[Dilmah G]

The military's at it again

The US Army is not known for having a soft-spot for aviation. So it's perhaps not surprising that army aviators have been the fastest to embrace unmanned aircraft. On 14 April, the service celebrated passing the 1 million flight hour mark by unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), a milestone that will be feted next month with a celebration hosted by the Smithsonian.

Accordingly, the army released a UAS roadmap on 15 April that sets an ambitious course for aviation. By 2035, nearly every aircraft the army flies will be unmanned. The only two roles left primarily for manned aircraft will be -- curiously enough -- utility and medical evacuation. But UAVs or optionally-piloted vehicles (OPVs) will dominate flight hours for attack, armed reconnaissance, cargo resupply, communications relay and surveillance.

[Snail]

EMP!




Fwooooooosh

[Bobboau]

well, it's like that already.
though I would hope military grade equipment would be designed to handle EMP

[Dilmah G]

As I understand, the real emerging issue is the connection between ground control station and vehicle. Disrupt that, and you've turned your UCAV fleet into a heap of useless plastic and metal.

[StarSlayer]

USAF going to embrace UMBTs? 

[Nuclear1]

USAF going to embrace UMBTs?  

If it's overly expensive, useless, and defies common sense, then we'll embrace it, dammit.

[Kosh]

Better question: When are they going to be fully automated?

If it's overly expensive, useless, and defies common sense, then we'll embrace it, dammit.

So, what's your take on this whole UAV thing?

[StarSlayer]

I assume it depends on your job 

[Nuclear1]

If it's overly expensive, useless, and defies common sense, then we'll embrace it, dammit.

So, what's your take on this whole UAV thing?

They're great, but we've wasted millions of dollars by basically having a turf war with the Army on UAVs--they've got their own fleet of Ravens and Hunters and we've got ours of Predators, Global Hawks, and Reapers...and they mostly do each other's jobs anyway.  So we're paying double, or sometimes triple what we should be.

[Liberator]

So we're paying double, or sometimes triple what we should be.

This makes me a sad panda.  Of course it's the government, so no one ever thinks having one universal design for all branches so you have one set of replacement part stockpiled to the heavens for the same money is a good idea.

[General Battuta]

So we're paying double, or sometimes triple what we should be.

This makes me a sad panda.  Of course it's the government, so no one ever thinks having one universal design for all branches so you have one set of replacement part stockpiled to the heavens for the same money is a good idea.

It's actually been tried a number of times, but it's never worked out, mostly because the various branches of the military all like to fight about operational requirements and whatnot.

[headdie]

Hmmm so paying double or trippel for craft which will be useless for anything except recon or cargo hauling on pre programmed routing as soon as someone can be bothered to point a half decent radio jammer at it

[Nuclear1]

Actually if there's one thing you can't fault American UAVs for, it's their remote control.  I can't get into specifics, but that is literally the least of their concerns.

[General Battuta]

Actually if there's one thing you can't fault American UAVs for, it's their remote control.  I can't get into specifics, but that is literally the least of their concerns.

It appears the US Air Force doesn't always end up exactly where it meant to.

(the quoted post was originally in a thread about health insurance  )

[Nuclear1]

Oh **** me and my low alcohol tolerance..could you send that where it needs to be?

[Jeff Vader]

could you send that where it needs to be?

Hope I got it right.

[Nuclear1]

Yeah, got it right. Apparently two shots of Jack after being in the air for 16 hours will impair your judgment...

[Grizzly]

You know, I hate this idea. If I am a marine, and ask for air support to an AI, how will I know that he picked the correct target?

[Nuclear1]

UAVs aren't AI though...

[Thaeris]

They're just controlled by some chap several thousand miles away...