Robotic Death from Above

[Meeker Morgan]

http://www.techcentralstation.com/033105B.html

The handwriting was on the wall -- or in the sky as it were -- when an unmanned Predator aircraft destroyed a Taliban target in late 2001 with a Hellfire missile. We're now ushering in an era of fighter-bombers that will strike targets with deadly efficiency while putting no American pilots in harm's way.

Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) will make today's piloted planes seem like flying bricks by comparison, with advantages too long to list here. For starters though, no pilot means a lighter, smaller, and cheaper aircraft. Large canopies, pilot displays, and environmental control systems will disappear.

"The UCAV offers new design freedoms that can be exploited to produce a smaller, simpler aircraft, about half the size of a conventional fighter aircraft," according to the Federation of American Scientists. ...

[Wright Patman]

'Top Gun'

will produce no sequels since humans will no longer be needed.

"Top Drone"?

[acmejack]

1. w/o the limitations imposed by a human pilot

Much higher G forces can be tolerated when disencumbered of a real persons G tolerance

[libhill]

2. Not good -

This will only encourage the Bushco war mongers, because by minimizing the risk of casualties, they'll be more willing to strike at other targerts - like Iran.

[pretzel4gore]

3. cowards die a thousand deaths....

military science is advanced enough that robots really aren't necessary...more likely a contract grab by greedy lil pinpricks with huge appetites (naturally crushed by their bs religion) and self hate hidden in big fukking ideas....when you think of it, what really do nuclear bombs add to a fighter's arsenal? the answer is nuclear bombs give pinpricks power to destroy vast swaths of people, w/out the hassle of time/effort armies and navys etc would require....i recall reading that real fighters, away from their base for length of time, prefer the old kalishnikov/ak47 to better quality guns like m-16 or uzi etc....because they were simpler design and field tested....a gun that don't shoot is a stick.....what's really amazing in this world isn't the stunning new machines to destroy/kill, but the timeless gullibility of old fat men

[glitch]

5. timeless gullibility of old fat men

I like the way you write.

[MindPilot]

4. how long before one of these things has a "glitch"

and unloads some ordinance on a civilian nieghborhood near a US base?

[Meeker Morgan]

6. Kicking for the daytime folks. eot