Navy Reveals Details of Submarine-Based Drones

I know the gap between Science-fiction and reality is constantly being bridged but the people responsible for developing this pointless crap are either not sci-fi fans or they take the wrong message out of what very little of it they take in.

If the military is spinning from Transformer syndrome, they need to give it up because turning the military into a cybernetic organism force is so incredibly stupid at our level of development.

What these generals and admirals should do is sit back and watch Terminator to get a few times and pay attention to the visions of the future to get a glimpse of what things could turn out to be. Then they need to sit down and watch (or read) I, Robot and The Matrix to get the academic and philosophical insight behind the road we're headed down and what it will mean to our existence if we continue toward this path.

"Welcome! to the Federation Starship SS Buttcrack!!!"

The argument you posed by pheonix1012 is ridiculous at best. You know why all of the Generals and Admirals don't take the Terminator, I, Robot or The Matrix into account when deciding the future in weapons technology? Because all 3 of those movies are Science Fiction, the key word being Fiction.

People are getting all bent out of shape of the EATR and other unmanned vehicles acting as if the stuff is legitimately AI, when in reality, there is some dude sitting around on a Navy ship or military base controlling these machines remotely. Just because a machine is unmanned, doesn't mean it has the capability to think for itself. These machines don't make decisions for themselves, people control them. The machines are incapable of making decisions themselves, and it's doubtful some General or Admiral would allow a machine to make strategic military decisions that could create an international crisis on their behalf.

The benefits of these machines far outweigh the costs. They save American lives and Tax dollars by creating efficient ways to perform surveilance and reconaissance, attack our enemies, supply our troops in the field, and potentially remove troops from the field for medical attention. The costs of operations of these machines is far less than that to arm and deploy a bomber jet, a team of medics, or multiple trucks with supplies, each of which requires multi-membered teams and additional risk in the loss of American military personnell. These machines, are also significantly less expensive to replace than one of our Bombers, medical teams, or supply teams were taken out by enemy forces. We're talking maybe millions vs. the billions it costs to replace our "Dumb" technology.

I could go on for days lighting you up, but I'll cut it short by leaving you with this. While you're living in fear of some story that some dude thought up to make money off of a movie franchise, the rest of us live in the real world. And in the real world, there are religous extremists and irrational dictators out there who want to see America and all of its people dead. The least of our worries is some kind of take-over by Machines anytime soon. I won't deny the possibility of something like that happening, but we are no where near that advanced in our technological capabilities.

Do yourself a favor and read some real news, get some exercise, and go socialize with people who don't live in sci-fi fantasy world. Try going on a date with someone who has no idea and little interest in Comic-Con, Starwars, or all things nerd. It might do wonders for your health.

What are they really calling these in the Navy? UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) doesn't quite fit for a submarine underwater.

meyaht, the article correctly refers to UAVs - in these instances, the UAVs are actually launched underwater from the submarine's missile tube. They float to the surface (possibly propelled by compressed air/gas) and "pop" out of the water, where rocket boosters or something similar kick in and launch them into the air. Underwater vehicles like the torpedo-sized vehicle mentioned are similarly named: UUVs, or unmanned underwater vehicles.

Phoenix1012

Seriously, computers right now and in the foreseeable future are only as smart as the programs they run. As far as I can tell, no one is smart enough to write a program that is half as smart as a dog (which isn't that smart in the grand scheme of things). Furthermore, these UAVs are not autonomous (but from what I understand, Global Hawk is...but I don't know if it's equipped with weapons or not...I think it's just a surveillance drone---don't have the necessary security clearance to know anyway).

Anyways...you've been reading too much SCI-FI. To even consider that any SecDef would allow any autonomous device or weapon to make national security decisions is inconceivable. Why even have a President, then? What's the point of the football if Clippy (the microsoft assistant) is going to make the decision to launch all nukes anyway? These weapons platforms will be "unmanned," but they won't be "sentient" or whatever. They'll be controlled by airman, seaman or soldiers (note that I intentionally left out marines...they're brave, but not really that bright or skilled with anything other than their big, brutish forearms used to bash their opponents to death--this includes the female marines).

PS...if you're a marine and don't have thick skin and are offended, then you aren't really a marine then, are ya? If you can't take a little cross branch trash talk, then you are in the wrong profession....

Rpenri, the Global Hawk isn't fully autonomous, some guy in new mexico set the search pattern or laid out it's flight path for it, and if it detects some discrepancy, it alerts the guys at it's HQ that, "Hey, something isn't right here, you gave me bad info"

BTW, that's also to re-affirm what everyone else has told Phoenix1012, that the military isn't going to let fully automated "items" into our arsenal

Proud Sailor of the USN

I predict an increase in Sea Monster sightings.

thefty,

thankyou. the main picture misled me to thinking that they were all water based.

The cell phone was created from the idea of the tricorder of the original Star Trek with William Shatner. The idea of teleportation was taken out of science fiction and is being experimented with, even though at best we can only teleport a couple of particles a short distance. Force field technology is being developed, and the idea was created in science fiction movies such as Star Wars, Star Trek, and earlier films and television shows such as Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. Science fiction is becoming science reality. Many people once believed that rocket ships they saw in early science fiction films of the 1930's and 1940's were impossible, but decades later humankind went to the moon and back. My point is, if a military power is inspired by the movie Transformers, and creates successful drones/robots out of Transformers ideas/concepts, then all the power to them; I see nothing wrong with that. Nothing is impossible, it's only a matter of time.