We’ve heard of DIY drone kits before, but this is ridiculous.
Japan’s minister of defense Shinjirō Koizumi recently announced that the island country had begun deploying easily-replaceable combat drones made almost entirely of corrugated cardboard. Developed by Japanese arms manufacturer AirKamuy, the AirKamuy 150 drone is a fixed-wing craft constructed out of the same stuff as Amazon boxes, designed to be spat out of an assembly line en masse.
According to a post by Koizumi on X-formerly-Twitter, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is already using the drones as “targets,” though whether for Japanese military target practice or as some type of decoy isn’t entirely clear.
According to Tom’s Hardware, the flying shoeboxes cost between $2,000 to $2,500 per piece, which are bargain bin prices compared to the already low-cost Shahed drone deployed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps that cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000 apiece.
Each drone is also foldable, and can be fully assembled out-of-the-box in around five minutes, an AirKamuy employee told NHK World-Japan. Despite sporting a basic propulsion system held up by cardboard, they boast a flight-time of 80 minutes, and an impressive top-speed of around 62 miles per hour.
Per AirKamuy, the rapid production process is meant to allow the drones to be developed by any old machinist with access to a cardboard die-cutter, as opposed to a highly specialized aerospace company.
“There is strong demand for low-cost drones that can operate in large numbers, and over long distances,” AirKamuy CEO Yamaguchi Takumi in an interview with NHK. “This model can be manufactured at any cardboard plant, ensuring high mass production capability and a robust supply chain.”
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