Wasteland Survivalist: A Scientific Guide to Post-Apocalyptic Survival

While organizing the drone's carrying case, Gu Lang received another pleasant surprise.

"A searchlight and a megaphone? Turns out it's a set!"

After installing both accessories onto the top of the drone, Gu Lang tapped the newly appeared speaker icon on the remote control.

"Feed? Feed? Feed?"

A loud noise came from the megaphone, the volume of which was estimated to be around 120 decibels.

Feeling a ringing in his ears, he quickly turned off the voice chat function.

In addition to the real-time voice call function, the megaphone also supports recorded voice calls and text-to-speech mode.

These functions were originally designed to provide on-site voice communication during emergencies, typically used for traffic control, search and rescue, and fire fighting.

"Haha, I don't have to be a train magnate anymore."

In today's post-apocalyptic environment, Gu Lang feels that he will be able to use this function in many creative ways in the future.

For example, you could use screams to attract berserkers, and then use a grenade to wipe them out.

"Even with a new love, you can't forget your old one."

Gu Lang picked up his Mavic 3 Pro, which had been with him all along, and after thinking about it, decided to modify it into a suicide drone.

He retrieved the sodium explosives he had previously prepared, stuffed them into a safety sleeve, shaped them appropriately, and then tightly attached them to the top shell of the Mavic 3 Pro.

Installing the explosives is quite simple; the difficulty lies in how to detonate them.

Considering that electronic detonation would require circuit modifications and would have low reliability, Gu Lang ultimately decided to use an impact fuse.

The main body of the impact fuse was made from an empty bullet casing.

The cartridge case has excellent sealing properties, which can concentrate the impact force, making it an ideal fuse container.

Gu Lang removed the original primer layer and cleaned the cartridge case thoroughly to ensure that there was no residual gunpowder inside.

At the bottom of the bullet casing, a grain-sized amount of mercuric fulminate powder, weighing approximately 0.3 grams, was fixed with a piece of paper.

Next, he installed the firing pin and spring, fixing the nail inside the cartridge case with the tip pointing towards the mercury fulminate, leaving a gap of 1 to 2 millimeters to avoid direct contact.

Next, disassemble a pop-up ballpoint pen, remove the internal spring, attach it to an iron nail, and insert it into a bullet casing.

This keeps the spring in a compressed state, maintaining a certain elastic force.

Cut the aluminum foil into round pieces and place them between the tail of the firing pin and the spring.

Finally, insert the open end of the bullet casing into the explosive charge to secure it.

When the drone hits the target, the impact will break the aluminum foil.

The spring releases its elastic force instantly, and the firing pin strikes the mercury fulminate at high speed, triggering its detonation. The shock wave then detonates the explosive.

After assembling the suicide drone, Gu Lang put away the explosives and impact fuse.

This Showa-era tactic would turn drones into disposable items.

He did not want to use this burning technique unless absolutely necessary.

In contrast, how to counter enemy drones is what he urgently needs to consider now.

After losing his homemade gun, Gu Lang was left without any anti-drone equipment.

He wasn't too upset about it, though, because the seamless steel pipe of the homemade gun had already shown signs of metal fatigue due to the high intensity of use.

In particular, after the propellant was changed from black powder to nitrocellulose, the increased chamber pressure brought a significant increase in power, but also made it increasingly dangerous.

If it continues to be used, it could explode at any time.

Gu Lang had hoped to seize a proper shotgun from the madmen.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned; he neither found a sniper rifle nor a shotgun, so he had to find another way.

In principle, counter-drone operations can be divided into electronic countermeasures and physical interception.

Electronic warfare does not require physical contact with enemy drones; instead, it uses radio signal interference to render target drones uncontrollable.

He doesn't have a communication link jammer; to obtain such equipment, he'll probably have to go to a pig farm.

During the African swine fever outbreak in 2018, in order to combat the aerial poisoning activities of the "pig-catching teams".

Pig farmers in China have installed a large number of anti-drone devices on their pig farms.

Not to mention jammers, they are even equipped with low-altitude security active phased array radars.

If you search more carefully, you might even find drone capture nets and drone strike guns.

Gu Lang thought about how he almost died at the hands of the Berserker a few days ago while trying to move a fishing net, and decisively gave up the "pig-hunting journey".

Having barely escaped death, he didn't want to risk his life on land again anytime soon.

All that's left is physical interception; the ideal anti-drone weapon is actually the drone itself.

Maneuver your own drone at high speed to crash into the target drone, causing it to crash through physical impact.

This method is the simplest and most brutal, but it is also devastating to one's own drones.

Other methods include carrying a catapult net under one's own drone, which, upon approaching the target drone, wraps around the enemy's rotor and causes it to crash.

Both of these methods have fatal flaws: their reaction speed is too slow, making them only suitable for battlefield patrols.

If it were a sudden attack, by the time your own drones took off, you would probably already be blown to bits.

After much deliberation, Gu Lang finally opened his phone and started browsing the electronic version of a military magazine.

After some searching, he found a way to deal with the situation on the Goose Dock battlefield.

That is the 5.56mm anti-drone rifle ammunition developed by a company called Dockland.

By modifying the bullet, the anti-drone effect can be achieved while retaining the specifications of ordinary rifle bullets.

The specific method is quite simple: the five spherical projectiles are neatly wrapped and secured with a lightweight plastic sabot.

It forms a standard cylinder, so that it can be loaded into the magazine, pushed into the chamber, withstand the high pressure of the propellant, and move safely inside the barrel, just like a regular bullet.

After firing, the two plastic sabots will disintegrate after leaving the muzzle, releasing the bullets they carried.

This creates a larger barrage, significantly increasing the probability of hitting small, high-speed targets like drones.

Drones have a sophisticated structure, and being hit by just one or two small projectiles can cause damage to the propellers, sensor malfunctions, or flight control system failures, leading to a crash and failure.

This means that once a drone is detected, a special magazine can be replaced immediately, and specially made bullets can be fired within seconds.

By continuously firing, a barrage of bullets is created at a distance of approximately 100 meters, achieving the effect of "detect and strike".

This solution does not require soldiers to carry additional weapons; instead, it involves adding a new type of ammunition to standard rifles.

In a cost-effective manner, with minimal complexity, counter-drone capabilities can be made available to every ordinary soldier.

Interestingly, the Russians are also using the same method to produce these bullets.

The method was even more ruthless: they directly used heat shrink tubing to wrap the shotgun pellets and replace the original bullets.

The downside is that heat shrink tubing can leave polymer residue that contaminates the inside of the gun barrel.