possible future domestic opfor?
I'm not down with the current civ drone scene, so maybe this is already happening? I tend to never assume something is a fad/boom until I see "showoff" pics all over the internet.
I've seen this talked about a little in the past as a prepper thing for securing place like neighborhoods, but I have never seen a concerted effort by any community - even the preppers - to get hardcore into this.
Does that change in 2022 and beyond?
Will a day come where it is as common to see pics of drones in peoples loadouts as it is plates or a suppressor?
*Clarification - I'm not talking armed Pred-sized drones, we're looking at small scale recon/tageting level drones.
Last edited by Jellybean; 07-07-22 at 04:23.
"Once we get some iron in our souls, we'll get some iron in our hands..."
"...A rapid, aggressive response will let you get away with some pretty audacious things if you are willing to be mean, fast, and naked."-Failure2Stop
"The Right can meme; the Left can organize. I guess now we know which one is important." - Random internet comment
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Originally Posted by Brasilnuts
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