Posted: Jun 13, 2011 3:28 am
AFAIK these are not fully autonomous but a human makes a decision so this isn't anything new from a moral de-coupling point of view but the success of these should drive the enemy to use the same technology.
I can imagine that terrorists will look towards using these same kind of drones to attack the US but without any override simply because they don't have to care that much about the target. Pack a kilo of explosives into a hybrid solar powered UAV and launch it from Mexico, Canada or the Sea. A week or two later it lands somewhere that its tiny GPS-powered brain was told to go. As terrorism then soft targets are perfect - schools, refineries, stadiums, power- substations, shopping malls.
I can imagine that terrorists will look towards using these same kind of drones to attack the US but without any override simply because they don't have to care that much about the target. Pack a kilo of explosives into a hybrid solar powered UAV and launch it from Mexico, Canada or the Sea. A week or two later it lands somewhere that its tiny GPS-powered brain was told to go. As terrorism then soft targets are perfect - schools, refineries, stadiums, power- substations, shopping malls.