Every Country Will Have Armed #Drones Within Ten Years
▻https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2014/05/every-country-will-have-armed-drones-within-ten-years/83878
Weaponized, Yes. Weaponized And Autonomous? Maybe.
The biggest technology challenge in drone development also promises the biggest reward in terms cost savings and functionally: full #autonomy. The military is interested in drones that can do more taking off, landing and shooting on their own. UAVs have limited ability to guide themselves and the development of fully autonomous drones is years away. But some recent breakthroughs are beginning to bear fruit. The experimental X-47B, a sizable drone that can fly off of aircraft carriers, “demonstrated that some discrete tasks that are considered extremely difficult when performed by humans can be mastered by machines with relative ease,” Brannen notes.
Less impressed, Sharkey said the U.S. still has time to rethink its drone future. “Don’t go to the next step. Don’t make them fully autonomous. That will proliferate just as quickly and then you are really going to be sunk.”
Others, including Singer, disagreed. “As you talk about this moving forward, the drones that are sold and used are remotely piloted to be more and more autonomous. As the technology becomes more advanced it becomes easier for people to use. To fly a Predator, you used to need to be a pilot,” he said.
“The field of autonomy is going to continue to advance regardless of what happens in the military side.”