The Wolf of Los Angeles.

At the training ground of the Butterfly Company, two teams were scattered on the north and south sides, each operating a drone.

Hawke and Edward followed Campos and came to Juan's side.

Juan was holding a remote control in his hand, operating a low-altitude rotor drone, while Garcia, who was standing next to him, was watching the real-time images taken by the drone on a tablet computer.

The drone was flying at a low altitude, with multiple rotors spinning rapidly, and the buzzing noise was very obvious.

Hawke looked up at the sky and asked, "How high can it fly?"

"300 meters." Campos understood the reason for the question and said, "When you fly higher, the noise you can hear on the ground will be significantly reduced."

He paused for a moment and then went on to explain, "This drone is called Wolf Spider. It can take off and land vertically and is powered by electricity. The small camera it carries can not only take normal photos, but also realize visible light imaging and infrared thermal imaging."

Hawke nodded slightly and said, "The only problem is that the noise is a bit loud."

Campos said: "Military reconnaissance drones would be better. We have contacted manufacturers, but on the one hand, the Pentagon has banned their sale, and on the other hand, the cost-effectiveness is not high."

Hawke naturally understood this. Any military equipment used by the US military, regardless of its performance, is first and foremost expensive.

He looked to the other side again, where there was a catapult-type fixed-wing drone, which made much less noise than a rotor-type drone.

Campos has tested its performance in detail in the past few days and said, "That one is called the Swallow. The Pentagon uses the police version of the same aircraft on the battlefield in Afghanistan. It is relatively quiet and faster, but it cannot hover and needs a run-up to take off."

Hawke looked at the small planes circling in the sky. These were nothing compared to what would happen more than a decade later.

It can't be compared with the small drones that the US military is currently equipping.

The Pentagon began equipping Global Hawk drones as early as 2000, and several small drones have been put into service in recent years.

At this stage, the UAV technology of the United States is definitely the best in the world.

Hawke formulated the Hindustan Plan, which requires a long process, and there are limits to the power of an individual, so it is still unknown how much of an impact it can have.

Some things are better done than not done.

Hawke retracted his gaze and looked at Campos: "Have you ever tried a suicide attack?"

This Middle Eastern-style language appeared on American soil. Campos was slightly stunned, and then said: "Not yet. This kind of experiment cannot be done in Los Angeles."

Hawke saw a Swallow drone parked next to the temporary runway. He went over to take a look and saw a camera hanging under the small aircraft, which was less than one meter long.

He said, "If we remove the camera from the bracket, we can install a bomb, right?"

Campos had already seen it and said, "With the Swallow's mounting capacity, it is completely possible to mount an 80mm mortar shell, and even a 120mm mortar shell in a short distance is not a problem."

When launching a suicide attack, the real problem is not the mount weight. Even if there are no mounts, you can make a few yourself.

Even duct tape can be used to tie it to the drone.

“The only problem is, drones are too expensive,” Hawke said.

Campos agreed: "Indeed, if you really count the dollars you use to buy drones, if you bundle them together and drop them from the sky, you can still kill someone."

Hawke suddenly thought of an idea and asked Campos: "Are these drones restricted for export?"

"There are definitely restrictions on large-scale production." Campos didn't care. "But there is no problem in dismantling it into parts. I disassembled the parts and sent them to Costa Rica through Mexico's foreign trade channels and handed them over to Hurricane Company."

Some things can't be done in Los Angeles, but they can be done in Costa Rica. Hawke ordered: "Notify Bosque and have them conduct a suicide attack test with a drone."

Edward made a note.

Hawke looked at these expensive drones and thought of the previous Russia-Ukraine war.

Drones have completely changed the face of warfare.

Apart from anything else, if his armed forces could use thousands of drones to launch a suicide attack on a target, the scene would be absolutely spectacular.

Cost issues must be considered.

Hawke thought for a while, then said to Edward, "Notify the people from the Environmental Technology Company to come over."

He looked at Campos and said, "Each of you should take a prototype and give it to the people at Environmental Technology Company. Let them contact the supplier on the other side of the Pacific."

Edward thought of the report he had read and continued, "The products produced there are of high quality and low price... But do they have the ability to produce such high-tech products?"

Hawke said: "As long as the profit is sufficient, production is not a problem. Let's place an order for 5000 each first."

Future political struggles and business wars will only become more intense, so it is necessary to make some preparations in advance.

As for whether they can produce it there, Hawke never doubted it. With such a small quantity, Huaqiangbei can easily handle it in this era.

Half an hour later, Henderson, CEO of West Coast Environmental Technology Company, rushed over.

After hearing Hawke's latest instructions, Henderson thought for a moment and said, "It should be no problem. I went to their Special Zone Electronic Distribution Market and saw that they have the production capacity."

Hawke said, "Go ahead and do it, but keep it confidential."

Campos sent a few people to accompany Henderson to get the sampler.

It is easy to match the explosive device with the drone. Just use the Type 80 mortar shells commonly seen in the overseas market.

As the scale increases, we will eventually have to consider the cost-effectiveness.

…………

Limon, Costa Rica.

The city's policing and security defense had been secretly contracted out to Hurricane Corporation after Hawke invested in and took control of the company a few years ago.

On the surface, the city is still the same city, and nothing seems to have changed.

A steamer flying the Coast Guard flag sailed out of the port, deviated from the regular shipping route, and came to a deep sea area where few ships passed.

On the ship, Bosk stood on the top deck, watching several of his subordinates busy at work.

When the ship slowed down, a handsome man named Hames ran over and said, "Report, the drone is ready!"

Bosque nodded slightly and asked over the radio: "Is the target ship ready?"

The other side replied: "The target ship is ready, we have withdrawn to the safe area."

Bosque ordered James: "Drone take off."

Hames returned to the front deck and shouted, "Drone take off!"

Accompanied by a buzzing sound, two multi-rotor drones took off vertically from the front deck and flew towards the eastern sea under the control of the operator.

A drone was equipped with a camera system that transmitted the feed in real time.

On another drone, a modified 80 mortar shell was hung on a suspension rack that was installed later.

The footage taken by the previous drone was shared in real time on the monitor in front of Bosque.

Then, the third rotor drone took off, following the first two, and rushed towards the sea in the east.

Because there was no satellite signal support, the drone's control signal was less than three kilometers. It didn't take long for the leading reconnaissance drone to arrive at the designated area and found a dilapidated small fishing boat.

James shouted: "Target found, location..."

Bosque gave the direct order: "Attack!"

Hames shouted: "Unit 2, attack!"

The operator locked onto the target fishing boat through the reconnaissance aircraft image and operated the drone to attack: "Unit 2, launch the attack!"

More than 2.5 kilometers away in the sea, the No. rotor drone lowered its altitude, accelerated suddenly, and dived towards the fishing boat on the sea.

The dilapidated fishing boat is only a dozen meters long, and the most conspicuous part is the cockpit.

Drone No. 80 swooped down and slammed into the cockpit. The high-explosive mortar shell it was carrying exploded with a loud bang. Smoke, broken iron sheets and wooden boards flew up and then fell into the water with a crackling sound.

Through the lens of UAV No. 1, it can be seen clearly that the cockpit of the fishing boat was completely destroyed.

James shouted again: "Unit 3, attack!"

Another operator, operating Unit 03, launched a suicide attack.

Drone No. 3 first lowered its altitude, then rushed towards the fishing boat a few meters above sea level and hit the side of the fishing boat.

How could a small civilian fishing boat withstand an attack from military ammunition?

During the explosion, a large hole opened on the side of the fishing boat and sea water rushed in.

Not long after, in the picture sent by UAV No. 1, the fishing boat sank to the bottom of the sea.

Hames continued to give the order: "Unit 1, return."

Bosque was quite satisfied with the results of the experiment, and when Unit 1 returned to land, he ordered everyone to return. Back at the base, Hames copied the video of Unit 1 and made several copies.

One copy was given to the newly formed drone team for observation.

A special copy was also sent to Bosque's office.

Bosque briefly recalled the process of the sea drill, and thought of Hawke's order to strengthen the alert in the past few months, and asked: "How many reconnaissance drones can be deployed now?"

"Only 12 are ready for immediate use," said James. He explained briefly, "More than drones have come from the north, but we lack skilled operators. The ones who can operate them are all talented... well, they used to be good at playing video games."

"Good at video games?" Bosque was a veteran after all, and his mindset didn't change for a while: "These people have more advantages?"

Hames gestured and said: "Both the reconnaissance and attack operations are very similar to video games."

Bosque recalled his limited experience in video games and found that this seemed to be the case: "In the next step of recruiting personnel, those with rich video game experience will be given priority, based on their military resumes."

He witnessed the attacks and reconnaissance of drones with his own eyes: "Small-scale battles in the future may undergo drastic changes because of drones."

Hames participated in the Afghan war and served as a drone operator. He said: "Colonel, I feel it more clearly. I operated the Global Hawk in Afghanistan and attacked multiple Taliban bases without any contact with the enemy. I was hundreds of kilometers away, monitoring the target in real time through surveillance cameras and satellite communications to determine the target. Just like playing a game, I just locked the target through the electronic screen and pressed a button, and the enemy would be destroyed."

Hearing these words, Bosque discovered a key problem: "We don't have satellites, and we operate through remote sensing signals, and the drones are flying too close."

Hames was unable to respond. There were only a few countries in the world that could launch similar military reconnaissance and communication satellites into orbit.

It seems that apart from the five great good men, the rest can be counted on one hand.

It is unrealistic to rent the Pentagon, after all, we are just a private security company.

Bosque couldn't solve this problem and planned to report it to the higher authorities.

He returned to the previous topic: "Arrange these drones into three shifts to conduct 24-hour patrol and monitoring of key nodes around the base. If any suspicious targets are found, report them immediately."

"Yes." James left the office and immediately called his staff to make corresponding arrangements.

Ten minutes later, four relatively quiet drones took off from the base and flew to nearby key roads to monitor people passing by.

Along with the drone was sent a facial recognition system specially designed by Twitter.

This system is currently in the practical stage after its design and development is completed. Relying on Twitter's core algorithm and cloud computing program, its powerful automatic recognition capabilities have surpassed those currently used by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

After all, technologies like this are Twitter’s core business and its bread and butter.

The images taken by the drone are automatically connected to the recognition system, connected to the database established by Twitter, and automatically identified.

All the people photographed will be automatically stored. If someone appears frequently again or engages in improper activities, the alarm mechanism will be triggered.

Of course, the assistance of the human eye is also indispensable.

Almost at the same time.

Ethiopia, in the wilderness near Sudan.

Andre stood in the back of a Hummer truck, observing the armored vehicle in front through a telescope.

This is an abandoned car discarded in Ethiopia.

Although most of its parts have been removed, the armor on the outer shell is intact and its protective capabilities are still there.

A drone suddenly appeared in Andre's field of vision, swooped down from above and hit the top of the armored vehicle.

A rumbling sound of explosion came from a distance.

Andre could see that the armored car had been canned, so he patted the car and shouted, "Go over there."

The Hummer truck started and quickly arrived at the explosion site.

Black smoke was coming out of the top of the armored vehicle, and broken armor was scattered all over the ground.

Andre jumped off the car, picked up a piece of armor fragment, looked at it, threw it aside, and climbed onto the top of the damaged armored vehicle.

Compared to the front armor, the top protection is relatively weak.

Andre looked at the big hole on the top armor that was blown out by the suicide drone, and said to the people below: "Photograph all of this and send it out together with the previous test video."

Immediately someone with a camera came over to film.

Edmund asked from below: "Such an attack is simply a nightmare for armored forces."

Andrei had served in the army when the Mao-Iran split occurred. The vehicle that was bombed today was also an old BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle.

He considered this: "Drones are small targets, difficult to defend and shoot down, but they can attack from top to bottom, just like opening a can."

Edmund said, "We weaponize other drones?"

Andre thought for a moment and said, "Keep all reconnaissance drones, and equip other drones with mounting equipment so they can be loaded with weapons and take off for combat at any time."

"Yes," Edmund replied.

Andre said: "Go back and use the drone to patrol and achieve the purpose of training at the same time."

After waiting to take pictures of the destroyed armored vehicle, the group ignored the abandoned vehicle and returned directly to their base in Damakin.

The United Nations Environment Programme, the World Food Programme, and the African Union are promoting the Green Africa Plan, and Damakin is an important node.

Hurricane was hired by both the West Coast Charity Foundation and the United Nations to provide security services to the Ethiopia branch of the Green Africa Project.

The plan was not implemented smoothly.

As we all know, mobilizing the enthusiasm of black Africans is a hellishly difficult task.

…………

Coast Building, Los Angeles.

Hawke received test videos from Limon and Damakin, and the effectiveness of the drone is beyond doubt.

Henderson has led his team to leave Los Angeles and fly directly to the Special Administrative Region on the other side of the Pacific Ocean to find suitable manufacturers and order low-cost drones.

With the industrial production capacity there, the order can be completed in no time.

Raul also went there at the same time.

The latter will post online discussions about drones opening cans against tanks and armored vehicles in Southeast Asia.

This will inspire some people.

Perhaps it won’t be long before a combination of cheap drones and mortar shells or high explosives, which are readily available on the international market, appear on battlefields across the Middle East.

Those guerrillas and so-called terrorists basically have no tanks or armored vehicles.

Hawke is a good man. He intends to push a group of poor people to use cheap and cost-effective weapons to test the resistance of the top armor of the Merkava main battle tank and the Abrams main battle tank.

I hope the parameters of the armored weapons of both companies are accurate.

On Limon's side, Bosque also called Hawke and talked about the problem of the drone's short legs.

The best solution is undoubtedly satellite.

The United States has the GPS system, and the European Union has the Galileo satellite navigation system.

Hawke doesn't know whether the BeiDou project has been launched into space.

But none of these three can be used.

Hawke thought of another company, Musk's Starlink.

Maybe Twitter could have its own satellite system.

Hawke has included this item in his future plans.

He remembered that Musk had another company, SpaceX, which was working with NASA.

That is Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

Hawke called Musk and asked him to come to Los Angeles to talk when he had time.

Musk was curious: "Didn't we just meet a while ago? What do you want to talk about?"

"Develop Mars." Hawke made up an excuse: "As the pioneers of mankind, how about the two of us landing on Mars?"

Musk got the idea: “You’re interested in the space business?”

“There are some ideas that maybe we could collaborate on some space business,” Hawke said.

Commercial satellite business requires capital. As long as there is enough money, customizing satellites is not a problem. (End of this chapter)