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 126 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] django@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 16 points 16 hours ago

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

[–] belochka@lemmy.world 29 points 17 hours ago

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

[–] kronarbob@lemmy.world 77 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] areakode@riskeratspizza.com 15 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 18 hours ago (5 children)

This will never fly in Seattle! Too wet.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours 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...

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 26 points 16 hours 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.

[–] Greyghoster@aussie.zone 13 points 14 hours ago

They could use waxed cardboard like fruit boxes.

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 23 points 17 hours 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 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

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

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

No, they're headquartered in Redmond.

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

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

We need to think big here, lads!

[–] IratePirate@feddit.org 8 points 17 hours ago

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

[–] DandomRude@lemmy.world 41 points 20 hours 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 19 hours 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 18 hours ago (2 children)

They do? What do you mean?

[–] Einskjaldi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

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

[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 15 hours 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.

[–] sexy_peach@feddit.org 22 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 14 points 20 hours ago

...and supplied them to Ukraine.

[–] Dadifer@lemmy.world 10 points 18 hours ago

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

Then we will fight in the shade.

[–] Major_Tsiom@fedia.io 10 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

So… like a very slow missile then?

[–] Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works 6 points 15 hours ago

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

[–] FreeBooteR69@lemmy.ca 9 points 18 hours 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 10 points 17 hours 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.

[–] Muscle_Meteor@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 20 hours ago

Thats one hell of a papercut

[–] StillAlive@piefed.world 8 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 19 hours ago

Origamikaze

[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 8 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

But why would you use a drone to commit suicide?

[–] the_wonderfool@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago

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

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

New Amazon assistance suicide subscription.

[–] jafra@slrpnk.net 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Suicide subscription might not be the most profitable business model.

[–] RaoulDuke25@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

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

[–] robolemmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 20 hours ago

Surprise suicide?

[–] timroerstroem@feddit.dk 5 points 21 hours ago

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

[–] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] Teknikal@anarchist.nexus 1 points 17 hours 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 1 points 1 hour 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.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

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