US Navy to field full-on robot war-jets as soon as 2018 The US Navy has indicated that it would like to have unmanned, robotic spyplane/bombers operating from its aircraft carriers "in the 2018 timeframe", which suggests that flying kill-robots will soon be in the same league as the most powerful manned combat aircraft. The X-47B makes its first flight. Credit: Northrop Grumman …
Can't. The label has been taken by the British defence system for more than 40 years. The latest incarnation of Skynet is 5x:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_%28satellite%29
Military joss sticks? We used to buy them from civvies. Perhaps things have changed.
Of course all this really is, is an extrapolation of existing tech. Cruise missiles use a pre-loaded mission profile and are completely autonomous once launched (although I'm not suggesting they can't be called off at all before their mission objective is achieved). It is perfectly feasible to equip an aircraft with the same kind of tech, just programmed to launch/drop weapons in a predetermined fashion and then return to base.
As long as the programming doesn't allow for autonomous decision making of course.
Funny you should mention the Terminator. California was the target of THE Terminator in the form of Governor Schwartznegger. Although his autonomy was less than complete as he was under the control of the Republican Party.
It didn't end well for the late, great state of California. Or the Republicans.
"they decide on their own whether or not they've found the right place/thing to blow up."
I've yet to see one decide to return to base.
So I wouldn't go as far as describing them as autonomous 'release' as one launched 'release' is the only outcome.
So just Autonomous guidance. hence just like any heat seeker..
Same problem as all the other drone concepts, you can give it a fixed target, and it will still blow it up even if the school bus is parked in front of the AA battery, where as a human would know better.
If you plan on active radio control, you are assuming the other side can't jam you, or take over your own drones and send them back! (remember the US where the people who where broadcasting predator feeds in the clear!, and the highly secure wikileaks proof confidential network!)
Until we get really smart computer systems, I personally believe your better with a mark 1 human in control.
Ronald Reagan appears to have been an oracle: Vid kids controling aircraft of the future. How is this different than a console game? From the controler's POV, there is no difference.
How tempting will it be in the future to go fling a little 'bang' on some annoying geo-political bother, when there's no risk of bodies coming home in boxes?
Clinton loved to toss about cruise missiles at random, and so does, aparantly, Obama. Bush, at least, was willing to risk body counts, even if he was a jerk.
Grenade, 'cause that's what the future will bring us.
*BTW: The original autonomous killer robot is the auto-mobile torpedo - In their most basic form, they've been killing meat bags since the 1870s. In the 1940s, they gained the ability to seek and terminate their own victims (including, occasionally, the very boat that launched them).
As has been said this is an extension of cruise missile and drone war technology. It is also an extension of the autopilot.
So a good games designer should be able to get this coded for a pilotless Typhoon to intercept mythical intruders within a year and fly home. Then add one year for carrier ops.
Yes, that is possible. The reality is that the contractors would be greedy and the client incompetent. So lets say 2022 for demo, 2032 for service and it would be 2042 for fleet use. So lets not bother.
The plan is for these things to be autonomous. See the video on the "ethical governor" on youtube: h**p://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96oR36im7cY. Note the "insurgents" with their dangerous placards and the "religious building" and the fact that the video is brought to you by the chamber of commerce.
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