$10M For Unmanned Aircraft That Can Perch Like a Bird 176
coondoggie writes "Unmanned aircraft maker AeroVironment got an additional $5.4 million to further develop a diminutive aircraft that can fly into tight spaces undetected, perch and send live surveillance information to its handlers. Last Fall, AeroVironment, got $4.6 million initial funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the Stealthy, Persistent, Perch and Stare Air Vehicle System (SP2S), which is being built on the company's one-pound, 29-inch wingspan battery-powered Wasp unmanned system."
Ummm... (Score:5, Insightful)
at what point does the US military stop looking like a human defense force and start looking looking like alien invaders from a robot planet?
2100 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ummm... (Score:4, Insightful)
at what point does the US military stop looking like a... defense force and start looking looking like... invaders... ?
Surely they still teach history in schools.
Re:How lifelike (Score:5, Insightful)
Sooner or later, we'll want these things to do more than watch and report. Trouble is, ordinary kinetic weapons don't scale down all that well to applications where size and weight are at a real premium(gun small enough to fit in your pocket, sure, gun small enough to fit in a one pound aircraft with reasonable endurance, not so much). The only mechanisms that do scale down are toxins and pathogens, which are what pretty much all dangerous animals of that scale and smaller use.
This is, of course, a problem; because chemical and biological weapons are almost certainly not a road we want to go down(even if you don't see using them as a problem, not disturbing the general norm of not using them is likely a good idea if only for your own sake); but they'll be the only thing that fits onboard, so it'll be that or nothing. I'm not overly confident that we'll choose wisely.
Re:[verb] like a [animal] (Score:1, Insightful)
Please don't exaggerate (Score:2, Insightful)
I was just going to ignore this but then I noticed people modding you up. Sure missiles are expensive but not THAT expensive. I remember reading that a Tomahawk cost about $1M, and it is a very sophisticated missile with inertial and GPS guidance, long distance jet engine, variable geometry airframe and rocket booster. I seriously doubt some missiles cost "over 20 times 10 million". Not even nukes (although they *might* be in the tens of millions).
If you're talking development costs, sure that could be very expensive. But then development costs are not "disposable".
Re:[verb] like a [animal] (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bad idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How lifelike (Score:3, Insightful)
These things fly, right?
While taking out multiple people may be a problem, taking out one person should not be. Fly the drone to the top of its flight ceiling, then transform its potential energy into kinetic energy. Maybe have lightweight wings that break off, increasing its terminal velocity, and put the control surfaces in the tail, so it still has guidance control as it falls.
If you want to take out more people, design the components to break apart into shrapnel with a small explosive charge. The kinetic energy will still be from the PE->KE transformation, the only explosive charge needed will be the charge to seperate the shrapnal. The target area size can be varied by changing the height above the target the charge is detonated at.
Re:Ummm... (Score:4, Insightful)
at what point does the US military stop looking like a human defense force and start looking looking like alien invaderst?
Around the 1840s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_Destiny [wikipedia.org]
Oh please (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the sort of thing that Wyat Cenack (sp?), senior military analyst on The Daily Show, described as RFC projects. "Really F***ing Cool."
Yes, this is all cool and impressive and all, but hang on a second. Why does the US still put so much faith in technology to fix all the world's problems?
I remember reading an article in The Economist years ago about an American-developed mine clearing system. It was a huge, expensively developed, bulldozer. Er, yes, a bulldozer. It had a few bells and whistles and looked like something dropped out of an Imperial Star Destroyer, but trust me, it was just a bulldozer. Well they found that it was less effective than the tried and tested British method of a trained guy with a metal detector and a big stick poking into the ground. I'll let you guess which was cheaper and more effective.
If the British had adopted in Northern Ireland the same tactics that the USA is adopting now in different parts of the world, the troubles in Northern Ireland would still be going strong, we'd have gone as far as full on civil war, and the Brits would be looking to the UN for support because they'd have pissed off so many Irish Republicans that bomb alerts in London would be a daily occurrence.
Air strikes in residential areas? Sending in troops to act as policemen when they can't even speak the local language? What the hell are they thinking? Do they seriously think that the battle for the hearts and minds of muslims is going to be won by UAVs, robotic birds, satellites, tanks, and legions of soldiers occupying other peoples' countries as if their sovereignty counts for nothing? Do they think the reaction will be any different than their own reaction would be if Iranian troops were occupying San Diego, bursting into peoples' homes in search of militants, and calling in air strikes to wedding receptions?
They need to learn a few lessons from the British. An insurgency and a poisonous militant mindset is not defeated by a standing army. It's defeated behind the scenes by the intelligence services, by infiltration, away from the prying eyes of the media and it's done for the purpose of getting the job done, not in public for the purpose of winning votes. The only thing done in public is consistent repudiation of violence as a means of achieving political aims, education about the futility of violence and how it achieves nothing but heartbreak for all involved [youtube.com] (viewer discretion advised), and providing a peaceful political alternative to the physical force method. It's less glamorous and the boys don't get to play with their toys, but it's a lot more effective.