Posted on 08/03/2011 6:31:49 PM PDT by Vroomfondel
August 3, 2011: The U.S. Navy recently conducted a successful test of the X-47B UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle) landing software. An F-18D used the software to make a completely automated landing on a carrier. The two pilots in the F-18 did not touch the controls, and were there in case something went wrong with the software. The navy plans to have an X-47B make a carrier landing within two years.
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Now, the U.S. Department of Defense wants the new UAV combat aircraft in service by the end of the decade, some twenty years ahead of a schedule that was planned in the 1990s. The F-35 is expected to cease production in 2034, more than a decade after the first combat UAVs, that can match F-35 performance, enters service.
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Many UAV engineers, and some fighter pilots, believe that combat UAVs could revolutionize air warfare. Combat UAVs can perform maneuvers that a manned aircraft cannot (because there are limits to the g-forces a human body can tolerate.) In theory, software and sensors would make a combat UAV much quicker to sort out a combat situation, and make the right move. For the moment, this aspect of UAV development is officially off the table. But once combat UAVs start operating, and that will be by the end of the decade, there will be much pressure to let combat UAVs rule the skies, in addition to scouting and bombing. The senior Pentagon leadership have seen this future, and believe it is the real one. Many European, and Indian, aviation commanders agree.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
ping
For every technology, there is a counter-technology. Except the human brain...
>>For every technology, there is a counter-technology. Except the human brain...<<
The counter-technologies for that are HuffPo, KOS and DU...
Uh huh. That’s what the Opium War was all about...
They apparently have had this ability for a while but no pilot ever lets the cmoputer do it.
It could be handy if the pilot was badly injured in combat but still made it home.
Saburo Sakai was shot in the eye in a battle over Guadalcanal and somehow made it home even tho he was passing out. Most pilots would never have made it.
Dam shame he should have crashed and died to death
Skynet achieves another milestone.
They have had this capability for a long time, even when I was in back in the Seventies. The pilots hate it, at least that is what I heard. Who can blame them? I suppose if I were going to be involved in a ramp strike, I would rather it be by my own hand than the machinations of a computer...
I would have preferred him crashing too. It would have saved several American pilots lives.
I will say he became friends with several American aces after the war. He was a Navy flier and they seemed to be a little bit more humane than the army, tho that still could have been pretty brutal.
When Obama finish’s cutting funds for the Military, they are going to need planes that can fly without pilots.
Or pilots who can fly without planes.
Perhaps they should rethink that.
Impressive software, China will clone it as soon as they are done cleaning/hiding the nuke fuel spill from their submarine that they cloned.
True that. I was told that the 1s gen. system was too accurate - it put the planes down in exactly the same place every time, to the point where it started damaging the flight deck. So they had to amend it to vary the contact points within a given area, and thereby spread the pounding of the landing planes.
When you can fly an F-18 around and have it deliver ordnance, and then land it safely back on it's carrier base, you have opened the door.
The NEXT generation of aircraft would not be limited to the foibles and imprecision of man.
Imagine supersonic aircraft with 2-3 time the range and 2-3 times the speed of current combat aircraft. Able to deliver the same payload with the same precision as today.
Imagine 16G maneuverability for the big pack leaders that are carrying the big computers and situational awareness equipment.
Then, imagine each of the big ones controlling a dozen little ones carrying a single missile each with the same range, speen but better maneuverability.
All Stealth. Integrated with space based weapons.
We can do this.
When you can fly an F-18 around and have it deliver ordnance, and then land it safely back on it's carrier base, you have opened the door.
The NEXT generation of aircraft would not be limited to the foibles and imprecision of man.
Imagine supersonic aircraft with 2-3 time the range and 2-3 times the speed of current combat aircraft. Able to deliver the same payload with the same precision as today.
Imagine 16G maneuverability for the big pack leaders that are carrying the big computers and situational awareness equipment.
Then, imagine each of the big ones controlling a dozen little ones carrying a single missile each with the same range, speed but better maneuverability.
All Stealth. Integrated with space based weapons.
We can do this. Whaddya mean? We CAN do this? Christ, for the last 10-20 years every pre-adolescent male has BEEN doing this and more for "fun". Have you seen the computer games kids and college kids play these days???
Now, it will just be for real. Or, maybe not. Because our enemies will be doing the same thing-eventually.
And war will be relegated to just another boring predictable game-like a modern day version of Chess.
God help our species...
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