DailyDirt: Weapons In The Sky

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Completely autonomous drones that can decide who or what to strike are still many years away from becoming a reality, but the military has already developed various unmanned aircraft that it's been using primarily for gathering intelligence (rather than for attacking targets). Here are a few more examples of some of the high-tech flying weapons that exist today. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: autonomous, aviation, drones, f-22, lasers, pilots, planes, prototype aircraft, weapons


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2013 @ 5:18pm

    France..

    The French are going to buy drones from the US or Israel to "modernize" their airborne capabilities....

    There must be other countries making drones now....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2013 @ 5:26pm

    Out of Sight, Out of Mind

    Interactive Pakistan Murders Using Drones: http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2013 @ 6:53pm

    F-22

    The reason it takes 5 years to figure out is that the issue was the life support vest itself and not the aircraft. Does the life support vest being used support the turn on a at dime Mach speed handling the F22 is capable of?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Baldaur Regis (profile), 21 May 2013 @ 8:55pm

    Cost prohibitive and impractical, the Airborne Laser would likely have cost $92,000/hour to fly if it had worked.
    Pfft. $92,000 is what, three toilet seats?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Wally (profile), 21 May 2013 @ 9:52pm

    Re:

    How about the cost of the vats full of chemicals used to create the laser...all 500 gallons of it...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Pixelation, 21 May 2013 @ 10:32pm

    Why put a laser on a 747 when we have so many perfectly good sharks?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    JackOfShadows (profile), 22 May 2013 @ 12:34am

    Actually...

    The US Navy's UCAS X-47D also successfully accomplished a touch-and-go on the USS George H. W. Bush . I have no word on whether it did the T&G on its own or used the carriers built-in ACLS (Automated Carrier Landing System. [ACLS automagically lands the plane but pilots, being control freaks, loathe it.] Standing-room only, aircraft on deck, both of which were surprising. Usually we don't allow audiences, then again, seems like it's doing extremely well.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 May 2013 @ 6:37am

    Re:

    According to federal agencies that track such things, it is about 1/2 the cost per hour associated with AF One, POTUS' puddle-jumper.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 May 2013 @ 8:44am

    Re: Actually...

    X-47 only has its own control, as directed by an operator. Landings (and T&G's) are completely automatic, controlled by the onboard computer.

    I can also understand why Naval Aviators are hesitant to use the automated system. I personally think that the one who tested the auto-landing system for the UCAS-D has balls of steel to ride an F-18 onto the deck with his hands off the stick.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.