The Drudge Report points this morning to an article on the MQ-9 “Reaper.”
The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It’s outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles.
The Reaper is loaded, but there’s no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada.
…
The Reaper’s first combat deployment is expected in Afghanistan, and senior Air Force officers estimate it will land in Iraq sometime between this fall and next spring. They look forward to it.
“With more Reapers, I could send manned airplanes home,” North said.
The Reaper can fly twice as fast and twice as high as the Predator. Instead of two missles, it can carry 14 air-to-ground weapons or two 500 pound bombs.
The infantry love these things. Predators provide real-time video of the operational area. Reapers will do that plus provide significant “kinetic” air support. Imagine the destructive potential of a single sniper with a laser, backed by a Reaper.
Phil recently pointed to an article on the development of autonomous TASER-equipped robots for security duty. Phil commented that this was “how the Cylons got their start.” I agree that using autonomous robots for violence is a bad idea. If accepted it would set a dangerous precedent. The famous man-trap case of Katko v. Briney, stated “the law has always placed a higher value upon human safety than upon mere rights of property.” That case involved the use of a lethal spring-gun, but the issues are similar.
I’m much less troubled by UAV’s. These units are not autonomous – they are controlled by humans. Since the pilot’s actions take place in a secure facility, the opportunity exists for greater oversight. Everything that the pilot does is recorded and his commanding officer could be standing right next to him. Under those circumstances, there’s not much chance for a pilot to go rogue.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see where this technology is going. UAV’s could end up looking like F-22′s and our infantry could look like this:
Or even this:
For argument’s sake let’s say that we avoid the risk of Terminator/Cylon overthrow because these units are always controlled by humans – is this a good or bad development?