Navy’s Distinctly UFO-Like X-47B War Drone Makes First Flight in Cruise Mode

Here is my future Christmas wish list. Develop a Trident Size Nuclear Stealth submarine with launce and landing pad of this X-47Bs. Say pop up out of the ocean and launch about 10 of these invisibles in the bad guy’s back yard and give them a wakeup call.

This is very cool developing military technology. I hope to see more of these!

Awful. I wonder when the US government will start using these things on in American citizens.

Well, when they do.... you'll never know. ;-)

Boka go bread hate on someone elses site Popsci does not want it here

It will be the first unmanned aircraft to take off and land on an aircraft carrier deck. As such, the Navy is also studying drone intelligence, so each X-47B will not need to pester the tower when the pattern is full.

Ha Top Gun ftw!!

that is just fantastic.

The wheels up pic looks alot like the drones in Terminator. Would like to know dev costs.Cool.

It was super cool right up until the point where "drone intelligence" was mentioned. Then it started to become creepy...

In regards to: "....
As such, the Navy is also studying drone intelligence, so each X-47B will not need to pester the tower when the pattern is full...."

I just hear the conversation from the pilots in the air to the person in the tower.

Can I land yet?
No.
Can I land yet?
No...
Can I land now?
NO.
Can I land now, I really got to pee.
A no and hold on, please.
CAN I LAND NOW?
NO-a'! Not yet.
.
.
.
.
A Tower,...
Yes?
I am no longer in a hurry to land.
Please take your time.
Oh, when you decide to let me land,
have the cleanup crew standing by.

this is very cool, hope it doesn't get a virus too (was that boka's doing); this is intended to be the f-35's wingmen, definately need to fund the f-35, way too important and a complete waste of tax payer's money to cancel at this late date; this drone will enable the machines to...

shut up Boka you Communist peice of crap

Boka is BubbaGump.

They should make a stealth version.

010101000110111101110111011001010111001000101100001000000111010001101000011010010111001100100000011010010111001100100000010001110110100001101111011100110111010000100000010100100110100101100100011001010111001000100000011100100110010101110001011101010110010101110011011101000110100101101110011001110010000001100001001000000110011001101100011110010110001001111001

... somehow, "Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby" isn't as funny as a binary request...

jsnickle,
Your posting of binary is sloppy and incompletely hard to understand. I tried my best bust but its just for not. Second, posting in binary is just rude to others and frown upon by POPSCI; I know this personally; do not do it. You need to put it in notepad, break it so it displays correctly on this website and well its all so complicated. My best and most mature recommendation is.... as follows.

If you have something worthwhile to say, just say it and be honest and be yourself.

Hmmmm. Boka has a point. I love the technology and I'm fine with the advancement of weapons, but it is entirely possible that military class weaponry might be employed against civilian populations at some point.

--And given that the other drones have recently acquired a computer virus, you have to wonder what the possibility might be that our control of our own weapons might be over-ridden. We might end up being attacked by our own machines.

Don't stop developing the tech, just proceed cautiously, beware of assumptions, and have backup to the backup plans.

Hmm, I wonder where they got the design for that....

Boka,
Boka says, "Awful. I wonder when the US government will start using these things on in American citizens."

Dear Boka, new flash, yes USA America is the best country in the world and yes we possess the best technology too. We have had a long history of this. We do not attack our homes. Everything is done for our home and is built for our home and is paid by the tax payers of our home, USA.

I feel you are some outsider person trying to instill a riot, where there is no problem. Yes we create technology to defend ourselves, but NO is not used on USA citizens. Obviously you have not learned or even experience the USA citizen spirit. You apparently are an outsider and well just ignorant of a better way of life!

Boka is a trouble making intentional. You’re a moron!

Before you pat yourself on the back TOO hard "mp" you might want to remember that the American Civil War killed more people than ALL other wars COMBINED (WW1, WW2, Korean, Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, Afganistan, etc)..... and it was fought against it's own citizens.

The USA has a long history of using drugs and chemical weapons on it's own soldiers/citizens, not to mention using US soldiers as guinea pigs during the initial atom bomb testing. The USA has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, and also imprisons more of it's own citizens than any other country in the world.

Nope, I'm not USA bashing, just stating a few facts you can easily verify yourself. "Those who live in glass houses ..."

i was thinking the same thing, MP must of had a memory lapse or didn't pay attention in school, :-) cheers

drchuck1,
Deighv,
Your right, it has occurred in our USA past of citizens taking up arms against citizen, be it military or otherwise. I am sure a shooting occured as we slept last night.

And if SKYNET took control of X-47B, that would not be good either

Deighv,

WWII killed 60,000,000 people. The american civil war didn't. Unless you're claiming only americas are people...? Dumb syntax mistake is dumb.

Boka,

The american government is already using UAV technology on its own people. Police officers are very happy they can now watch suspects from a distance and not risk their lives. SWAT officers are presumably looking forwards to the day when they can do their job by remote, and a sucking chest wound is no longer simply the cost of doing business.

Speaking of SKYNET,
A fasinating recent read is from CNET, tab News, tab Security: "...U.S. drones' control systems hit by virus..."
Here is the link, its long, it may or may not work.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20117386-83/u.s-drones-control-systems-hit-by-virus-wired-says/?tag=txt;title

Have a great day!

Mp, you're trying way too hard to act smart. You misspelled words. Binary guy was just making a joke that you missed (Im sure you know personally what popsci wants on their site, bigger moron) and the anti america guy is clearly just a troll. Get some sunlight, a prostitute and have a conversation in real life that doesn't include Litre Of Cola.

On topic, looks neat. Simone should give mp a prostate exam with it.

I don't want a Large Farva....

First of all you need to recheck your history books because the American civial war did not come close to killing as many people as WWI or WWII or any other wars you want to combine with it. ALSO a cival war is not fought againts its CITIZENS. It is military fighting Military so once again you fail! So as much as I hate to agree with MP you people need to learn what you are talking about before hand. As far as chemicals and everything else show me proof it was INTENTIONALLY used on US cvilians
And go ahead and come back and say oh oh oh we said Citizens not civilians blah blah blah blah....stop hating
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, were over 35 million

World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.

At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000.

And yes they were all Americans but the death toll does not reach any were near the horrible numbers of WWI and WWII

@ mp. Peanus

Guys, please don't fuel the hate even if we are talking about a war bird. Its a beautiful lady and as such we should treat all with respect. This is for mature conversation website. Now that the x47 is in full production colors, she is beautiful. Popsci has to put more research work into details of pay load on this article.

Mind as well give it to the Chinese now and save them the 'trouble'of stealing it. Inevitability aside, the X-47B seems like a natural next step in the drone program - i'm surprised the NAVY was not already launching drones from carriers. Was the Predator's effective range unpractical for carrier deployment, or was it something else?

@mp

Before you go complaining about other people posting their concerns, remember that this forum is open to all opinions.

As for Boka being an outsider, I would check your syntax before making that accusation again.

Ooops, when I mentioned "the American Civil War killed more people than ALL other wars COMBINED" I was referring to American casualities of course (people = Americans). Sorry for the confuzzlement :)

BTW, members of the military ARE citizens, and there were aproximately 50,000 civilian deaths during the American Civil War.

Finally, I am NOT anti-American. I was merely pointing out a few History facts to "mp", and considering his reply he agreed with me more-or-less. The USA is a great country, but it is not without it's faults ..... like every other country in the world :) Burying or denying mistakes doesn't make them go away. Admitting to them shows strength of character.

Finally, "Methinks thou dost protest too much." Delkomatic :)

i bet they used schematics of ancient alien aircraft to make this flying saucer.

_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.

- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri

Wow, a bunch of paranoid fools. Don't fear the drone, it will be used on other countries, sadly enough. In the grand scheme, a Drone doesnt talk back and require food or bathroom. So, where arial reconossence is concerned, the cheaper more effective way will be adopted. This drone will not be used on its own people but more likey for other things like replacing Police and traffic helicopters. Perhaps better at collecting data for storms and hurricanes, etc. We have so many other deadly technologies that dwarf this that to fear this drone is like fearing the "holster" of the gun and not the gun itself. People, learn math. The theory that man will place control of his vital human arteries in the hands of robotics is a long standing one. When a country this size has to spend money on error ridden and problematic clunky human efforts, machines will drop the cost. You will buy groceries without going to a grocery store. You will fill up on gas without touching a nozzle. You will rarely go to banks in the future and you will learn more from the internet than one single school could ever teach you. How will humanity thrive when its all about the cost of 6.8 billion and growing? Machines take less resources than humans and they dont get sick. Get ready for drones people. Autonomous robots will be doing every job, not just flying over enemy airspace. You wont really care though, in the future, your Avatar will take most of the damage. Peace Love and Harmony brothers and sisters!

And there is no such thing as a civil war that doesnt effect civilians. The civilians are the value and the leverage in wars, of any kind. No one gives a rats az zz about saving robots from an air,village, or city raid.

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon."

@D13...i hope you are right; if not, they may not like being our slaves and since they potentially will be much smarter than us, beware...cheers

Zoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!
Oh wait, no pilot, no joy.
Waaa!

I think it would be fun to paint this drone the same colors as Superman suit with his emblem on the bottom.

Somewhere Some DARPA guy is thinking:

"hmm there was talk a long while ago about torpedos that could go as fast as they wanted if the were super heated to surround themselves with air bubbles.

heat this bugger up and launch it out he back of landing craft, submarine decks... imagine carrier groups with every cruiser with these 8 of these strapped to the bottom of the hulls... just waiting to be launched.. speeding toward the enemy coastline before bursting out of the waves and splitting up into formations.. some skimming the treetops, some into the clouds for air superiority missions, clearing the way for the 2nd flight with deck launched drones formed up around F-35's in air-to-air and ground attack configurations."

10 more years wait.. amphibious flight drones, they're gonna happen I can feel it!

cheers, eh

Remember the old "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (TV series). Within this show, they had a stingray shape miniature type submarine which was launch submarine from the bigger sub that would fly as well.

This stingray miniature submarine was called in the TV series, “Seaview”. Also it shape is simuliar to X-47B.

How fun, fiction is moving towards reality. COOL!

They've been developing this thing since the 50's...well the "drone” part is new Since we are going to get rid of the Quagmire's of the world....time to set a new speed record...no pesky humans and their frail resistance to G-forces to account for.

@ Chuck..

Oddly enough you may be right but, it wont be the group of robots as a whole, it will be one smart one. However, pure intelligence will lack the drive to accomplish anything it figures out. Even in humans your hormones drive a large part of your "motivation". Before you need to worry about the tool becoming a "malavolent being" it first has to have a feeling. Without chemical repsonses built into machines, self motivation will be almost impossible. Only programming will exist. However, teach it feelings and you have motivation. Humans very complex "feelings" constantly cancel out other "feelings/motovations" guided by a logic processor. For instance, a major human motivation is survival or self preservation. A machine has nothing to live for so it has to be told what to do. Until humans create emotions in machines your horrific "SkyNet" will never be. Unfortunately, giving machines feelings will be attempted and done. Feelings will be used to "overpower" normal logic routines and force special programming to take hold. A machine only needs a chemical reward for certain things and as we all know...chemical rewards produce effects that can be simualted with programming. You only need two feelings to make it work. You need a strong reward and a strong fear.

Fear is easy for anything. Reaward is the interesting part if you want something to go after the bigger picture items like world domination and race enslavement. The more truly intelligent the machine, the more complex its reward system will be. Why this kind of bad is that it is much easier to create a killing machine than one that loves and takes reward from things like music, art or human interaction.

So, to the scientist outthere figuring out concsiousness and feelings. Hats off sir. No greater challenge than to recreate a "caring machine". The "immortal" caring machine. Interesting enough, teaching something to be happy for indefinite amounts of time will be tough. How to keep something immortal happy? Well you allow it to do something humans cant do...Make it forget, of course :)

"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon."

@Delkomatic 10/10/11 at 2:20 pm

What exactly is "bread hate" - is that what you do to hate to make it more palatable? Forget the X-47B dude, you need a speall cheeker!

So we spent another 2-3 billion of figuring out another way to kill other people. While millions starved and millions more are scraping to make ends meet and keep a roof over their head.

@D13...you make a good point, however, we are making plans for these machines to reproduce (already done to some degree), power themselves, and be far more intelligent than us, insects don't have much emotion and their desire to survive and wipe out any competition is still intact, just imagine a large intelligent bug competing with us for available resources, not a pretty picture, this is why the ones making these machines are taking precautions to prevent this, i call them mechines to keep them from being thought of as anything else, [cute robot] (and it sounds cool), cheers

ha, mp, the SKYNET reference made me laugh..

it seems many of us are worried about putting others down while trying to sound educated in the subject. your expertise does not instill administrative access to this website. i should have made this post in binary code.

the military will make advancements with the money we pay, and approaching such an issue with "that damn government" mentality solves nothing, nor is it a step in the right direction

all observations listed above, (including my own) are objective.

dead phrog,
mp was killed banned from POPSCI because he is believe to be BubbaGump. BubbaGump never did anything wrong except be like a Roger Rabbit for a short time and well argue well with others. But a gang persisted against him and got him banned. Just so you know, his soul lives long and fruitful. What happens to him was an old fashion lynching. He was curious to continue to fight and rebel against opposing forces and just experience what it was to be hung. It was a good learning experience. He is very much FOR POPSCI policies and rules of conduct on their website. He keeps coming back in recantations and they know it. I hope its all fun. BubbaGump and mp and other logins love and adore POPSCI and have enjoyed it all his life. I wish POPSCI stop banning his house, the outside router mac address. He can work around this, but it’s a pain in the petunias.
. Because I comment now, maybe perhaps, I will die soon too.

hoffline

Any weapons system that will keep our military men and women out of harms way, and still do the job is a real asset to our country. The biggest risk of course is the hackers, I am sure this has been securely covered as well.

Go get them NAVY!!!