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Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

breakingdefense.com

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Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#341

Post by qarl »

justrealist wrote: post #303
qarl wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much, yes. Personally I don't mind the idea of sucking on the government teat - seems pretty reasonable. But when you're a libertarian doing it - I just have to laugh. Ditto Tesla. It's not a coincidence that all these guys are suffering the same hypocrisy.

Defense/military is one of the few government functions that libertarians endorse as totally necessary. To many, it's the only legitimate government function. I don't think you've thought about this very hard.

Ah then - so in your mind it's only Elon who's the hypocrite?

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#342

Post by Log_out_ »

sandos wrote: post #226
chasd00 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t these drones regular cots drones with some modification? Wouldn’t taking the door off a microwave and pointing it at the drone cause it to fall to the ground? Surely it’s more complex than that and I’m missing something.

Obviously Russia is already doing massive amounts of radio interference, that has always been a problem, which Ukraine has partly overcome. Partly. Googling for it you can see that it is massively diminishing the usefulness of drones for Ukraine.

Jammer hunting drones already exist. In fact that was the idea behind the Shaheed predecessors in the first place. Set a course, then home in on strong em devices.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#343

Post by Log_out_ »

dgroshev wrote: post #302
v8xi wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the advancements against EW is having on-device mapping systems (this goes back to the Tomahawk in the 70s) so that the projectile can adjust its flight in the absence of GPS. This is what one of the real advances of AI promises to be - a vehicle that can identify and change targets fully autonomously. Will especially apply to unmanned underwater vehicles which (as far as I know) haven't been deployed but will…

We had pretty smart weapon systems for a while now! P-700 Granit and Brimstone missiles were doing cooperative engagement and target selection for decades. BONUS rounds fit target recognition into small pucks. If we squint just a bit, many naval mines, especially something like CAPTOR, are "vehicles that can identify and change targets fully autonomously". AI is not the limiting factor as much as sensors, energy, dat…

Cost goes down rapidly if you can reuse cellphones for targeting.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#344

Post by Balgair »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #294

Reading the comments here is giving me the disturbing realization that the war in Ukraine is extremely valuable to the US because the US gets to collect immense amounts of data to inform perspectives on how modern technology is revolutionizing warfare with minimal risk to American troops. And that's with technology in the hands of an extremely motivated ally against one of our top rivals. This opportunity doesn't com…

It was always going to be a terrible tragedy with Ukraine. Vlad committed something much worse than a crime, he committed a mistake (to paraphrase Talleyrand).

NATO+ countries aren't fighting him, they are using Ukraine as a proxy, while Vlad is fighting with his own army. NATO has been waiting nearly 80 years to attack Russia directly. They very motivated to make sure that Vlad continues making errors. As such, the longer this war takes, the better for NATO. And, unfortunately, the worse for Ukraine.

I think data collection is for sure one aspect, but I think Russian casualties is the largest motivator

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#345

Post by dehugger »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #242
abenga wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would hope all hiccups are worked out by the time the systems go into production.

This was a demo of a “production ready” system lol.

That is information you probably should have included in your original comment.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#346

Post by Balgair »

gcanyon wrote: post #137

I'm hearing that dogfighting is a thing of the past because weapons systems operate at large distances anymore. Drones should do (at least?) three things well: dog fight, since they can make decisions in an instant and tolerate higher g-forces than a human can; prevent a human death if they get shot down; and be smaller/lighter/carry more/have greater range because they're not designed around carrying a pilot. Any id…

I hate to be the downer here, but we said the exact same thing with the F4. And then the F4 got hosed over Vietnam. So we went back to having a gun onboard.

Things are appreciably different this time, yes. But how different, and how that will shake out in the fog of war, the friction [0], is another thing to be seen.

All I guess I'm saying is that caution is warranted before we declare the dog fight dead, again.

[0] Clausewitz, drink!

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#347

Post by hollerith »

Balgair wrote: post #346
gcanyon wrote: post #137

I'm hearing that dogfighting is a thing of the past because weapons systems operate at large distances anymore. Drones should do (at least?) three things well: dog fight, since they can make decisions in an instant and tolerate higher g-forces than a human can; prevent a human death if they get shot down; and be smaller/lighter/carry more/have greater range because they're not designed around carrying a pilot. Any id…

I hate to be the downer here, but we said the exact same thing with the F4. And then the F4 got hosed over Vietnam. So we went back to having a gun onboard. Things are appreciably different this time, yes. But how different, and how that will shake out in the fog of war, the friction [0], is another thing to be seen. All I guess I'm saying is that caution is warranted before we declare the dog fight dead, again. [0]…

The VTOL and the Navy versions of the F-35 lack a gun.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#348

Post by relaxing »

ethbr1 wrote: post #166
relaxing wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems misleading. The DOD was the reason inasmuch as the budget to pay contractors was slashed, and the alternative was letting the smaller companies go out of business and losing the knowledge and manufacturing capabilities altogether.

Post-USSR, the DoD literally met with defense companies and told them that (a) there was going to be less money so (b) they needed to consolidate to survive. It was pretty explicit. That said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Everyone forgets that system complexity increases generation by generation: an F-35 is not an F-111 is not an F-86 is not a P-51. The unconsolidated, smaller defense companies of yore…

That’s what I’m saying. But without the added nuance it sounds like the DoD wanted a duopoly of companies capable of building a 5G fighter.

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#349

Post by justrealist »

qarl wrote: post #341
justrealist wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Defense/military is one of the few government functions that libertarians endorse as totally necessary. To many, it's the only legitimate government function. I don't think you've thought about this very hard.

Ah then - so in your mind it's only Elon who's the hypocrite?

What specifically do you think Elon has said which is hypocritical?

Re: Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to develop unmanned fighter jets

#350

Post by dash2 »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #247
dash2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Generally the people critical of the US are trying to improve it, not saying “we should be more like Russia” If nobody stands up for our rights and freedoms at home they could easily be eroded, or lost entirely.

Sure, I'm fine with that. What I object to is people using the US's flaws or past mistakes as a reason for isolationism or surrender to far worse actors.
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