Submarine hunting opens with a broader lesson about technological competition. Small drones appear attractive because they can be cheap and numerous, while laser weapons offer one possible counter. Hardening a drone against laser damage adds protection, size, complexity, and expense, gradually weakening the advantage of mass. The same arms-race pattern appears in the parallel evolution of submarines, aircraft, sensors, and weapons, where no invention remains permanently decisive.
Notable Point · 6:20-7:19
How countermeasures can erode a cheap weapon's advantage
The drone-and-laser analogy shows how defending a supposedly revolutionary weapon can make it larger, costlier, and less plentiful.