Unmanned Systems War???

[ArmyRick]

If you go to http://www.army.mil/fcs/ and look at the whole slew of unmanned systems they want to implement. Several types of UAV and UGV, Missile launchers, etc. Cool stuff.

It makes me wonder what war will look like when I am 50 or 60 (I am 32 now).

Will it be a few Command vehicles (with humans) on the battle field with unmanned armored vehicles, aircraft and naval vehicles duking it out?

Thoughts? ideas?

 

[ArmyRick]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/fcs.htm has some more usefull FCS info

 

[san]

Consider how training is done now in simulators.  How hard is it for a small tracked robot to send images back to a FOO for indirect fire on a target?  T

 

[a_majoor]

Consider how training is done now in simulators.  How hard is it for a small tracked robot to send images back to a FOO for indirect fire on a target?  T

Actually, damn near impossible. A DARPA competition to have unmanned robot vehicles drive from California to Las Vegas (@ 200 miles) saw many competitors, some with multi-million dollar machines. Not one got farther than about 7 miles down the road without crashing (in either sense of the word).

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Mar/gee20040309024190.htm
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/techwed_darpa_040225.html

 

[Cpl.Banks]

This stuff is far out, I mean i heard things were changing but hoo ha! I agree with Majoor this is gonna take a while and allot of tax payers money. Sure its pretty cool but is it convenient? Say the system crashes during ops or someone (enemy?) hackers into it and changes every thing. Or even so crazy missile owning country  (not naming and names) decides its gonna blow the satelite out of the sky to incapacitate the good-ol US of A. I believe its possible but maybe not in my lifetime... im sixteen now do the math! who even knows if the Us will still be the mega power sixty seventy years from now? Anyways all this to say why not just blow the wad and build the Enterprise...no not the U.S.S Enterprise...you know what I'm talking about...end rant, beam me up scotty!
UBIQUE!!!!

 

[Scoobie Newbie]

The was a thing on the news were they have autonomous UAV's that will execute their mission without human interference.  My question is how are these able to tell friend from foe esp allies?

 

[san]

Actually, damn near impossible. A DARPA competition to have unmanned robot vehicles drive from California to Las Vegas (@ 200 miles) saw many competitors, some with multi-million dollar machines. Not one got farther than about 7 miles down the road without crashing (in either sense of the word).

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Mar/gee20040309024190.htm
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/techwed_darpa_040225.html

While on the other hand, they sent unmanned vehicles to MARS.  The unfortunate part about me example is the significant delays in between transmissions.  As with most things, comes down to how much they want to spend.

 

[Pieman]

As with most things, comes down to how much they want to spend.

Pretty much. Keep in mind, this is the infantsy stage of this kind of technology. But, there are a great deal of applications aside from military for autonomous vehicles. The agricultural industry springs to mind, and there is a lot of money going into this kind of research.   I am quite confident this kind of technology will develop and grow over the next decade or so. It will get to the level where military applications become a reality in due time.

 

[48Highlander]

Actually, damn near impossible. A DARPA competition to have unmanned robot vehicles drive from California to Las Vegas (@ 200 miles) saw many competitors, some with multi-million dollar machines. Not one got farther than about 7 miles down the road without crashing (in either sense of the word).

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2004Mar/gee20040309024190.htm
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/techwed_darpa_040225.html

You're confusing unmanned vehicles with AI controlled vehicles.  These competitions were for vehicles which would employ cameras, sensors, and sophisticated programs to plot their own route and control themselves.  What was being talked about originaly was robotic vehicles capable of performing simple tasks on their own, but still managed by a human operator.  Big difference.  Although in 10-20 years it won't be nearly as big.  By then proccessor speed and AI programs should be more than advanced enough to control a vehicle in a simple race.