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U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

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Re: U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

#15
The message of "Slaughterbots" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA) seems both more prescient and more urgent than ever given this news. Our continued reckless development and deployment of autonomous weaponry without thought to the consequences is deplorable, and its consequences could be staggering.

Re: U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Tomahawk cruise missile can also loiter over the target area. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile)

Presumably you can abort mission with a drone and have it return home. Not sure you can do that with a cruise missile.

the IAI Harop is a missile that can loiter, and if no target is found can Return to Base.[0]

Although, admittedly, the lines between 'drone' and 'missile' have begun to blur.

[0] : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAI_Harop

Re: U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

#18
As I understand it, my grandfather helped to develop a suicide drone that got to its target area at hypersonic speed in the late 1950s. For the Pentagon. It was called the Minuteman ICBM, and it entered service in 1962.

Is it possible to get a less misleading title on this article than "Pentagon Has Tested A Suicide Drone That Gets To Its Target Area At Hypersonic Speed"?

Re: U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

#19
Current cruise missiles are optimised for long range but not for final target accuracy, they actually use onboard offline terrain data to cruise to their target. Accuracy of 99% is considered bad as it might mean collateral damage. Also final target is predefined and aborting or changing target is non-trivial.

With these so called "suicide drones", human operators can actions based on current situation, like, pinpoint the target based on realtime images, that actually means limiting collateral damage because of machine errors. which also gives them ability to abort if situations have changed substantially.

Re: U.S. Army Vintage Racer Concept Suggests Hypersonic Entry For Loitering UAS

#20
post #18

As I understand it, my grandfather helped to develop a suicide drone that got to its target area at hypersonic speed in the late 1950s. For the Pentagon. It was called the Minuteman ICBM, and it entered service in 1962. Is it possible to get a less misleading title on this article than "Pentagon Has Tested A Suicide Drone That Gets To Its Target Area At Hypersonic Speed"?

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