The development of combat autonomous robots continues
American specialists continue to develop software that allows drones detect and attack the target without any human involvement. Increasingly, disturbing articles began to appear in the newspapers, stating that there is nothing particularly new in this autonomy and that all its origins date back to the Second World War. Since then, work has continued with the robotic weapons, and journalists got a reason to scare readers.
In 2009, the United States published the Air Force report "Plan aviation unmanned systems ", in which they assess the forecast for the development of flight control programs, which will enable unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct an attack without human intervention. For many, especially those who do not yet know that such technologies have been used for quite a long time, this causes great concern.
And it began at the end of the Second World War, with the appearance of the so-called “smart torpedoes”. The torpedo had a special sensor, homing at the sounds of ships floating in water. They pursued the ship until the fuse determined what was under the bottom of the ship and already then detonated the warhead. Homing acoustic torpedoes were used to the end of the war, and already in the 60-s significantly improved and introduced into the use of even more dangerous and deadly torpedoes.
Another invention of the post-war years is the “smart mine”. She was a sea mine, lying in the coastal waters at the bottom. The mine was equipped with pressure, metal and sound sensors. Mina was programmed to work when a certain type of ship was near her. Thus, all the torpedoes and mines, once “deployed”, became left to themselves and, without human intervention, determined and destroyed the target.
But “smart mines”, as well as bespoke, working on similar technologies (on sensors and software as a control), still cause some concerns. It scares people to rely on the program. Any of us had to deal with some errors in these programs. In view of this, such fears are fully justified.
The military Robots work in a different environment. Death creeps up on all sides. Fire from friendly troops happens a lot more often than people think. After the end of World War II, it was concluded that 20 percent of American troop losses were under friendly fire. Therefore, civilians and the military have different opinions about killer robots. Civilians are more concerned about unintentional deaths and cannot understand the need to use "maximum violence" in order to win as soon as possible.
The military forces of America are very optimistic and believe that they are fully capable of creating reliable and stable software for autonomous combat UAV. The aviation industry and the air force as a whole have already created a reliable and very complex program for operating the aircraft. Modern guidance systems have been using systems for target recognition for quite some time, working with a huge library of object recognition, identify and attack certain targets. For the creators of autonomous combat UAVs capable of recognizing enemy, civilian and friendly troops, their new system is not something so supernatural, but rather, it’s just the next step in software development.
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