Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt Is Working on a Secret Military Drone Project

Post by rainworld » Tue, Jan 09, 2024, 10:02 PM UTC

PoignardAzur wrote: post #7

paganel wrote: post #4

He was heavily mentioning drones in the Foreign Affairs piece [1] he wrote in the spring of 2023: "Innovation Power - Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics" > Drones offer distinct advantages over traditional weapons: they are smaller and cheaper, offer unmatched surveillance capabilities, and reduce soldiers’ risk exposure. Marines in urban warfare, for example, could be accompanied by microdrones tha…

There are so many assumptions packed in that post it feels weird to try to unpack them; eg, the implication the "local" Ukrainian equipment would be by default inferior to Russian equipment, which doesn't seem obvious at all to me. But empirically speaking, the idea that Russian equipment will be better than OTAN equipment because of their combat experience is pretty bold considering the current domination of OTAN eq…

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 09, 2024, 10:11 PM UTC

petre wrote: post #47

paganel wrote: post #4

He was heavily mentioning drones in the Foreign Affairs piece [1] he wrote in the spring of 2023: "Innovation Power - Why Technology Will Define the Future of Geopolitics" > Drones offer distinct advantages over traditional weapons: they are smaller and cheaper, offer unmatched surveillance capabilities, and reduce soldiers’ risk exposure. Marines in urban warfare, for example, could be accompanied by microdrones tha…

[flagged]

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 » Tue, Jan 09, 2024, 10:18 PM UTC

4gotunameagain wrote: post #36

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #9

I worked for a few years in defense and it was the most meaningful work of my career so far but it is painfully slow and entrenched. There is massive opportunity for innovation. I hope he can move the needle- he was on the Defense Innovation Board a while back so he knows.

I'm curious as to what you found meaningful working for the defence industry ? Genuine question. I am asking because to me it does not seem like "defence" whatsoever.

Post by jandrewrogers » Tue, Jan 09, 2024, 10:20 PM UTC

bbor wrote: post #23

dragonwriter wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My take on this is that lacking direct combat experience everything the Americans (and the West more generally) will come up with in terms of drones will be hugely inferior to whatever the Russians are now building America doesn't lack direct combat experience with drone warfare, on either the side using drones or the side being targeted by drones.

Could you explain? I think we’re having a different discussion than the million dollar predator drones that shot missiles at western Asia from a mile up. And to say that defending against ISIS/Houthi/Etc. drones is in any way similar to the experience Ukraine and Russia are getting seems wrong. But I’m probably misunderstanding? In general I’m not 100% convinced by “they use drones so they’re better with them” but it…

Post by AlbertCory » Tue, Jan 09, 2024, 10:22 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #41

el-dude-arino wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's diddling the CEO of his main investment; Michelle Ritter of Steel Perlot. He's a fucking creep who got lucky and was in the right place at the right time, just like most tech oligarchs we all bow to, like Musk, Larry and Sergey, Zuckerberg, or Dorsey. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjeans/2023/10/23/eric-schm...

Schmidt was the CEO of Novell which was a well known company at the time. And Google was a pretty unsafe bet. It's easy to say in hindsight that these people were lucky but at the time most of the founders you list made bets that were pretty unorthodox.