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US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
31–40 of 52 posts
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#32Its not surprising, having a quadcopter type drone with a video link back to the squad for doing down range recon is a huge force multiplier. The challenge of course is batteries. Soldiers are powered by eating organics, potentially very light weight organics rehydrated with locally available water. They can carry several days worth of rations and be operationally effective for nearly 24/7 of those days. There is no…
There's no safe power source that we know about, but there could be unsafe power sources that we don't know about. Obviously the curiosity rover dispensed with solar panelss.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#33Kind of interesting that there wasn't a head nod to potential attack surfaces opened with using robots in the article or comments here so far. It was the first thing I thought about before reading the article. Makes you wonder especially in the 21st century urban combat where someone on some rooftop out of view (or across the world) could exploit/take over such machines and that force multiplier will starting to not…
I do not think that is a real possibility unless there is a deliberate sabotage or engineering control interface left open. I mean tanks, planes, and drones already contain large amount of "hackable" hardware. Has not happened yet.
How confident are you that it hasn't happened yet? I'm not sure we have had the opportunity to find out if it's happened yet, yet.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not think that is a real possibility unless there is a deliberate sabotage or engineering control interface left open. I mean tanks, planes, and drones already contain large amount of "hackable" hardware. Has not happened yet.
How confident are you that it hasn't happened yet? I'm not sure we have had the opportunity to find out if it's happened yet, yet.
Well only a casual peruse[0][1][2] tells me that I'm confident that it has happened on multiple occasions, has been reported on by media (at least for drones) to some degree, and that we most likely that haven't had the opportunity to see how far down the rabbit hole this can go.
[0]: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=drones+are+hackable
[1]: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/drone-virus-kept-qui...
[2]: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/19/aerial-drones-vulne...
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#35Its not surprising, having a quadcopter type drone with a video link back to the squad for doing down range recon is a huge force multiplier. The challenge of course is batteries. Soldiers are powered by eating organics, potentially very light weight organics rehydrated with locally available water. They can carry several days worth of rations and be operationally effective for nearly 24/7 of those days. There is no…
There's no safe power source that we know about, but there could be unsafe power sources that we don't know about. Obviously the curiosity rover dispensed with solar panelss.
Since when has the military been concerned about safety? They kill for a living and have demonstrated they don't give a shit about the aftermath (depleted uranium, unexploded cluster bomblets, land mines and indiscriminate, lengthy kill lists forging fresh terrorists). Also, previously discarded technologies like thorium are being reconsidered because of advances in nanofabrication. So they claim it won't be like your grandfather's navigation beacon (RTGs) because a much smaller amount of isotope is used to thermally vibrate quartz structures.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#36Its not surprising, having a quadcopter type drone with a video link back to the squad for doing down range recon is a huge force multiplier. The challenge of course is batteries. Soldiers are powered by eating organics, potentially very light weight organics rehydrated with locally available water. They can carry several days worth of rations and be operationally effective for nearly 24/7 of those days. There is no…
Yeah, but this puts us closer than ever to the brink of a nuclear exchange. For the purposes of a thought experiment, consider the false dichotomy of "America" and "NotAmerica" as two hypothetical opposing forces, where America has nukes and killer robots and NotAmerica has only nukes. If you find yourself living in NotAmerica, your motivation to pre-emptively nuke America, simply to avoid the threat of a horrific de…
Nukes were a concern. Having an army of terminators controlled by a handful of people gives them the power to hold a lasting monopoly of violence: power. It also removes potential for disobedience and whistleblowers of organic soldiers. It further makes it more palatable to exterminate the troublemakers and keep the rest in line.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I am sure you know John, nuclear policy is a bit more nuanced than that. It is completely valid that by having a nuclear arsenal that can destroy any nation, a nation does not need to have a standing army that can repel an invasion (after all if you invaded, you're home country would get obliterated). The discussion referenced by Defense News though is policy around the deployment of Squad and Battalion level forc…
The funny thing about policy wonks is that they believe policy, diplomacy and international law are the only way things get resolved, even amidst the state of nature that persists between international actors. The reason stock markets have black swans is because legal transactions can never account for illegal activity. Sure, you can buy replacement insurance against theft, but you cannot actually build theft into an…
Policy, war and business are different arenas for the same game: who gets comfortable and who gets dead.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#38Wow, surprising. Wasn't really expecting the clone wars to happen during my lifetime. ;)
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no safe power source that we know about, but there could be unsafe power sources that we don't know about. Obviously the curiosity rover dispensed with solar panelss.
Since when has the military been concerned about safety? They kill for a living and have demonstrated they don't give a shit about the aftermath (depleted uranium, unexploded cluster bomblets, land mines and indiscriminate, lengthy kill lists forging fresh terrorists). Also, previously discarded technologies like thorium are being reconsidered because of advances in nanofabrication. So they claim it won't be like you…
The job of the military is to kill people and break things in the most efficient manor possible. Everyone seems to forget that of some reason.
Re: US Army Studying Replacing Thousands of Grunts with Robots
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's no safe power source that we know about, but there could be unsafe power sources that we don't know about. Obviously the curiosity rover dispensed with solar panelss.
Since when has the military been concerned about safety? They kill for a living and have demonstrated they don't give a shit about the aftermath (depleted uranium, unexploded cluster bomblets, land mines and indiscriminate, lengthy kill lists forging fresh terrorists). Also, previously discarded technologies like thorium are being reconsidered because of advances in nanofabrication. So they claim it won't be like you…
I meant unsafe power sources that the military has/is working on that the public does not know about because the military keeps its research secret. I don't think anyone is under the impression that the military forgoes research for safety reasons.