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DARPA Shows Concepts for the Future of VTOL Uncrewed Aerial Systems
- rschiavone 2y agoSomeone at DARPA is a fan of Ann Leckie's novels
- forgot-im-old 2y ago[flagged]
- pbiggar 2y ago[flagged]
- falcor84 2y agoThere's that quote (paraphrasing from memory): War is fought by young people who don't know each other, on behalf of old people who do. I think it would be massive if warfare could be decoupled from sacrificing a nation's youth.
- pbiggar 2y agoIn favor of sacrificing a different nation's youth, right?
- Mockapapella 2y agoBetter than sacrificing both
- pbiggar 2y agoIt's not. If you can sacrifice just one without a cost to the other, than they will. Witness the US leaving Vietnam and what would have happened if US soldiers were not facing a grueling war. Witness other asymmetric wars such as Iraq (500,000 Iraqi civilians killed and only 5,000 US soldiers) or the genocide in Gaza now (50,000-200,000 killed by Israel). If one side has the ability to wage war at no human cost, it will mean massive human cost for civilians, as we constantly see.
- cscurmudgeon 2y agoYour lower estimate for Gaza is higher than UN estimate at 34000. What is happening in Gaza does not meet the definition of genocide. Sheer numbers don’t make a genocide. Intention is key.
- MeImCounting 2y agoNot only that but Israel is keeping the ratio of civilian to combatant casualties well within the acceptable norm for this type of combat. Claims of genocide undermine actual criticisms of israels handling of this whole situation.
- astromaniak 2y ago[flagged]
- dmbche 2y agoFrom the UN march report: "Citing international law, Ms. Albanese explained that genocide is defined as a specific set of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. “Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent: causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group,” she said. Furthermore, “the genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” she continued. " Edit0: Feel free to google "Nakba" and search for yourself as well
- cscurmudgeon 2y agoAlbanese is not the final judge of this though. This has to be argued in an impartial court with facts demonstrating and documenting intent. Albanese’s mere words won’t count as facts. If there is intent why does the IDF warn before strikes?
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoThe point of war is still to hurt the enemy into submission. Nuclear weapons do war without the need for young soldiers, but that doesn't mean no one gets hurt. They just skip the battlefield stage. We're merely replacing nukes with murder drone clouds.
- cjbgkagh 2y agoNukes feel more impersonal and the quick death seems merciful compared to being chased around a tree. But the sheer magnitude of the destruction of nukes still has me preferring murder done clouds to nukes.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y agoI find nukes are preferable because it's possible to have survivors, and their bluntness discourages use. Drones preserve infrastructure and resources; the Nazis would have loved this for their "living space" plans.
- cjbgkagh 2y agoNukes are far bigger now and there are cluster warheads which enable carpet nuking which would not leave survivors. They have dial a yield warheads especially designed to reduce bluntness and enable / encourage tactical use. Then there is neutron bombs that are designed to focus on killing the people and leaving the infrastructure. It used to be presumed that any real conflict would start out with nuclear weapons and for now that is unthinkable. I hope it stays that way but there is no divine reason for it to. Just traditions and norms that are easily swept away. I remember a time, not that long ago, when arming drones with weapons was unthinkable. Then we did it and now it’s being done to us. I worry that the ‘unthinkable’ nature of nukes is being used to push red lines as far as possible. The same way the unthinkable systemic crash of the housing market enabled the very leverage that caused it. The same logic of ‘Russia will not use nukes because they have not yet used nukes’ which elides the fact that there is always a first time. And like weaponized drones, once it starts it’s really hard to stop.
- hero4hire 2y ago[flagged]
- konschubert 2y agoIf we won’t, they will. And then we will, but for them.
- FactKnower69 2y agounironically saying "we cannot allow a mineshaft gap" in 2024
- konschubert 2y agoMy wife is from Kiev. War is real.
- dmbche 2y agoGo read the Al Jazeera article on the Lavender AI! It won't help you sleep though.
- flaminHotSpeedo 2y agoIt's interesting to me how the article mentions the large payload requirement, then the only example of what that payload _could_ be is reconnaissance. I always find it interesting how and when people or groups emphasize or de-emphasize the "death and destruction" aspect of military equipment
- thunderbird120 2y agoReconnaissance is a prominent role but is hardly the only thing that these could be used for. What exactly is possible is going to vary a lot between designs but with the right design you can do electronic warfare, acting as a communications node, submarine hunting with sonobuoys, light strike using small precision munitions, light logistics for when someone needs literally 1 or 2 specific parts right this instant, and many other things.
- xixixao 2y agoAnduril is not on the list, but presumably wants to compete in the space?
- schuyler2d 2y agoIt strikes me that US DARPA has a weird position where the more military advantage can come from concentrated high investments then the US+allies/beneficiaries win. (Ie fewer expensive toys should win against many cheap toys) If Mil technology is too cheap then US advantage is much lower. So part of that is just keeping SOTA moving quickly. But also centrally-deployed tech having outsized longevity (things like satellite deployment or AI or the anti-missile battery-type stuff). For this launching from a larger vessel maybe.
- RecycledEle 2y ago> If Mil technology is too cheap then US advantage is much lower. Very true. I played with submitting grants for DARPA funding in the late 1990's. C4I and Network-Centric Warfare were big things. I predicted (almost) everything I've seen being used in Ukraine. I stopped when I realized they only wanted things that gave them a competitive advantage with a moat. (That's they way we phrase it in 2024, not what I would have said at the time.) They wanted things that were extremely expensive to make that would be impossible of extremely difficult for our adversaries to counter or replicate. My designs for cheap weapons anyone could build with parts from eBay and hobby stores were not anything they wanted anyone building.
- iraqmtpizza 2y ago[dead]
- Quarrel 2y agoI had DARPA funding for my Phd in the 90s. While I knew people getting funding for submarine detection and other similar military specific techs, I was funded for pure networking research. They fund a lot of areas, often very much in the pure science (particularly computer science) end of the spectrum.
- mistrial9 2y agounmanned machines on the land or in the air, that can decide to kill a human, are one of the legitimate existential fears around AI advances right now. source: G7 white robe guy this week
- throe737 2y agoWe already have dogs.
- usrnm 2y agoNot a very good analogy, we spent thousands of years creating dogs that are very unlikely to attack people. Just imagine the world in which all dogs turn into wolves overnight.
- thechao 2y agoI had a buddy in 2004 from the sister lab (doing strong AI), who was acquired by one of the big military contractors to implement "ATAK" (automatic target acquire kill). The task was mostly solved, as far as the US was concerned, as collateral (civilian) damage wasn't considered important for the deployment scenarios. (Think: total war.)
- swagasaurus-rex 2y agoIt’s certainly much easier to build an AI to recognize and eliminate any human vs building an AI that can tell friend from foe
- RecycledEle 2y agoPropeller-driven tail-sitters were ready to be the next generation of military carrier-based aircraft after WW2, but no pilot could safely land them. UAVs do not need pilots to land them; their sensors can point any direction.
- imiric 2y agoIt's interesting to see the US still investing billions in maintaining their military supremacy, while its adversaries have been fighting a much cheaper and more effective warfare of information for decades now. The effects are becoming increasingly apparent in the political and social instability we're seeing in western countries. All the fancy planes and bombs can't save you from your society and government collapsing from the inside out, amid the confusion of not knowing who the real enemy is. The crazy thing is that the US built the perfect weapons (social media) and made them available to its enemies to use as they please, and it still can't figure out ways to stop it.
- throwup238 2y agoAmerican society is not “collapsing.” Compared to the civil rights era, the past few decades have been a blip. What you’re seeing is American society dealing with the fallout of a new gilded age and a minor political realignment - something that has happened before, and will happen again. We’re still spending money on military supremacy because at the end of the day, only boots on the ground can control territory and every one of our adversaries knows it. That’s why they’re using the information warfare tactics to begin with.
- vsnf 2y agoA looming Christofascist dictatorship is not what I’d consider a minor political realignment, but potato potato, I guess
- nurtbo 2y agoWhy focus on these huge planes vs lots of tiny autonomous drones? Drones seem to be the future given Ukraine and Iran fighting…
- Log_out_ 2y agoThe MIC is surprisingly fragile when it comes to longterm stress to the economic system keeping it alive. So important is not how "advanced" a drone is, but how cheap and easy it can be assembled and supplied long after all supply chains collapse. He whos garbage air force circles the wasteland long after all opposition perished we shall crown victor.