241–250 of 439 posts
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A startup founder lying to get juicy government contracts? Say it ain't so!
I dunno, this was pretty impressive and real, maybe OP knows better and it is a ruse. https://twitter.com/anduriltech/status/1730451908794720388/v...
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There's definitely more than one problem with defense procurement, one of the biggest problems is simply having straightforward, acheivable goals in the first place and not fucking with them halfway through the process. And honestly at this point the Air Force is handling this much better than the other branches. Despite all the delays and cost overruns on the F-22 and F-35 projects, at least we ended up with really…
"Starve before doing business with the damned Navy. They don't know what the hell they want and will drive you up a wall before they break either your heart or a more exposed part of your anatomy." — Kelly Johnson Shocking that this quote still rings true a half-century later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Johnson_(engineer)#Kelly...
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Not to mention an unscheduled demo. How often do software engineers have a reliably working local state of a repository that they could just start up and demo whenever someone walks by their desk?
Makes sense. The Chinese government will never launch an unscheduled attack. It’s always on my calendar.
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> The net change in manning between an "autonomous" drone and an oldschool drone driven by a pilot in a trailer is minimal. Well the whole point is not to reduce headcount totally but reduce the amount of people put directly in harms way, for example a pilot flying in a direct combat scenario.
An "unmanned" drone still has a pilot. That pilot is on the ground, flying the drone remotely. An "autonomous" drone is one that has no pilot anywhere. In neither case is anyone in harm's way.
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Innovation has not been in defense engineering lately because the US has lost A LOT of public trust when it comes to the defense industry in the wake of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The US is not the country, nor do they have the reputation in front of the public that led to the Manhattan project, where the greatest minds would willingly work on defense projects, not just willingly but eagerly. The breakthroughs a…
I think you’re probably right, and to those who share that anti-US government sentiment here, I’d like to say: “wake up”! If you think the US is bad, wait till you try Russia or China. I have three refugees in my house. They may never now return home.
If nobody stands up for our rights and freedoms at home they could easily be eroded, or lost entirely.
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>> never heard anyone mentioned salary saved ever When it comes to fighter pilots, salary is irrelevant. The few pennies paid in salary is absolutely nothing compared to the millions of dollars a year it takes to train and maintain an active combat pilot. Those costs are at the center of nearly every discussion re military drone tech. An autonomous pilot, a computer program, doesn't need check rides. It doesn't need…
You’re not responding to my question. You’re listing reasons the elimination of the job valuable, which partially undermines your original comment (because some of these reasons do not apply to drone pilots) but does not answer why you think other people consider the eliminated job to be the key benefit. Like is any of this mentioned in the article or this comment section? Or are you just complaining about bad argume…
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Your timeframe is a bit off. Piston powered aircraft were not in use in the US military 30 years ago. 30 years ago was 1994. We had B2 bombers, and the F22 was in full development. Also Boeing was developing the F-32 (which lost out to the F-35) in the mid 90's, so it's conceivable that an engineer on that program might still be around in some role.
As a minor point of no real consequence the Cessna T-41 Mescalero has been in service in the US airforce and army from 1964 until today, and I've been told the Diamond DA20 Katana is in indirect service via a through a civilian contract that screens prospective pilots. Weird nitpick, I know. There's also a slew of drones that may or may not use efficient small piston engines or rotary varients which may or may not co…