DailyDirt: Crazy Weapons...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Tue, Dec 27th 2011 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Military technology is improving in a lot of ways. Armies all of over the world are constructing better robots and bombs. Considering the pace of progress for these weapons, we might need another pass at international treaties for using them. Here are a few links discussing some newer weapons of warfare.

The ethics of using robots for military operations is getting some attention. Usually, military robots have been assigned to dull, dirty or dangerous jobs -- but now they're being assigned to dispassionate tasks... (aka Terminator-like killing) [url]
A hypersonic vehicle could hit a target anywhere on the planet in under an hour. The aerodynamics of hypersonic flight is being studied with real rockets flying through the atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour. [url]
US Air Force pilots who control drones are burning out at a concerning rate. Almost 30% of these pilots are showing signs of "clinical distress" as drone patrols increased from 10-15 missions at any given time in 2007 to over 60 now. [url]
To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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Filed Under: drones, hypersonic vehicles, pilots, robots, rockets, weapons
Companies: usaf

7 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2011 @ 6:16pm

why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?
hey, so... uh, like.. if intercontinental missiles are to be avoided for conventional warheads b/c they could be mistaken for nuclear arms... why can't hypersonic missiles carry nuclear warheads and pose a really scary nuclear threat?
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- Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2011 @ 6:42pm
  
  Re: why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?
  I'm assuming any country capable of launching a nuclear assault on the U.S can already tell if its a plane or nuclear warhead being launched at them.
  
  So basically... "Nuclear Launch detected!"
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  - Michael Ho (profile), 27 Dec 2011 @ 6:59pm
    
    Re: Re: why don't hypersonic vehicles set off nuclear war alarms?
    I'd guess that ICBMs are just assumed to be nuclear-armed b/c that's what the nations who have them say ICBMS are capable of... but hypersonic vehicles aren't so common, so if you're going to develop a whole new launch vehicle -- might as well say that you're developing it for non-nuclear capabilities first, so that you don't violate international treaties? (And if no one calls out the fact that hypersonic vehicles *can* be fitted with nuclear warheads, then you've got a loophole in nuclear arms agreements! yay?!?)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Dec 2011 @ 10:32pm

how about stealth hypersonic weapons
never see em coming
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- Michael Ho (profile), 28 Dec 2011 @ 12:17am
  
  Re: how about stealth hypersonic weapons
  It'd be pretty hard to mask the sonic boom, methinks. The speed alone is probably enough to guarantee the element of surprise.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Dec 2011 @ 4:57am

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-new-age-prosthetic-technique-enables-mice.html

http://www.p opsci.com/science/article/2011-11/awesome-now-what-human-laser

Getting closer to frigging shark with lasers in their eyes :)
I like how eye prosthetics needs to take into account the brain code for electrical signals, someday soldiers and law enforcement may have implanted WiFi transmitters that tap into the optic nerve to relay images of everything they see while on duty.

Which reminds me of another question that will come up soon everywhere, since tech is allowing us to break barriers and do things that were not possible before we will need to find ways to limit what can be done and humans are bad at balancing things out or where those limits should be.
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Jeffrey Nonken (profile), 28 Dec 2011 @ 10:29am

Wait. Where are the shark-mounted lasers?
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