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"the weapon system used in question was a human-piloted, human-manned AC-130 gunship" True, read the Ars article: "The BMC crew is responsible for steering the
by bootload 11y ago
"the weapon system used in question was a human-piloted, human-manned AC-130 gunship"
True, read the Ars article: "The BMC crew is responsible for steering the aircraft to targets, identifying them, and shooting them; the aircraft's battery is slaved to the sensor suite for targeting." - Aircrew, well trained, professional. As ethical as you can get.
Now what happened is "A US special operations team on the ground, given coordinates of the Afghani NDS building by the Afghan forces they were working with, passed them to the AC-130. But when the AC-130 crew punched the grid coordinates into their targeting system, it aimed at an open field 300 meters away from the actual target. Working from a rough description of the building provided from the ground, the sensor operators found a building close to the field that they believed was the target. Tragically, it was actually the hospital."
Will adding AI to this situation make any improvement when the real issue is ' lack of a "common operating picture,"'?
- sailfast 11y agoNo, you're right. The only thing that may have happened was lack of connectivity to COP and no person in the loop to authorize, resulting in a stand-down of operation and no ordnance on target. Great if it's a hospital, not so great if it's actually a bunch of enemy that you need to remove to save your soldiers on the ground. Tough, tough thing to get right all the time. I think a measured, hybrid approach will probably get you the best outcome but I'm no expert in this field.
- bootload 11y agojust gets muddier and muddier ~ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/11/months-after-the-airstrike-on-msfs-hospital-in-kunduz-what-exactly-happened-is-still-unclear/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/11...
- sailfast 11y agoTotal aside, but the United States should really promote some sort of beacon / FLIR-readable indicator for hospitals. Their existence would have to be kept a quiet so there weren't a bunch of false positives floating around, but I would think the cost is minimal for the returned value.