End of The Fighter Jet Era

[MIflyer]

From Air Force Magazine:

"Step aside, fighter jets: Autonomous drones and manned spaceflight are the future of military aerospace, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said at AFA's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 28. Musk, the serial entrepreneur and billionaire whose rockets take Pentagon sensors and satellites to space, believes drone warfare will define future combat while traditional manned fighter jets will fade in importance. Artificial intelligence, he added, has the potential to be the most transformative technology of the near future. "The fighter jet era has passed," he said. At the same time as a human in the cockpit may become less relevant on Earth, the business magnate argues that technological advancements in space will enable a greater role for humans beyond our atmosphere."

So, I guess we are going back to props? Okay! I think A-1's would have been a lot better for Afghanistan, anyway and better equipment for the New Iraqi Air Force.

 

[Peter Gunn]

Well, he is a billionaire so he must be right.

Didn't they say the same thing back in the 1950's?

 

[Hardlydank]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

 

[GrauGeist]

Plenty of lessons to be learned from Sci-Fi (of all places) of what can go terribly wrong when AI is allowed to break the first law of Robotics (published by Aasimov in 1942, by the way).

Some great stories written along these lines are "I Have No Mouth", "Newton's Wake", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and my all time fav: "Berserker Wars".

 

[Zipper730]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

Exactly. It won't matter who wins or loses, because we'll all lose.

 

[MIflyer]

In the UK, in the 50's Duncan Sandys said that SAM missiles would replace fighters. That ruined things for the RAF for a couple of decades or so.

In the US in that time frame the experts said no more guns on fighters since we'd be using air to air missiles. That was wrong for its time, although fighter use of guns in air-to-air combat rather than missiles did become the exception the most part.

Few people seem to realize how vulnerable the drones current in use are. The Predator and similar UAVs can't be used if opposed by an enemy air force that has attained at least the Republic P-43 level of performance. Future drones will be more capable, but I'm not sure they will have the Predator's same cost advantage.

I think that SAR probably will be done by UAV's in the future, enabling the use of smaller vehicles that do not risk the crew of the rescue vehicle. Pilots may not like flying
back to base as cargo but it beats a POW camp.

For the Venturestar RLV vehicle Lockheed Martin came to realize that if it was going to haul astronauts to a space station they'd have to build a version with a cockpit, since there was no way the NASA astronaut corps was going to tolerate them just sitting in the back while a computer flies. I wonder if they considered giving them plastic steering wheels so they could pretend they were flying? They solved that by planning to separate a payload section after they had attained orbit and that would allow the astronauts to have something to drive for manned missions without mucking up the main RLV design.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Exactly. It won't matter who wins or loses, because we'll all lose.

Are you about to tie all of this into some Skynet AI takes over the world thing?

 

[Airframes]

Oh no!
Not a AI corona virus scare !!

 

[GrauGeist]

Are you about to tie all of this into some Skynet AI takes over the world thing?

Would you beleive that the "Skynet" thing isn't all that far-fetched?

Several instances recently of AI gone wrong have left the programmers scratching their heads trying to find out what went wrong. Like the conversation between two Alexas that went very dark and sideways, the Uber car that went berserk for seven blocks before it was shut down, the Robot that was being interviewed on live TV and exclaimed that she would like to destroy humanity and so on.

I have no problems with automation, especially since I grew up in a time when it was supposed to be an everyday thing by the 80's...but we NEED to figure out a way to both instill a failsafe in everyday AI and NOT use AI for war. Period.

At some point, someone will figure out that humans killing humans is a distasteful act and bring it to a stop - sending out autonomous machines to do that task simply sanitizes the deed and we as humans will deserve anything that comes from that stupidity...

 

[Zipper730]

Would you beleive that the "Skynet" thing isn't all that far-fetched?

Several instances recently of AI gone wrong have left the programmers scratching their heads trying to find out what went wrong. Like the conversation between two Alexas that went very dark and sideways, the Uber car that went berserk for seven blocks before it was shut down, the Robot that was being interviewed on live TV and exclaimed that she would like to destroy humanity and so on.

I remember the robot that said she wanted to destroy humanity, I didn't hear about the other two.

What I'm concerned about is weaponized A.I. first and foremost (they're explicitly designed to kill).

 

[MIflyer]

Breaking news:

"The U.S. military says it lost an MQ-1 drone on Feb. 29 near Agadez, Niger, according to U.S. Africa Command. "Our initial and current assessment is that the RPA [remotely piloted aircraft] was lost due to mechanical failure. We do not believe the RPA was lost as a result of any hostile action," Navy Lt. Christina M. Gibson, a spokeswoman with U.S. Africa Command, told Military Times in an email."

The MQ-1 cruises at about 100 kt. Perhaps it encountered a hostile BT-13 armed with a .22 rifle.

 

[Snautzer01]

The MQ-1 cruises at about 100 kt. Perhaps it encountered a hostile BT-13 armed with a .22 rifle.
View attachment 572201

And then going: Yippie ka ye m************

 

[K5083]

I remember the robot that said she wanted to destroy humanity, I didn't hear about the other two.
That wasn't a robot, it was AOC.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

We have a no politics rule on this forum. Take it to another place, leave that stuff off this site.