this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2026
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Japan’s Minister of Defense Shinjirō Koizumi posed with a cardboard drone on Monday during a meeting with drone manufacturer AirKamuy. The AirKamuy 150 is a cheap pre-fab cardboard drone meant to die on the battlefield and it comes shipped in a flatpack like an IKEA shelf.

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[–] Bloefz@lemmy.world 137 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

At least they don't put people in them this time 😅

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Sending young pilots to death in a rapidly aging society would be bad.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Seems sending old pilots it's a win win then.

[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 1 points 3 weeks ago

Unfortunately, they dont have any old pilots...

[–] kronarbob@lemmy.world 88 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 17 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Sell overpriced consoles with the tariff money they don't have to pay anymore... But to what end...?

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 47 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

This is an approach that could never succeed in the U.S., because there the focus is always on throwing as much money as possible at the defense contractors so that the billionaires can get even richer.

A current example: the war of aggression against Iran that the U.S. is waging in violation of international law.

To my knowledge, not even a halfway plausible reason has been given for this. And so it becomes quite clear that this is simply about shifting state resources into the pockets of the super-rich - and U.S. citizens just go along with it, even though it isn’t even them who are dying by the thousands, but rather, among others, Iranian schoolchildren, hundreds of whom were murdered simply by a bombing of a school...

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The usa military budget is non comparable to european military budgets, they pay for different things. IMO.

[–] Major_Tsiom@fedia.io 5 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

They do? What do you mean?

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 4 weeks ago

It includes costs for retired personnel and social security (social security is not in the military budget in most or any European countries) for example.

[–] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world -2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

In addition, they patrol the entire planets oceans, and are the main reason why you don't have pirates just taking ships constantly.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

(I'm not necessarily saying piracy is bad...)

But I feel like the violent enforcement of extreme inequality is what creates pirates, not what stops them.

[–] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

No, mass scale looting of ships is stopped by armed navies, along with the instant communication and remote viewing that make it impossible to do it without anyone noticing. You don't even need severe inequality for people to think about stealing 100 million dollar cargo moving slowly by itself.

[–] belochka@lemmy.world 35 points 4 weeks ago

That's the eco-friendliness we deserve, and from Japan no less.

[–] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 27 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

This will never fly in Seattle! Too wet.

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 27 points 4 weeks ago

I saw the cardboard festival tent hold up to a couple days of rain. Thats probably more than the maximum mission time it needs.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There are cheap and easy ways to waterproof cardboard, but I'm not sure why you would want to attack Seattle.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 9 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Microslop has its headquarters there. That's enough reason to flatten the city and salt the earth.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

No, they're headquartered in Redmond.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

...which is basically just a bedroom community for Seattle.

We need to think big here, lads!

[–] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 16 points 4 weeks ago

They could use waxed cardboard like fruit boxes.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 8 points 4 weeks ago

Trebuchet > wet lump of cardboard drone > boom! Your argument is invalid.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

It only needs to fly once. Honestly, it'd probably work.

But hey, I'm sure it's all irrelevant, I mean who would ever want to vindictively drone strike Seattle...

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 16 points 4 weeks ago

...and supplied them to Ukraine.

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 10 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 4 weeks ago

Origamikaze

[–] Muscle_Meteor@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 4 weeks ago

Thats one hell of a papercut

[–] Major_Tsiom@fedia.io 10 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

So… like a very slow missile then?

[–] FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Doubt they have much carrying capacity for explosives like a shahed drone which is $25k, while these $2k cardboard drones are great for surveillance with little concern for loss.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago

It doesn't take much explosive to defeat infantry.

Sure, it isn't flying across the country to hit an installation like a Shahed, but it could function as a longer-range, loitering mortar round.

Lots of small payloads would be useful if you can put a lot of them in the right place: blast fragmentation, HEDP, thermobaric, smoke, illumination, etc.

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 weeks ago

Radar doesn't work very well on cardboard. Ukraine has already been using drones like this since 2023.

[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

The number of our amazon boxes will block out the sun.

Then we will fight in the shade.

[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 8 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

But why would you use a drone to commit suicide?

[–] robolemmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 weeks ago

Surprise suicide?

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

New Amazon assistance suicide subscription.

[–] jafra@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Suicide subscription might not be the most profitable business model.

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Could be used as a family plan. Gotta do something about grandma when she becomes a burden.

[–] the_wonderfool@piefed.social 1 points 4 weeks ago

I may have a forgettable life, so I'll make sure to have an unforgettable death.

[–] timroerstroem@feddit.dk 5 points 4 weeks ago

I guess that makes the "suicide" part easier to achieve.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Excited to see one of these bad boys show up at the next WHCD

[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

For single use it's not a bad idea honestly but I can't imagine they would carry much and things like the wind might play a big factor.

[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 3 points 4 weeks ago

According to the article, they are mainly intended as defensive devices. Think of them as anti-drone cardboard chaff.

AirKamuy Chief Engineer Naoki Morita said that the cardboard drone was mainly envisioned as a counter-drone device. The idea is to fly a swarm of drones in front of other targets and absorb blows. “This is regular cardboard, so no special foam board or material, so every cardboard manufacturer can make this plane,” he said.

But other uses are possible. Naoki said that the AirKamuy 150 could carry around three pounds, which is just enough to carry a small amount of supplies or munitions to a target and it’s not hard to imagine swarms of incendiary cardboard drones slamming into targets in the near future.

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 4 weeks ago

We really gotta stop using the term suicide I'm this context. It's silly this ain't no jihadi jeep