The Pentagon is going to replace the crews of combat aircraft autopilot

US scientists are going to create a new automatic piloting device for the aircraft, which should replace several people at once. The work in this direction is carried out by DARPA (Agency for Advanced Defense Research Projects of the US Department of Defense). The agency's specialists are creating a new autopilot, which, in flight, will be able to replace professional military pilots right before 5, according to the Internet portal Wired. This project was named ALIAS - Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (Rus. "Aircraft Flight Automation System").

It is reported that the new autopilot can replace up to 5 crew members (so far only military aircraft), turning the only living pilot into a real flight director who will control the aircraft using the touchscreen. The ALIAS system was presented as a special removable custom set of support tools at all stages of the flight of the aircraft. This autopilot even implemented a work program in case of failure of the emergency rescue system. In DARPA emphasize that their new autopilot will help reduce the burden on the pilot, which will allow him to focus on the safety of the flight and the performance of the combat mission.

ALIAS is a personal computer system that is installed in the aircraft cabin. It is reported that it will be adapted for installation on almost any aircraft of the US Air Force - from transport helicopters to the most heavy vehicles. DARPA agency experts promise to teach their new autopilot to control all stages of the flight of the aircraft from the moment of take-off and before landing, as well as actions in conditions of extreme situations, for example, in case of failure in the air of individual aircraft or helicopter systems. The pilot, who will perform the functions of the operator, will be able to give commands to the autopilot using the speech recognition interface or the touch screen.

“Our main goal is to create a full-fledged automatic assistant who can easily be configured to control the most different types of airborne equipment. The capabilities of our new autopilot will transform the pilot from the operator of the combat systems of the machine into the curator of the air mission, who will give commands to a highly organized, reliable device, ”says DARPA employee Daniel Pratt. According to him, ALIAS will be able to monitor the condition of the aircraft, fulfilling small technical duties, which will allow a reduction in the number of flight personnel, especially on sophisticated military aircraft.

An automated universal pilot assistant will have many different settings and a user-friendly interface that will provide the ability to adapt it for different aircraft. According to Daniel Patt, who works with the ALIAS program, a system of this level of automation will make it possible to more efficiently use the resources of the aircraft, make the entire flight safer and help you land the plane even when the pilot is in an incompetent state for one reason or another.

Thus, the defense research agency expects to apply in its project all the latest achievements in the field of flight control and automatic stabilization of the aircraft in order to create a highly adaptive system that could independently carry out takeoff and landing operations, and was also controlled by the pilot's voice commands or touching the touch control panel. It is worth noting that DARPA has long been seriously emphasizing unmanned technology in aviation. At the same time, all the most fantastic projects of the agency eventually acquire more and more real features.

Aviation expert and editor-in-chief of Russia / CIS Observer magazine Maxim Pyadushkin notes that a number of individual technologies that are used in ALIAS are available now. In an interview with the Russian Planet, he noted that in the digital era, the field of activity for developing systems for the automatic control of equipment is only expanding. At the same time on modern civil air liners the pilots can almost not interfere in the process of controlling the aircraft. In addition, with the help of special sensor systems from Boeing or Airbus, they are able to wirelessly receive a large amount of information about their aircraft from almost anywhere in the world.

Maxim Pyadushkin believes that the new American system will work on the same principles as the American drones. The expert explained that the use of the autopilot is associated with the development of UAVs - unmanned aerial vehicles, where the pilot controls the equipment not from its cockpit, but from a special ground control center. In automatic flight mode, modern Drones act virtually like a standard autopilot.

It should be noted that the replacement of live pilots by “iron” fits perfectly not only in the DARPA programs, but also in the policy of the new course, which is being held today by the Pentagon and aimed at reducing the number of troops in the American army. In February, 2014, the information appeared that the head of the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, was nurturing plans for a serious reduction of the American armed forces to the level that was in the country before the start of the Second World War. At the same time, the United States Air Force hopes to part with the strategic intelligence officer U-2, as well as the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft. Both cars can be attributed to the old-timers of the US Air Force. An anonymous source at the US Department of Defense told the New York Times that the Pentagon, despite all this, still expects to have a very large army in numbers, but at the same time the new army will be flexible. It should become more modern, effective and trained.

Information sources:
http://rusplt.ru/world/jeleznyiy-letchik-9497.html
http://hi-news.ru/technology/novyj-avtopilot-darpa-zamenit-ekipazh-boevogo-samoleta.html
http://www.weacom.ru/2014/04/25/novaya-intellektualnaya-sistema-avtopilota-alias.html
http://technicamolodezhi.ru/news/novosti_nauki_i_tehniki/PERVYM_DELOM_SAMOLYETY

Comments

[ImPerts]

I wonder how a powerful electromagnetic pulse will affect the health of the autopilot?

[Ruskiye]

No way, the system is at least duplicated. If the first fails for a second, dubbing is turned on and the first one to reboot.

[GRAY]

Yeah, to reboot.
According to the degree of exposure to induced currents and voltages, electronic and electrical equipment are conventionally divided into three groups:
highly sensitive (devices and devices on micromodules and microcircuits);

medium sensitivity (equipment, which includes low-current relays, electric vacuum devices, transistors of medium and high power);

low sensitivity (equipment of electric power equipment, electric motors and transformers, automatic machines, contactors, relays and other switching and protective devices of power distribution networks).

In the general case, irreversible and reversible malfunctions of the equipment are distinguished from the effects of an electromagnetic pulse. Irreversible disturbances may result from either thermal overload or electrical overvoltage.
As a result of thermal overload, the following damage to equipment elements can be observed:
burnout of safety inserts, resistors;
destruction of the plates of ceramic capacitors and electrodes of low-power arresters;
sintering of contacts of low-current relays;
wire breakage in the places of soldering (welding);
melting of current-carrying and resistive layers of semiconductor devices.
The result of electrical overvoltage can be electrical breakdowns, which are characteristic of capacitors, transition plugs, contact groups of relays, insulation of cable products. There are frequent cases when the effects of electrical breakdown and thermal overload occur together, mutually affect each other.

[Logos]

A sufficiently powerful impulse can be created only with the close use of nuclear weapons, so that the aircraft will also be destroyed by a shock wave. And in order to get the autopilot using a generator, it will have to be delivered to an extremely close distance - several tens of meters, and therefore the question arises - why use an electromagnetic pulse generator at such a distance when there is enough of a conventional warhead?

[Good cat]

Let them replace the Obashka with a computer

[AVV]

It’s good on civilian planes, and on the military, in the conditions of battle and the enemy’s electronic warfare, the kirdyk is not only for the pilot, but for the whole system !!! This is pumping money out of the Pentagon !!! Let them fly !!!

[Ruskiye]

Civil is always a simplified military version.

[Logos]

Based on this logic, modern planes need to completely abandon electronics and look for targets with their eyes, and aim guns and unguided missiles at them through a collimator or mechanical sight. In general, return to World War II standards

Or, perhaps, do you personally think that tracking and guidance systems on the same Su-35, for example, do not have electronics that are vulnerable to electromagnetic radiation?

[Roman_999]

going to replace the crews of combat aircraft with an autopilot

all the same, the experience of "wars" in WoT, CoD or WarFace was not in vain, console control of remote equipment (body, tank, plane, ship, but no matter what) it is cool - fun, the pilot hundreds of kilometers away in a fortified command post, logged out to another board and taking control you work from it. Interoesno and safe when robots are being cut instead of you, consider not war but a game .... however, our enemies have a perverted mind. Not in Russian to kill playfully, to sentence for the cause - yes, but for the sake of pleasure - no, not ours, not humanly.

Threat, but the idea of ​​not losing guys, but fighting with iron is essentially interesting.

ZYY only radio interference to solve the issue and EMF.

[Maksim...]

It’s not in Russian how to kill effortlessly, to sentence for a cause - yes, but for the sake of pleasure - no, this is not ours, not humanly.

Do you have to constantly send a soldier to die?

[Kadavercianin]

And when war turns into entertainment, is it better? As the saying goes, it’s a matter of ethics, it’s better to save your people’s lives or give a damn about everything, because from yours (robots are fighting) there are no live losses, and then they will also make an online toy so that operators don’t pay, gamers themselves will pay so that someone dunk out of a real battle robot.
That's the problem, as you don’t do it, you’ll be wrong anyway.

[Cossacks]

It would be nice to call the type of aircraft where so many crew.

[ECT]

The beginning of the era of "Loners", soon we will get a computer with a "soul".

[corporal]

Normal idea. And such development would not hurt us. And as for any EMR, so when they begin, nothing will fly anywhere (well, maybe some mutated cockroaches, and then some 10 years from now).
And then the Yankees will still do this thing, and again we will be in ..pe

[Tishka]

The idea is certainly interesting, replacing a person with a robot! robotic systems withstand greater overloads, are not subject to emotions, and in the case of destruction, it is always cheaper. a living person! But, there was already a funny incident, in the same America, when a combat robot released 200 rounds, according to its creators! A few people killed. the rest escaped with wounds. saved that ended ammunition! But just something, something jumped in the electronic brains, and if a combat aircraft gets out of control. having ceased to respond to the pilot’s commands, and begins to water its own territories, it’s not enough, it’s not enough, because, in any case, you need to set a toggle switch that turns off all this electronic stuffing, but if the pilot himself can’t land the plane without smart electronics, and such a trend can be seen in civil aviation, then a billion, you can safely bury, together with the pilot! And in the modern world, where hackers, every fifth for sure, always in this stuffing, you can download the virus, so, for the sake of laughter, and see how this artificial intelligence, begins to weird!