Drones on merchant ships

the OP / question needs expanding / clarifying

what sort of 'drone' are you referring to and for what purpose ?

a UAV could be a useful recon / surveillance tool against pirates , but so could military spec radar and dedicated radar watchmen ...
 
Maybe he means male bees?
If so i think there would be very few changes. Just a bit more buzzing aboard ship.
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Modern, camera-carrying drones improve the crew's situational awareness. For example, what is behind that super-tanker off our port bow?
Circa WW2, drones would not discourage U-boats because they are too small to be seen by the naked eye. U-boat captains would be forced to guess if a drone was hovering over a convoy.

Technology-wise, drone airframes and engines were readily available by WW2. Electronic cameras (e.g. television cameras) were still in their infancy. The biggest hassle would be flight controls.
When were radio-controlled model airplanes introduced?
What year did Marilyn Monroe start working for Radio-Plane? .... late 1940s, or early 1950s?
 
What supposed to be their purpuse? Do you mean building a crewless ship like google makes driverless car?

That's actually something they already have pretty advanced plans on. See here for the Rolls-Royce autonomous cargo ship concept.


What year did Marilyn Monroe start working for Radio-Plane? .... late 1940s, or early 1950s?

As cool as Marilyn Monroe working on radio guidance would be, surely you mean Hedy Lamarr?
 
no he means Monroe, marilyn monroe worked for the Radio-Plane company when she was discovered in 1945

and yes Hedy Lamarr is the inventor of frequency hopping as used up till the modern day for mobile phones
 
Ah, so use the drones as recon, either on continuous surveillance or sent out to investigate potential threats. I see no reason this can't be done now.

Best defence of merchant ships is four ex-SpecOp guys with all weather/night capable LMGs.

 
which brings up a question.... how bad is the whole Somali pirate thing right now? A couple of years ago, they were all over the news, particularly when they targeted American ships, but nowadays, you don't hear much about them...
 
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