"Uncle Jimbo," who blogs as part of the Madison Post, has a defense-related job in real life. He writes:
"The field of unmanned systems is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the defense industry. Not only are there UAVs flying over a large portion of the planet, but there are ground, undersea and other vehicles in the pipeline that will get operators out of even more military machines. I interviewed... a former Commander of TOPGUN who said something to me almost two years ago that blew my mind. He said the last fighter pilot has already been born. That is a concept to spin your head."
Me, I'm not so sure. Still, Jim proceeds with a fine introduction to some of the new developments in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and their ground-based counterparts. It's a field we've covered here before at Winds of Change.NET, from ScanEagles to Predators and Global Hawks, tiny Ravens, even "Throwbots." Jim's review adds a good overview - plus descriptions, links and pictures to some robot warriors you may not have sen or heard of before. Worth reading.
the gee-whiz factor of attack drones may be entertaining --- but no one bothers to ask the question "If we are killing people in Iraq using pilotless planes controlled from well defended air bases in Nevada, aren't we legitimizing attacks against the US on its oil soil?"
You could make the same point for any projection of power we make. The ironic thing is since most of these aircraft conduct surveillance including that of our borders they make it less likely someone else can do it to us. The Coast Guard has a program called Deepwater which will use UAVs in conjunction with other surveillance aircraft to actually patrol our borders for a change.
Cordially,
Uncle J
Military Matters
The issue with UAV systems comes farther down the line, when the USG has a large number of weapons systems controlled by relatively few humans. At that point it will be easier for a tyranny to use those weapons against the domestic population.
Uncle J. is correct about the predominantly surveillance and reconnaisance use of UAVs at this point.
There are a whole slew of implications in these technologies, and more in the upcoming truly autonomous robotic capabilities under development.
I think the fellow is right to say that we will not need, or want, fighter pilots much longer. One of the big limiting factors on performance of such craft is the human pilot -- the g-forces acting on the craft reach human limits far sooner than they reach the limits of modern metals or ceramics.
Once virtual control mechanisms are good enough, the man can sit safely at home and let the plane take all the g-force. That kind of a plane will be far more dangerous in air superiority contests than any manned aircraft.
Hmmmm.
Ok now here's a question.
When will television wake up to the entertainment possibilities of armed UAVs? Now there were some shows, like Robot Wars, that were ok, but essentially boring.
Now let's take military class armed UAVs, make a sports league that incorporates them and then televise real time battles between teams. You could even borrow several concepts from FPS games such as Capture the Flag, etc etc etc.
What's the most exciting stuff on Discovery or the History channel? Things blowing up. What's the most exciting stuff in sports? Teams struggling against each other for the win.
What could be more exciting than watching people struggle to win while blowing each other up?
Quote:
"If we are killing people in Iraq using pilotless planes controlled from well defended air bases in Nevada, aren't we legitimizing attacks against the US on its oil soil?"
I think that question was answered on 9/11 at the Pentagon. The attacks on our soil have already occurred. The means of fighting this fight are all fair on our side. We follow the rules and customs of War. It matters not if the trigger-puller is 1 foot or 12,000 miles from the target. Lawful justification for the pulling of the trigger is what matters.
It will be interesting to see what happens if we ever have to fight an adversary with enough technological capability to give us a run for the money in electronic warfare and jam all these wonderful gadgets.
The wonders of the Mark I eyeball may return.