Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
The US army wants to replace parts of its soldiers with various drones. Up to 25%, that is pretty impressive.
Getting closer the the Skynetopocaplypse
Zombie_Babies
First Post
Well that'll certainly do wonders for the unemployment numbers. Hmm ... we really seem to be rapidly approaching the time where work won't be part of everyday life for most people. Some interesting questions are ahead.
bone_naga
Explorer
We'll see how that works out considering we still don't have an armed ground robot system fielded. We don't have robots that can do everything a soldier can do. Right now our ground robots each require a robot operator, so by replacing 25% of soldiers with robots, another 25% would be dedicated to driving those robots, not to mention issues with comms.
The only real advantage you get is that in the long run robots will be cheaper than soldiers, and you can use them to do stupid things that would get real people killed.
It may sound good on paper, but we are nowhere close to being able to pull this off.
There is also a maintenance piece, but it wouldn't be as excessive as I've heard some people claim. The robot hospital in Afghanistan only had a few people, less than a dozen I believe, put 1 robot repair detachment per division and you're good.
The only real advantage you get is that in the long run robots will be cheaper than soldiers, and you can use them to do stupid things that would get real people killed.
It may sound good on paper, but we are nowhere close to being able to pull this off.
There is also a maintenance piece, but it wouldn't be as excessive as I've heard some people claim. The robot hospital in Afghanistan only had a few people, less than a dozen I believe, put 1 robot repair detachment per division and you're good.
MarkB
Legend
Which parts are they going to replace? 25% per soldier sounds inconvenient whichever bits they go for, especially if the cybernetic replacements can get up and wander off on their own.
As ZB hit on, culturally, we're going to have a problem if robots replace more people and we don't change our views on what it means to be unemployed. In Star trek, unemployed meant nothing bad, and those people were free to pursue interests, etc.
As such, in our current culture, if robots cost money, and unemployed people don't have anyuy money, then humans may be very cheap to field in battle afterall. Since those people will work for low wages in order to eat.
As such, in our current culture, if robots cost money, and unemployed people don't have anyuy money, then humans may be very cheap to field in battle afterall. Since those people will work for low wages in order to eat.
Kramodlog
Naked and living in a barrel
Soldier robot, robot soldier. What's the dif?
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Well, SWORDS (an armed TALON) was deployed to Iraq, but it wasn't trusted enough to be used in a mobile role.
I don't see this happening any time soon. The same goal was supposed to be achieved under the FCS program, which had three ground robot and four unmanned aircraft systems, and it cratered in 2009. Army ground robotics programs have been gutted of funding due to a lack of approved requirements; the rapid reaction capabilities we deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling to be sustained.
Bottom line: lots of talk, little actual action.
bone_naga
Explorer
I don't believe the SWORDS ever made it out of the testing and evaluation phase. Funny thing, the Talon has a habit of picking up stray EMR and running amok. Turns out that when this happens during a demo where it is armed with a machine gun, it's sort of frowned upon. I have yet to hear of any instance of them being used operationally. Sure they may have been deployed, but without the clearance to use them they were just expensive lawn ornaments.
The SWORDS really wasn't that great of a system anyway. It was built on the Talon, which despite its popularity is pretty mediocre when you look at the price and what it actually does (especially before it gets the upgrades that the Army developed). Having a robot that has to be controlled from 100m away (well more or less depending on the antenna and environmental factors and LOS) by a soldier isn't a replacement for a soldier.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Yep. I was at the demo when that happened.
bone_naga
Explorer
LOL, was it every bit as hilarious as I envision it? My last shop had several of those robots, as well as a lot of other robot models. The SWORDS looked cool, but that was about it.
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