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 arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation history's first robot attack squadron, will be a watershed moment even in an Iraq that has seen too many innovative ways to hunt and kill. That moment, one the Air Force will likely low-key, is expected "soon," says the regional U.S. air commander. How soon? "We're still working that," Lt. Gen. Gary North said in an interview. 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. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070715/D8QD61V80.html I love these things because they save (our) soldier's lives, but hate them because they make killing too easy and too impersonal.
But it still takes a human finger to press the button and a human eye to watch the screen to see the target being destroyed. I dont think killing can be impersonal, ever. Unless the killer isnt a human. No matter whether its 7000 miles away or 7000 feet up. The only thing it does, it takes the death threat away from the pilots.
It may be a human finger but those 7000 miles can allow you to be a little more dispassionate, I guarantee it.. a little too much like a video game if you ask me. As I say, it will save lives, but I still believe it allows thos who kill to do so dispassionately. We don't allow remote controlling hunting of deer, yet we will allow remote controlled bombing of humans.. don't you see the irony in that?
When I saw the thread title "Robots Head For Iraq" I though the terrorist Bush had announced another 20,000 troops were being sent over to the disaster zone.
Yeah, I disagree with robots. It's insensitive, and shouldn't be done. They'll most definitely mess up at least once, killing even more innocent people
That's ironic in itself.. I've never seen a war executed so perfectly that innocents were not injured or killed...
Yes, War is bad. But if we can save lives of our soldiers I dont find any irony in that. Most developed countries or rapidly developing countries are heading for unmanned Ariel Vehicles,and other means of unmanned alternatives. I think in the future there will be less casualties in wars and it will be more technology centric.
This is how all future wars should be....except make sure that no other countries master the technology, or we are screwed for sure! A lot quicker and easy to remove the enemies, without sending troops, send a load of remote control planes. Rob
This has been coming for a long time, since the PlayStation generation grew up with toy drones in their hands. Now innocent civilians can be killed in large quantity without having to risk valuable soldiers or the investment made to train them. Honestly, I think this must be part of why the Resident-in-Thief has been so eager to push this desperate and horribly unpopular war down the world's throat. This will change the way warfare is conducted all right...the next step will be to remove the human element entirely and machines can hunt the poverty-stricken inhabitants of countries whose resources we covet. Beautiful. We are just a few years away from having teenagers put on the job...top gameplayers being recruited for bombing raids...and yeah, just about everyone who gets attacked by an arial bomb is fundamentally innocent. Innocent until proven guilty, right? What right has any nation to bomb any part of any other nation? We can bomb the world into pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace.
Michael Franti song. I would have credited it, but I didn't think anyone would know who he is outside of the West Coast.
Terminator is becoming a scary reality. The future war scenes in the first and second films are not far off the truth today!
You can start another debate on whether war is bad in a new thread. Thats an entirely different question and I dont get how is that relevant to UAVs. Just because its unmanned its evil? I'm sure you dont approve use of Missiles too. Heck! Fuck these technologies and lets train our troops for suicide bombing, that would make sense. Piloting UAVs aint as same as playing a game on PS console. It takes a lot of training and resources. obviously you aint much informed about UAVs and its functionalities. I personally feel that UAVs are a key step to avoid unintentional killings of civilians. When the pilot isnt in a great threat of death, there is less likely chance of loose of focus on target. With so many enhanced features like ranged terrain scan, high res visuals in different modes and sat based co-ord system makes it easy to distinguish between a threat and a civilian. You remember you cant simply win the war by killing civilians, you have to destroy the resistance. So in war, I dont think, any nation would deliberately target civilians (unless Hitler is born again). "You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace." Corrected that for you. but remember two nuke bombs ended WWII in an instant.
Where do you get your quotes, a time machine? I edited it myself at 1:57. This is the height of confusion. Do you seriously claim that these bombings are confined to verified military targets alone? And suggesting that no nation not run by Hitler targets civilians? Yes, I am against missiles and the use of all destructive weapons in principle, but particularly when it can be automated. And the world has been cringing in fear ever since. An excellent point proving that the US uses this technology on blameless civilians to advance its imperialist agenda. Or do you equate Truman with Hitler?
Dunno when you edited it, when I quoted you it was the same. (and still you have the quote wrong, if you are quoting Michael Franti's 'Bomb the world'. Nope I am not sure about many nations namely, Iran, North Korea, Syria and few like that. Yeah I guess you have no idea about UAV functioning, FYI, they are not automated. And scared of automated weapons? I guess Too many Matrix and terminator movies have a rough impact on your brain. cringing in fear? I guess not. European Nations were really thankful to USA at that time for stopping Crazy Japanese and Nazis. But I think you would have liked it better if those Japs and Nazs had taken over the Eu.
Are you proud of that? Would you be as proud of that if it was two major U.S cities that had the bombs dropped on them killing around 200,000 innocent American civillians?