Autonomous drones may have attacked humans for the first time ever (1 Viewer)

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Turkey announced last week that by 2024 they will have a fully autonomous F-16. I guess they must have tested this concept recently in Libya and Armenia.

I wonder which neighbouring country comes next and when......hmmmm...
 
Seems to me that every time humanity makes an incremental war technology leap, it loses a piece of its soul. Or maybe it happens the other way around.

I'm an avid amateur photographer, started getting interested in drone photography, the current market (Mavic 3 is a beast for its prosumer optics...beautiful stuff... ), and the next morning saw drone-delivered bombs dropping on Russian boys in foxholes in the newsfeed, with all the horror you might expect in that situation.

But what was more terrifying to me was the cheers and glee expressed, as if that 18-year old caused the war that objectively started when he was 10 years old at the very least.

I started this year going down a deep research rabbit-hole on my Grandfather, who served as an airborne recon photographer from New Guinea all the way to Japan, and what he saw of course haunted the rest of his days. And now here we are, and what has changed? The quality of the optics, the speed, the efficiency. It's the same kind of war really. Some pilots would bomb and strafe civilians for the hell of it, and with gusto, while others would refrain. (source: Wreaking Havoc: A Year in an A-20) It really comes down to the individual.

The number of people welcoming this kind of drone warfare with enthusiasm and mirth disgust me, no sense of karma, no sense of compassion for the "enemy", and what hubris will this darkness bring upon our own soil?

Drone warfare has been going a long time, we see the big ones around here frequently, training I suppose.

Drone bombing is what turned me on the two-faced monster of the US political establishment. Bombing wedding parties, civilian targets. And that wasn't autonomous. What hell have we let loose now?

But my, doesn't that aerial drone video look nice.
 
Seems to me that every time humanity makes an incremental war technology leap, it loses a piece of its soul. Or maybe it happens the other way around.

I'm an avid amateur photographer, started getting interested in drone photography, the current market (Mavic 3 is a beast for its prosumer optics...beautiful stuff... ), and the next morning saw drone-delivered bombs dropping on Russian boys in foxholes in the newsfeed, with all the horror you might expect in that situation.

But what was more terrifying to me was the cheers and glee expressed, as if that 18-year old caused the war that objectively started when he was 10 years old at the very least.

I started this year going down a deep research rabbit-hole on my Grandfather, who served as an airborne recon photographer from New Guinea all the way to Japan, and what he saw of course haunted the rest of his days. And now here we are, and what has changed? The quality of the optics, the speed, the efficiency. It's the same kind of war really. Some pilots would bomb and strafe civilians for the hell of it, and with gusto, while others would refrain. (source: Wreaking Havoc: A Year in an A-20) It really comes down to the individual.

The number of people welcoming this kind of drone warfare with enthusiasm and mirth disgust me, no sense of karma, no sense of compassion for the "enemy", and what hubris will this darkness bring upon our own soil?

Drone warfare has been going a long time, we see the big ones around here frequently, training I suppose.

Drone bombing is what turned me on the two-faced monster of the US political establishment. Bombing wedding parties, civilian targets. And that wasn't autonomous. What hell have we let loose now?

But my, doesn't that aerial drone video look nice.
People forget that just because the drone operator isn't dodging bullets that someone else on the other side of the feed is….. out of sight, out of mind 🙈🙉🙊😈
 
Humans have always used automated weaponry to kill each other when they could, whether in the form of snare-traps, punji pits, explosive booby-traps, landmines, cruise-missiles, cluster-bombs, and now drones.

Set-and-forget has always been a goal in warfare.
 
Even in the age of sword and shield, technology allowed for "stand off" killing by way of bow and arrow, Onager, Ballista or Trebuchet.

Right, and cannons as well by the fourteenth century. Killing is best done at a distance, isn't it?

Stand-off and autonomous killing have long been goals of military technology which really only came to fruition in the late-19th/20th centuries. Even in WWII we see the seeds of modern weaponry -- GLCMs, ALCMs, ballistic missiles, guided bombs, homing torpedoes, jet aircraft, radar guidance, and so on.

Fun fact: the US Navy tried to get a buzz-bomb working in 1917.
 
True. I was surprised to recently learn that some WW2 aircraft had computers onboard for gunnery and bombadiers.

"Greg's Planes and Automobiles", Youtube. Fantastic channel.
Not only computers for gunnery, the Ju87 had an automatic system that engaged to pull the Stuka out of it's dive and level it off at a safe altitude while the pilot recovered from his blackout.
 
True. I was surprised to recently learn that some WW2 aircraft had computers onboard for gunnery and bombadiers.

"Greg's Planes and Automobiles", Youtube. Fantastic channel.

As did many warships, right. Analog computers, not the programmable digital things we all know and curse nowadays, but yes.
 
Seems to me that every time humanity makes an incremental war technology leap, it loses a piece of its soul. Or maybe it happens the other way around.

I'm an avid amateur photographer, started getting interested in drone photography, the current market (Mavic 3 is a beast for its prosumer optics...beautiful stuff... ), and the next morning saw drone-delivered bombs dropping on Russian boys in foxholes in the newsfeed, with all the horror you might expect in that situation.

But what was more terrifying to me was the cheers and glee expressed, as if that 18-year old caused the war that objectively started when he was 10 years old at the very least.

I started this year going down a deep research rabbit-hole on my Grandfather, who served as an airborne recon photographer from New Guinea all the way to Japan, and what he saw of course haunted the rest of his days. And now here we are, and what has changed? The quality of the optics, the speed, the efficiency. It's the same kind of war really. Some pilots would bomb and strafe civilians for the hell of it, and with gusto, while others would refrain. (source: Wreaking Havoc: A Year in an A-20) It really comes down to the individual.

The number of people welcoming this kind of drone warfare with enthusiasm and mirth disgust me, no sense of karma, no sense of compassion for the "enemy", and what hubris will this darkness bring upon our own soil?

Drone warfare has been going a long time, we see the big ones around here frequently, training I suppose.

Drone bombing is what turned me on the two-faced monster of the US political establishment. Bombing wedding parties, civilian targets. And that wasn't autonomous. What hell have we let loose now?

But my, doesn't that aerial drone video look nice.
I've been involved with commercial drones since 2016, aside from the ease of operation, the quality of the cameras are incredible and just keep getting better.

With that said there are a few angles with drones (military an commercial/ consumer) being used in warfare.

"The number of people welcoming this kind of drone warfare with enthusiasm and mirth disgust me, no sense of karma, no sense of compassion for the "enemy", and what hubris will this darkness bring upon our own soil?"

Since the beginning of time, those perpetrating wars have been looking at better ways to kill their enemies and this new technology is no exception. The enthusiasm of this technology may anger you but once engaged in warfare, the purpose is to kill your enemy, compassion comes with a white flag.

Now targeting civilians is a whole different story. I won't go there for the sake of going political, something not tolerated here.

Just for the record, I seen Phantom 3s and 4s turned into grenade droppers just by using a commercially available fishing line kit, I've also seen a few home made devices. Some of the footage seen on the news are from Mavic 2 and 3s - they are spotting targets and getting coordinates back to someone with a big gun.

Just as ghastly as the first Zeppelin raids over London were perceived by the British people, using sUAVs in a combat role is the wave of the future. Good, bad or indifferent it's here to stay.
 
I've been involved with commercial drones since 2016, aside from the ease of operation, the quality of the cameras are incredible and just keep getting better.

With that said there are a few angles with drones (military an commercial/ consumer) being used in warfare.

"The number of people welcoming this kind of drone warfare with enthusiasm and mirth disgust me, no sense of karma, no sense of compassion for the "enemy", and what hubris will this darkness bring upon our own soil?"

Since the beginning of time, those perpetrating wars have been looking at better ways to kill their enemies and this new technology is no exception. The enthusiasm of this technology may disgust you but once engaged in warfare, the purpose is to kill your enemy, compassion comes with a white flag.

Now targeting civilians is a whole different story. I won't go there for the sake of going political, something not tolerated here.

Just for the record, I seen Phantom 3s and 4s turned into grenade droppers just by using a commercially available fishing line kit, I've also seen a few home made devices. Some of the footage seen on the news are from Mavic 2 and 3s - they are spotting targets and getting coordinates back to someone with a big gun.

Just as ghastly as the first Zeppelin raids over London were perceived by the British people, using sUAVs in a combat role is the wave of the future. Good, bad or indifferent it's here to stay.

Bottom line: it's another tool in the kit. Like any tool, it's how you use it. You can use a screwdriver to repair a door-hinge, or stab a person. Drones are no different.

That isn't enthusiasm, it's realism.
 
Not only computers for gunnery, the Ju87 had an automatic system that engaged to pull the Stuka out of it's dive and level it off at a safe altitude while the pilot recovered from his blackout.
Ju87 talk always reminds me of the time 13 Stukas crashed while demonstrating dive bombing techniques to the top brass. Apparently, they weren't made aware of a fog bank directly below the cloud cover they were intending to breakthrough and almost half the planes went into the trees. The flight leader, Captain Stigel(?) was seen to come out of his dive so low that his tail dragged through the grass of the target meadow. Politics aside, it's always a shame to see such lives lost due to human error. I wonder why neither the pilot or gunner was watching the altimeter? It seems they were relying on the anticipated break in the clouds to signal them to pull out, even so many of the Stukas almost made it, having been found pancaked into the ground, for lack of another 30-50' they paid with their lives.
 

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