this post was submitted on 13 May 2026
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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.

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[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 28 points 1 week ago

This makes complete sense tbh. Most hobby model planes are like lightweight balsa wood. There's no reason cardboard can't work.

[–] CthulhusIntern@hexbear.net 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Albert Einstein's "World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" quote is true. It's just that they'll be drones made of sticks and stones.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago

Clicks and Drones

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 20 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This feels like these probably have incredibly limited use cases

I'm talking defeated by the rain, American style type shit

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've seen hobbyists make RC planes from Coroplast (corrugated plastic, like for political yard signs). I'd think that would be better than cardboard.

[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

political yard signs

I'm imagining sneaky republicans stealing democratic signs en masse and then using them to make "suicide drones" to attack people at dem political events outside. And when local GOP gets asked out it they say it was a false flag the dems did with their own lawn signs.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Don't worry. The dems will tell everybody to vote harderrr andtherkj asfkj kl;ajf klj ;lakjf kjhidfgu ndjfmdggdddddddd

Sorry. I had a fit of laughter at the end.

[–] Robert_Kennedy_Jr@hexbear.net 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Would be easy to spray them with a hydrophobic coating though right

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fuckin chemicals

There's always chemicals

[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No, it comes from the earth. Earth can't be chemicals.

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Everything is chemicals

It's the one thing I retained from chemistry 101

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Is numbers chemicals? No, I don't think so.

[–] WhatDoYouMeanPodcast@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Numbers aren't real. Stop doing math. You have been played for an absolute fool

[–] FlakesBongler@hexbear.net 8 points 1 week ago

Damn, you got me there

[–] WhyEssEff@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

oh yeah? what flavor? semiconductor, ink, carving or neurotransmitter smuglord

lib-status

[–] Bobson_Dugnutt@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

Today I learned that uranium isn't a chemical

[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)
[–] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

this is classified Japanese intelligence you fool

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You can make a cardboard Gundam


[–] JoeByeThen@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

You can make a cardboard Gundam, I'm making a cardboard Toyota Hilux.

[–] plinky@hexbear.net 19 points 1 week ago

oh no, they are smart about it :(

[–] Sabbo@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

Thinking quickly Dave assembles a drone out of a bomb, some tape and a duck

[–] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 16 points 1 week ago

xicko Operation Paper Tiger

[–] fox@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

Dang that's pretty cool. $2k a pop. Shaheds are like $7k.

Anyways another $200,000,000,000 to building aircraft carriers

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago

Old habits die hard I see

[–] PKMKII@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago

I didn’t know Nintendo was making drones now

[–] SocialistVibes01@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 week ago

Great, killer shoeboxes.

[–] miz@hexbear.net 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wonder if you could make an even lighter airframe with thin ABS plastic...

[–] Sabbo@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago

I think that would just the the Gossamer Condor

[–] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

Could do injection moulding with recycled plastics, hmm

Can i get one? Just for fun and profit

[–] CommCat@hexbear.net 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This isn't new, during the Russia-Ukraine war, there was an Australian (?) group that was promoting their cardboard drone for Ukraine. Haven't heard anything from these cardboard drones since.

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Clippy@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

no profit to be made with cardboard drones ig

[–] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Depends on the utility. If they're decoy or target drones then Russia also has Geraniums made from polystyrene. And Cardboard cant carry much for its density so warheads won't be as big. For antipersonnel that's not an issue i spose.

BUT! It's novel, it leverages local manufacturing/supply chains, and has some potential advantage over similar conceptual alternarives. This is Dialectically the closest we'll see to a western alternative to a Shahed, not the crappy derivative the US tried to produce at much lower capacity and cost.

[–] immuredanchorite@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

I think the true purpose of the shahed copies were to hit sensitive targets outside of the current conflict zone to stoke blame on Iran and widen the conflict