AirKamuy is shipping flatpacked drones made of paper that cost around $2,000.

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.

  • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    7 hours 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.