Editing 1846: Drone Problems

{{comic
| number    = 1846
| date      = June 5, 2017
| title     = Drone Problems
| image     = drone_problems.png
| titletext = On the other hand, as far as they know, my system is working perfectly.
}}

==Explanation==

[[Megan]] is frustrated because people are flying {{w|Unmanned aerial vehicle|drones}} too close to her, so she builds a system to shoot them down. She shows it to [[Cueball]], who is also excited about the idea and helps spot the drones. However, each of the drones gets accidentally destroyed by its pilot because of their inability to fly the drones before Megan can destroy them herself. 
After three hours of unsuccessful drone hunting, a frustrated Megan complains about people unable to fly the drones, which prevents her (and Cueball) from having fun shooting them down. The joke is that she created the system to get rid of the drones, so the lack of drones should be the desired output - and now she wants the drones nearby (even if only temporarily).

This comic is a follow up on [[1842: Anti-Drone Eagles]], and confirms that Cueball prefers technological air-defense systems to biological measures.

The title text refers to the fact that from the pilots' perspective, the system is successful at keeping all the drones away from the house, even though in reality the system has not had a chance to be successful yet.

While Megan attributes the repeated drone crashes to poor pilot skill, a possible source for the drones' sudden loss of control is hinted at in panel two, in which the target drone crashes immediately after Megan's device (equipped with a miniature parabolic dish) attempts to "lock on" to the drone in question. While a small and fast-moving drone may be difficult to hit, the control system that directs its movements is easily interfered with (either by overwhelming the RF signal controlling it or by using microwaves to induce short circuits in sensitive electronics). The irony here is that the targeting system for Megan's anti-drone device unintentionally appears to be more effective than the actual weapon it is designed to guide, disabling the drones so quickly that the "real" weapon is unable to be tested. 

It may also be a reference to the May 30, 2017 ''FTG-15'' test of the United States {{w|Ground-Based Midcourse Defense|GMD missile defense}} system, where an interceptor kill vehicle destroyed a test {{w|ICBM}}. From the perspective of a US adversary, such as North Korea (whose missiles the system is allegedly targeted at), "as far as they know, the system is working perfectly," as the test was declared to be a success. But substantial controversy has dogged the missile defense system for decades, as critics have alleged it is [http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/us-missile-defense/countermeasures#.WTeEJsm1vMU vulnerable to trivial countermeasures]. But "as far as they know" strongly implies that the text following it is not true, i.e. the system does not work perfectly.

Another possible secondary joke is that the drones were flying near her because the pilots can't fly properly.

Megan had previously suggested in [[1586: Keyboard Problems]], that robots (and thus also drones) getting near Cueball's house ({{tvtropes|TheJinx|and possibly Cueball's general vicinity}}) would unexpectedly crash.

Megan previously had a laser cannon to shoot down squirrels in [[382: Trebuchet]], so this is not the first time she has built a device for shooting things down.

==Transcript==
:[Megan is sitting on her knees at the porch in front of a house with a smartphone in one hand and operating with her other hand a dish-antenna pointing into the sky. Cueball comes walking up towards the stairs up to the porch while he is looking back and up over his shoulder and pointing into the air.]
:Megan: People in the park keep flying drones near me, so I've built a system to shoot them down.
:Cueball: Cool! Oh yeah, there's one now.
:Megan: Time for a test!

:[Zoom in on Megan with the device on the porch with Cueball still at the bottom of the stairs leading down. She is operating her phone, which can be seen to be connected with a wire to the dish-antenna device. Cueball is looking away from her and down.]
:Megan: Okay, locking on…
:Cueball: Wait, it just crashed.
:Megan: Damn.

:[Cueball has walked up the stairs and are standing behind Megan at the door. Megan is now looking up into the sky while still sitting with her phone in front of the device.]
:Cueball: Here comes another one! Aim for… nope, it got stuck in a tree.

:[Cueball is now sitting on the porch with a half-full drinking glass in one hand leaning back on the other hand. Megan is gesturing at her device while holding her phone down. Above the top part of the frame, there is another smaller frame overlaid with a caption:]
: Three hours later…
:Cueball: Finally, two more just— no, one crashed and the other is hurtling sideways toward the lake.
:Megan: ''Will you people learn to fly these things?!''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Drones]]