Showing all posts tagged: military
Nowadays, nearly one in three American military aircraft is a drone, according to a congressional report, a 40-fold increase in the drone army from just a few years ago. From tiny man-portable flying wings to behemoth strike planes, unmanned aircraft now make up 31 percent of the military’s air power.
The vast majority of these are dronelets that can be used to conduct surveillance but could barely carry cargo, let alone humans. But it’s impressive to note that nearly a third of warplanes are robots, especially considering that in 2005, the number was just 5 percent. Danger Room obtained a Congressional Research Service report detailing the Pentagon’s drone habit, which you can read in its entirety here.
» via Popular Science
In the not too distant future, the asymmetric nature of post-modern warfare will sing into the postfuturist realm:
- advanced economies will increasingly depend on drone aircraft and ‘trones’ — drone tanks. By 2020, 80% of all war vehicles (including supply vehicles) will be drone operated. This will also be hastened by the ability of future drone to operate as flocks: drone operators will control a group of, say, 20 drones, collectively,a nd the drones will use simple use for flocking to a/ stay close together and b/ avoid collisions.
- Insurgents will increasingly counter the drones with cheap and simple techniques, like jamming, small explosives, and other low-tech counter-measures.
