Ctrl+F and 0 results for munitions or bombs. Seems like this is really about $25 controller gets drones to within 4km in GPS denied enviroments, after which a $50 infrared camera + DSMAC find targets to hit.
I suspect you could get this to FAR higher accuracy if you combined it with a recent upload of Starlink et al LEO constellation ephemera, an initial GPS fix at launch, and a planned flight path, because LEO constellations are bright foreground objects (high location-specific parallax differences against background stars) at apparent magnitude of about 5.0.
This is simultaneously not reliant on perfect vertical attitude sensing coming off the autopilot IMU, you can do it purely photometrically.
The limitation is that this is a dawn/dusk thing, in the middle of the night there isn't a ton of light reflected and in the day you're limited by scattered daylight.
EDIT: Medium orbit satellites outside Earth's umbra but within view still provide some sort of visual fix. I wonder what the math is like for the GSO belt at midnight?
IMO could synergize well for higher end celestia navigation - there are optics sensors for day time tracking, but daylight sensitivity is limitation, perhaps much less so when fixed to starlink. So maybe feasible $$$ hardware can make daylight celestial starlink navigation workable.
Bringing component costs down seems like it would be much more useful for increasing capabilities / proliferating of lower end loitering munitions. You can already pack redundant navigation systems in more expensive platforms that gets them to area of operations. But being able to replace $20,000 inertial navigation system with $200 board + IR camera makes a lot of somewhat cheap smart munitions much smarter, and mitigates a lot of expensive electronics warfare platforms.
Starlink ubiquity does seem to open a lot of indirect strategic applications, i.e. research using starlink transmissions as bi/multistatic illumination source to detect stealth flyers.
That's a great idea. In the earlier days when they had about 2500 satellites in LEO I built a small visualizer from the fleet TLE data and it was remarkably simple with the skyfield library.
If you're in the fringes of a GNSS denial area ADSB might be useful as well. Would need more hardware of course.
Yes it does, but unless we’re talking an entire system failue the GNSS denial does tend to have limits in range. I’ve picked up ADSB traffic from well over 200km with a simple ground antenna, so if you’re in the fringes in could be a useful additional signal for similar reasons to the satellites.
I would assume the same. Operation in GNSS-denied environments is critical for military navigation systems. Comparatively, for civilian uses, it's an addon that provides low accuracy, and potentially high development or equipment cost (Maybe not for a cel nav camera, but for Ring Laser Gyro INSs etc)
GNSS is very accurate, and receivers are cheap, but its reliant on satellite signals makes relying on it a liability in adversarial uses.
Cel nav isn't self-contained in the way an INS is, because you need a clear LOS to the stars. But, it's useful on a clear night when your GPS is jammed.
At this point, it's pretty clear that this type of functionality is out of the bag. Any significant actor can easily replicate this with minimal effort, given the advances in AI.
note: i used gpt to clean this up because i am ill and distracted by snowfall and cold. It muddied some of my points, but it removed a lot of PII and rambling. note over.
I noticed some commenters questioning details in the article, like the Wi-Fi triangulation and the earthquake survivor detector. While it's fair to discuss technical aspects, I believe the focus should be on the broader implications rather than dismissing the story based on perceived inconsistencies.
I haven’t dealt with clearances or compartmentalization in years, but I know how serious these matters are. Disclosing specific names, dates, or events carries severe consequences—this isn’t something covered by toothless NDAs. The penalties can include federal prison for treason. I’ve personally experienced the DoD investigating me just because I was listed as a reference. It’s an intimidating process, and it makes sense why people who fear being doxxed rewrite their stories, swapping out modular details to obscure sensitive information.
Regarding the Wi-Fi triangulation: this is well within the realm of possibility. Many years ago, I purchased a Hydra SDR radio with inexpensive RTL-SDR chips. With four matched antennas arranged in a line or an X, connected to a Raspberry Pi 4, I could triangulate signals and visualize the results on a map. The hardware wasn’t advanced, but it worked. Even in 2012, there were rumors about using Wi-Fi signals to see through walls. Whether or not the article is perfectly accurate, the point is to consider the ethical and societal consequences of such technologies, not to nitpick technical details.
As for the earthquake survivor detector, the underlying principle is related. Identifying survivors using leaked signals like Bluetooth or cellular emissions isn’t fundamentally different from using Wi-Fi for similar purposes. The scenarios may involve different actors—military versus contractors—but the capabilities are converging.
I’ve worked at a defense contractor that manufactured components for Boeing and McDonnell Douglas jets. While I avoided involvement with military projects, I know how extensive and layered the contractor ecosystem is. Comments suggesting "there are only a few" don’t align with my experience.
On a personal note, I’ve always struggled with the ethical implications of the work I’ve done. This has made my career difficult. I don’t judge others who take these roles—someone else will do the work if they don’t—but my own scruples have been a constant challenge. For example, I once worked on a project at a large entertainment company based on an idea I had years earlier. The demanded i eventually sit in the office and handle tier 3 phone calls. I had a minor breakdown in the stairwell; i didn't even let my children consume their content, but i was too jazzed to work on the thing that i pitched to apple 7 years earlier. That was over a decade ago, but i'm still annoyed at myself.
I believe stories like this should be taken seriously. Dismissing them based on perceived inconsistencies seems like rationalization, to me.
