Drone launch breaks barrier

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Drone launch breaks barrier
By Brock Vergakis
Associated Press Wednesday May 15, 2013 6:05 AM

ABOARD THE USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH — A drone the size of a fighter jet took off from the deck of an American aircraft carrier for the first time yesterday in a test flight that could eventually open the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft from just about any place in the world.  

The X-47B is the first drone designed to take off and land on a carrier, meaning the U.S. military would not need permission from other countries to use their bases.

“As our access to overseas ports, forward operating locations and airspace is diminished around the world, the value of the aircraft carrier and the air wing becomes more and more important,” Rear Adm. Ted Branch, commander of Naval Air Forces Atlantic, said after the test flight off the Virginia coast. “So today is history.”

The move to expand the capabilities of the nation’s drones comes amid growing concern over the legality of America’s program, which has used drones to conduct surveillance and carry out lethal missile attacks against terror suspects in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.


Read more: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2013/05/15/drone-launch-breaks-barrier.html

[GeorgeGist]

1. Evil

[lunatica]

2. It's fucking amazing how the war mentality advances technology

Imagine if they used all those billions to advance medicine or just people in need.

[Judi Lynn]

5. If only. You can't get there from here, apparently.

It would transform everything.

They would fight to the death to prevent it, no doubt.

In the end, their side will lose, but in the meantime humanity loses.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. "the U.S. military would not need permission"

Hey!!! "No!" means NO!

[formercia]

10. The US still needs permission to fly over foreign airspace.

I remember flying BA over Bulgaria back in the early 80's, looking out the window and seeing a couple of armed MIG-23's tagging along side.
Some Countries are a bit sensitive about foreign aircraft in their airspace, especially if the aircraft is armed.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Do we?

We do it with drones all the time in Iran.

Reasonably sure we don't have permission.

[Blue_Tires]

28. but that's the whole point of the drones

fly it over restricted airspaces, dare the people on the ground to try shooting it down, and even if they do, there are a thousand more coming off the assembly line...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. They can also claim it's killing your forces was natural...

I mean,....just who would be dumb enough to lock on to a robot with hellfires and automatic targeting?

Never mind that it's not REALLY a robot. There's someone flying it by remote. (...and pressing the fire button at your AA batteries and radar,...under orders...)

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Launching from a carrier is one thing. Landing is entirely another...

...unless these new drones are considered expendable.: shrug:

[hack89]

7. The Navy has been using an automated landing system on carriers for at least a decade

while most landings are still manual, they can land F-18s without the pilot touching the controls. The system is called the AN/SPN-46(V)3 Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS).

[William Seger]

9. Aw, that takes all the fun out of it

Navy pilots used to say that the three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good shit, and a night landing on an aircraft carrier is an opportunity to experience all three at once.

[Berlum]

6. Aboard the Poppy-Skull & Boner-Bush aircraft carrier

That tells you something right there...

[bemildred]

8. What could go wrong? nt

[hack89]

12. Not much

I suspect it will be a seamless transition.

[bemildred]

16. Being a software engineer, I do not share your optimism.

Having been through many "seamless transitions" myself, in the cleanup phase.

[hack89]

18. Except there is nothing really ground breaking here.

drone technology is not new. Automated aircraft landing systems for carriers are not new. This is more of an integration issue then anything else.

I am not saying everything will go perfectly but as long as they have a well thought out test and development plan and are given adequate time to work out the bugs, it should be fairly straight forward.

This launch was the culmination of a 3 year test program - this is a fairly mature program.

[bemildred]

22. Hey, good luck. I used to work in defense.

We already have like a brazillion ways to blow shit up anywhere in the world. I mean it doesn't worry me, I just doubt it will revolutionize war like they say, or work flawlessly in the real world, or be cheap enough for a real war of attrition, but go for it.

[hack89]

24. I too have a lot of experience with the military

I agree that it will not revolutionize war - it is a logical incremental step. Of course it will not work flawlessly - no system ever has or will.

[Bosso 63]

11. A whole lot of money is going into drones,

. . . . and the Navy is going to make damn sure it gets it's share of the defense budget.

[hack89]

13. China is the the reason for these drones.

As the Chinese develop more capable defenses, the Navy realized they needed longer range weapons to take down those defense so that the carriers can move closer to the Chinese mainland. The closer to the target the more strikes can be flown per day.

These drones have the long range that allows them to be launched out of range of Chinese defenses.

[heaven05]

14. top guns?

no more need. Fighter pilots will be dinosaurs. truly is a huge step in military capability. good luck world.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. Missile technology has made true fighter pilots as they were known in the 70's, obsolete anyway.

No more dogfighting. A human body inside the aircraft can't take the g-forces required to evade anyway.

In a hypothetical shooting war with China, a fighter pilot, and 'anyone on a carrier' is the last person you would want to be.

[heaven05]

34. hey

I take you word for it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. Oh yeah?

Ever see what happens when you take out the control ship?

[heaven05]

33. cute

[graham4anything]

15. Cool! Soon we won't need any ground troops anywhere. No deaths.

[hobbit709]

17. Except for the deaths caused by the drones.

But you don't seem to care about that.

[graham4anything]

19. faux arguement debunked a million times now

the terrorists are what the drones are aimed at. Collateral would be killed by the terrorists
anyhow, therefore instead of killing 10 million, a terrorist and ten collateral would be killed
Saving 9,999,999 lives. (just not the terrorist.)

therefore the argument was indeed debunked.

Wish the US had drones back in the day and FDR sent one out and hit Hitler a week before he loaded up that first train to the gas chambers.
How many tens of millions would have been saved, even if 10 collateral were next to Hitler,
who, either they were the top echelon or they would have been killed by Amon Goeth or someone like him.

So again, fake argument.

(but why people who are against drones want the NRA and guns, I don't know-
more people die/hurt in the US on the streets from guns/bullets in 2 months, every 2 months, then in the total lifetime of guns.

So to be not disingenuous, all those against drones should be for 100% NO guns/bullets
in the hands of private individuals in the USA and only law enforcement whilst on duty.

We can agree on that.

[hobbit709]

20. You just don't give a shit how many people die as long as you are "safe"

another armchair warrior who doesn't care who dies since it never gets up close and personal for you.

And every time there's more "collateral damage" you create more resentment against this country.

[graham4anything]

21. Why are not you for a total ban of guns/bullets by private individ. in USA?

more die/wounded in 2 months than all drones together.

Why protect the NRA?

again, your argument was debunked.
all the collateral would have been killed by the terrorist anyhow in the same time frame,
and the terrorists kill thousands more.

the boogieman is the person who sleeps everynight near a gun/bullet, and in the midst of a bad dream collaterally damages the person in the room.

Your concern about the country should be getting rid of 100% of non-lawenforcement on duty's guns/bullets right here.

drones are like a cold to a gun/bullets cancer

[hobbit709]

23. WTF does THAT have to do with this thread?

Whenever you get challenged on your BS you change the subject instead of staying on topic.

I think you are incapable of giving an honest answer to an honest question and your standard response is to accuse the other poster of being an NRA shill.
I wonder whose shill you are.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. Weapons that are so easy to use, and cost/risk-free... get used.

Risk to our own troops is one restraint on over-use of the military as a 'diplomatic tool'. We are quickly eliminating that restraint.

[DreamGypsy]

31. Yippee!!! Entering the next phase of the Drone Cold War!!

Ah, the fond memories of the 50's and 60's when we and our pals developed SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missiles). Remember how well that worked out?

From Wikipedia:

The first practical design of a submarine-based launch platform was developed by the Germans near the end of World War II involving a launch tube which contained a ballistic missile and was towed behind a submarine. The war ended before it could be tested, but the engineers who had worked on it went on to work for the USA and USSR on their SLBM programs. These and other early SLBM systems required vessels to be surfaced when they fired missiles, but launch systems eventually were adapted to allow underwater launching in the 1950-1960s. The United States made the first successful underwater launch of a Polaris A1 on 20 July 1960.[1] Forty days later, the Soviet Union made its first successful underwater launch of a submarine ballistic missile in the White Sea on 10 September 1960 from the same converted Project 611 (Zulu Class) submarine that first launched the R-11FM (SS-N-1 Scud-A, naval modification of SS-1 Scud) on 16 September 1955.[2][3] However, the Soviet Union was able to beat the U.S. in launching and testing the first armed SLBM, an R-13 that detonated in the Novaya Zemlya Test Range in the Arctic Ocean, doing so on October 20, 1961,[4] just ten days before the gigantic 50 MT Tsar Bomba's detonation in the same general area.
French M45 SLBM and M51 SLBM

Ballistic missile submarines have been of great strategic importance for the USA and Russia and other nuclear powers since the start of the Cold War, as they can hide from reconnaissance satellites and fire their nuclear weapons with virtual impunity. This makes them immune to a first strike directed against nuclear forces, allowing each side to maintain the capability to launch a devastating retaliatory strike, even if all land-based missiles have been destroyed. This relieves each side of the necessity to adopt a launch on warning posture, with its grave attendant risk of accidental nuclear war. Additionally, the deployment of highly accurate missiles on ultra-quiet submarines allows an attacker to sneak up close to the enemy coast and launch a missile on a depressed trajectory (a non-optimal ballistic trajectory which trades off reduced throw-weight for a faster and lower path, effectively reducing the time between launch and impact), thus opening the possibility of a decapitation strike.

Sure, drone takeoff from a carrier didn't require much technological advance, but evidently the U.S. Navy thinks it's historical.

Interesting that the Chinese see a great opportunity as well: Report: Chinese Drone 'Swarms' Designed to Attack American Aircraft Carriers from U.S.News & World Report:

According to Easton, who studied more than 100 Chinese-language military technology journals, official government reports and news reports out of Taiwan, the Chinese see drones as a platform to wage war at the "highest level of conflict." Chinese documents suggest that the country's People's Liberation Army "envision[s] attacking U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups with swarms of multi-mission UAVs."

While the American military has mainly used drones for reconnaissance in the Middle East and Northern Africa and precision strikes against small groups of insurgents or terrorists, Chinese reports suggest that they plan to use the drones in the event of a conventional war. While American drones are rarely lost overseas, China envisions attacks "with initial waves of decoy drones" followed by swarms of strike drones that would often be shot down during their mission.

"When the Chinese look at UAVs, they see tremendous capabilities for high-end conflict. We've been using them for low-intensity situations," Easton says. "The Chinese have done an overwhelming number of studies discussing using UAVs as having the capabilities of hitting U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups. That's what they're planning to do."

Oh, well. Guess I'll start storing my beer in the bomb shelter...uh, sorry, drone shelter...again.



(on edit: replaced "are" with "and&quot

[A Simple Game]

32. This can't possibly go wrong, giving cowards even larger doses of courage. n/t

[polly7]

35. K&R nt.