[Second Amendment First]

The X-47B drone, above, marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone’s ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.

(Chad Slattery, Northrop Grumman / January 25, 2012)

[tet68]

Skynet first became active when?

[King Moonracer]

An accident waiting to happen. Either to strike fear into Americans when it goes haywire domestically, or as an excuse to further de-ball America when it goes haywire overseas. The UN idiots will have a field day.

[bert]

Noel Sharkey drivel, complete balderdash.

Robots as weapons are the future. Flying robots trump marching robots.

Flying robots coupled to submarine robots will trump all

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Not to be confused with the Boeing XB-47

[ari-freedom]

The entire US military is accountable, not some no-name guy that nobody heard of.

[Moonman62]

This is a load of crap from the LATimes. The drone is using nothing more than autopilot to land. The mission is still controlled by people.

[Hugin]

Correspondent: General, we’re told of wonder weapons the Germans were working on: Long-range rockets, push-button bombing weapons that don’t need soldiers. What’s your take on that?

Patton: Wonder weapons? My God, I don’t see the wonder in them. Killing without heroics. Nothing is glorified, nothing is reaffirmed. No heroes, no cowards, no troops. No generals. Only those that are left alive and those that are left... dead.

[cuban leaf]

That photo is a hoax. Here is a certified authentic photo I got:

[Hot Tabasco]

An RC hobbyist’s dream come true.......

[stuartcr]

The skipper is accountable.

[NonValueAdded]

Who is building it, Luckup? "Just a little touch-up ..." :)

[Vroomfondel]

SONOBUOY PING!

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

[PapaBear3625]

We've had autonomous delivery of explosive packages ever since we've had long-range missiles.

This is just a cruise missile that returns to base after dropping its warhead.

[Little Ray]

Its pretty obvious to those of us not interested in legal drama.

The “responsibility trail” is the same as for launching a guided missile, probably most similar to a that of a cruise missile. The only difference is that the X-47B is supposed to return.

[Carry_Okie]

A robot will not refuse an unlawful or mistaken order.

[gura]

I hope we build thousands of these so that in a future potential conflict we can throw dozens into every “blue” kill box available. “Purple” kill boxes we save for manned planes because of potential fratricide issues.

Look how small it is. How many can a big CVN carry? 50? 60?

At sea 40 of these tossing 8 SDB’s a piece at you would mess up your fleet in a big way.

[TexasRepublic]

We could place bets how long it will be until the Iranians or Chinese get hold of one of these.

[Rappini]

I just hope that the Iranians don’t get it. You would think we would have learned how to preclude an intercept.

[af_vet_rr]

"The deployment of such systems would reflect … a major qualitative change in the conduct of hostilities," committee President Jakob Kellenberger said at a recent conference. "The capacity to discriminate, as required by [international humanitarian law], will depend entirely on the quality and variety of sensors and programming employed within the system."

The "dumb" bombs we dropped in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc. didn't "discriminate" so what's the issue? Sounds like a bunch of folks that just want to attack the military any way they can.