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.
“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.”
That’s not really correct. The distinction being made is that current drones like the Predator and Reaper have a “man in the loop” for weapon use. The X47-B will be pre-programmed with a mission, and will have no human involvement between the “launch” command and recovery.
That is, of course, absolutely no different than a Tomahawk cruise missile, which have been around for decades, as long as a static target is being struck. If (and I have no knowledge of this one way or the other) the X47-B has a capability of, say, “interdict all vehicles in an area”, then the drone would be making life or death decisions on its own.
I agree, though, that the responsibility would lie squarely with the military organization that planned the mission. It had better understand the technology well.