I have seen little real forward thinking expressed about drone technology in the press. Instead we get odd press releases when it has become impossible to hide a systems existence. Yet there is obvious applications to imagine and we know that they are obvious and we know that they are been built.
The fundamental issue with drones happens to be software. It has never been hardware. Better the next generation of pilots will be working in a control room via a satellite link. That means that real war planes will be free of life support systems and their serious weight. We can do it now and we most certainly are doing it now. Recently China announced a supersonic drone. All they did was preempt the press release.
Now we see swarm software been tested for the first time. The hardware looks pretty mature as well.
The bottom line is that all conventional hardware weapons can be overwhelmed by swarms of airborne weapons in the first rounds of any opening of hostilities. Expect submarines to become drone launch pads soon.
Prototype Navy drones swarm like locusts
The days of enormous, singular UAVs
directly controlled by remote pilots may be coming to an end. Over the
last few years, there's been a lot work towards developing smaller
drones capable of autonomously coordinating
their actions, much like insects do. Now, the Office of Naval Research
(ONR) is taking these lessons and applying them to military uses, such
as its new LOCUST (Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology) program. It
utilizes a rocket tube launcher filled with lightweight, self-guided Coyote UAVs that team up and overwhelm enemy aircraft like honey bees defending their hive.
Using a bunch of smaller, coordinated drones rather than a single
big one offers a number of advantages to the military. For one,
replacing even hundreds of disposable drones is way less expensive than
losing a $16 million MQ-9 Reaper.
Plus, having the drones coordinate among themselves reduces the need
for on-location operators. The LOCUST program will of course still
ultimately be controlled by humans, but they'll perform a supervisory
role rather than actually piloting the UAVs.
The LOCUST program successfully completed a series of initial test
launches last month. Up next: a "2016 ship-based demonstration of 30
rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs," ONR program manager Lee
Mastroianni said in a statement. And over the next decade or so, the ONR
hopes to deeply integrate these highly-autonomous UAV systems like this
into numerous naval platforms -- from small ships and tactical vehicles
to aircraft and even other, bigger drones.
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