AI warning : Robot soldiers only 15 years away from ‘changing face’ of warfare – expert

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) empowered fighting robots will soon transform combat, a military expert has warned.

General Sir Nick Carter, the UK’s Chief of Defence last week suggested the British Army may one day fill its ranks with “robot soldiers”. This may seem like a daunting prospect, and one that will never come to fruition – but a military expert has now predicted such highly-intelligent military robots are actually a mere 15 years away from “changing the face” of warfare.

The high-tech machines will employ cutting-edge AI to inform strategy concerning the “layout of the land and possible threats” in real-time, Charles Glar has revealed.

Continue reading… “AI warning : Robot soldiers only 15 years away from ‘changing face’ of warfare – expert”

Anduril’s new drone offers to inject more AI into warfare

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A swarm of Ghost 4s, controlled by a single person on the ground, can perform reconnaissance missions like searching for enemy weapons or soldiers.

Anduril’s Ghost 4 drone can carry systems capable of jamming enemy communications or an infrared laser to direct weapons at a target.

THIS SPRING, A team of small drones, each resembling a small, sensor-laden helicopter, scoured a lush stretch of wilderness near Irvine, California. They spent hours circling the sky, seeking, among other things, surface-to-air missile launchers lurking in the brush.

The missiles they found weren’t enemy ones. They were props for early test flights of a prototype military drone stuffed with artificial intelligence—the latest product from Anduril, a defense-tech startup founded by Palmer Luckey, the creator of Oculus Rift.

The new drone, the Ghost 4, shows the potential for AI in military systems. Luckey says it is the first generation that can perform various reconnaissance missions, including searching an area for enemy hardware or soldiers, under the control of a single person on the ground. The vehicle uses machine learning (the method behind most modern AI) to analyze imagery and identify targets, but it also relies on more conventional rules-based software for critical control and decisionmaking among swarm teammates.

Continue reading… “Anduril’s new drone offers to inject more AI into warfare”

How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance

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The federal government has used military-grade border patrol drones like this one to monitor protests in US cities.

Drones of all sizes are being used by environmental advocates to monitor deforestation, by conservationists to track poachers, and by journalists and activists to document large protests.

As a political sociologist who studies social movements and drones, I document a wide range of nonviolent and pro-social drone uses in my new book, “The Good Drone.” I show that these efforts have the potential to democratize surveillance.   But when the Department of Homeland Security redirects large, fixed-wing drones from the U.S.-Mexico border to monitor protests, and when towns experiment with using drones to test people for fevers, it’s time to think about how many eyes are in the sky and how to avoid unwanted aerial surveillance.

One way that’s within reach of nearly everyone is learning how to simply disappear from view.   Crowded skies   Over the past decade there’s been an explosion in the public’s use of drones – everyday people with everyday tech doing interesting things. As drones enter already-crowded airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration is struggling to respond.

The near future is likely to see even more of these devices in the sky, flown by an ever-growing cast of social, political and economic actors.

Continue reading… “How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance”

The F-16’s replacement won’t have a pilot at all

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Somehow, Skyborg will be an operational weapon system in just three years.

The U.S. Air Force is planning to field an operational combat drone by 2023.

The service says Skyborg will replace older weapon-slinging drones and even early models of the F-16.

Skyborg will be reusable but could be sacrificed in combat if necessary.

The U.S. Air Force plans to have an operational combat drone by 2023. The service plans to build out a family of unmanned aircraft, known as Skyborg, capable of carrying weapons and actively participating in combat. The Air Force’s goal is to build up a large fleet of armed, sort-of disposable jets that don’t need conventional runways to take off and land.

Continue reading… “The F-16’s replacement won’t have a pilot at all”

The U.S. Navy wants more robot submarines : Study

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Orca Submarine Robot Submarine U.S. Navy

Cheaper and better?

What the United States Navy wants and what the United States Navy will be able to afford in the coming years is unlikely to match up, and as it continues to address increasingly powerful Chinese and Russian navies, this could give a lot of people many a sleepless night. China is currently testing out the Shandong, its first domestically-built aircraft carrier while Russia continues to bolster its fleets in a slow but methodical manner.

As the same time President Trump cut the Navy’s shipbuilding budget by $4 billion, according to the 2021 budget request outlined earlier this year, the Navy would acquire 44 vessels through 2025—down from a planned 55 vessels.

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The Air Force’s AI-powerd ‘Skyborg’ drones could fly as early as 2023

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The drones would fly alongside Air Force warplanes, doing jobs too dangerous or dull for pilots.

The Air Force is soliciting the aerospace industry to provide flyable “Skyborg” drones by 2023.

The drones will be powered by artificial intelligence, capable of taking off, landing, and performing missions on their own.

Skyborg will not only free manned pilots from dangerous and dull missions but allow the Air Force to add legions of new, unpiloted, cheap planes.

The U.S. Air Force is finally pushing into the world of robot combat drones, vowing to fly the first of its “Skyborg” drones by 2023. The service envisions Skyborg as a merging of artificial intelligence with jet-powered drones. The result will be drones capable of flying alongside fighter jets, carrying out dangerous missions. Skyborg drones will be much cheaper than piloted aircraft, allowing the Air Force to grow its fleet at a lower cost.

Continue reading… “The Air Force’s AI-powerd ‘Skyborg’ drones could fly as early as 2023”

Drone swarms use nets to catch other drones in flight

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Sandia National Laboratories researchers leading the MARCUS project are working to develop a system that addresses current and future national security threats posed by small unmanned aircraft systems

Robotics engineers from Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) are developing drones that can capture hostile drones in flight. Funded by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme, the Mobile Adaptive/Reactive Counter Unmanned System (MARCUS) project uses swarms of four unmanned quad-copters working in concert to intercept a drone and catch it in a net.

As drones become more numerous and more sophisticated, they also pose a growing threat. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are now a major component of the world’s major militaries but drones are also showing up in terrorist attacks, invasions of privacy, or acts of mischief at airports that could down an aircraft.

There have been a number of anti-drone systems developed over the years, including jammers, lasers, and even eagles trained to bring them down, but MARCUS aims to not only counter the threat of small UAVs but also to capture them for disposal or information gathering. According to SNL, this isn’t the first system to use nets but it is the first to combine nets with teams of drones controlled by a ground-based computer to coordinate the swarm’s course to ensure interception.

Continue reading… “Drone swarms use nets to catch other drones in flight”

Elon Musk: ‘F-35 fighter jets would have no chance against drones’

 

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Elon Musk has suggested Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, which are a key part of the Morrison government’s $200 billion investment in defence, would “have no chance” against an autonomous drone in the battlefield.

“The fighter jet era has passed,” Mr Musk said at the US Air Force’s Air Warfare Symposium in Florida.

“Drone warfare is where the future will be. It’s not that I want the future to be this – it’s just, this is what the future will be.”

Continue reading… “Elon Musk: ‘F-35 fighter jets would have no chance against drones’”

US Army to study gamers’ brains to build AI military robots

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A group of experts wants to study the brain waves and eye movements of people playing a video game in order to build an advanced AI that could coordinate the actions of military robots.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, awarded a team from the University of Buffalo’s Artificial Intelligence Institute a $316,000 grant for the study.

Although swarm robotics is inspired by many things, including ant colonies, researchers believe that humans have a lot of potential to improve AI learning systems. The study of 25 video game players will include real-time strategy games such as StarCraft, Stellaris and Company of Heroes.

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The Navy’s surprise unmanned fighter is a glimpse of war’s near future

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The Navy converted manned combat jets into unmanned ones. Nobody had any idea they were doing it.

The U.S. Navy announced that it converted EA-18G Growler electronic attack jets into unmanned vehicles.

In a test, a manned Growler controlled two unmanned Growlers.

The previously unknown test could mean that unmanned Navy warplanes are coming sooner than experts thought.

In a surprise announcement, the U.S. Navy revealed on Tuesday that it had successfully flown tests involving unmanned versions of the EA-18G Growler electronic attack fighter. The tests involved a single manned EA-18G controlling two unmanned versions of the same aircraft, opening up the possibility that the U.S. Navy could fly armed unmanned aircraft sooner than originally thought.

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Drones are making America’s F-22 and F-35 more deadly than ever

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US Air Force F-22s and F-35s will soon launch and control recoverable attack drones from the cockpit of the plane.

 Key point: This technology, which hinges upon higher levels of autonomous navigation, brings a wide swath of improved mission possibilities.

US Air Force F-22s and F-35s will soon launch and control recoverable attack drones from the cockpit of the plane to expand air-combat operations, test enemy air defenses, conduct long-range ISR and even deliver weapons.

This fast-approaching technology, which calls upon advanced levels of autonomous navigation, is closer to reality due of DARPA’s Gremlins program which plans to break new ground by launching – and recovering – four drones from an in-flight C-130 next year.

Continue reading… “Drones are making America’s F-22 and F-35 more deadly than ever”

Amazing : Meet the robot tank Estonia and Singapore built to deter Russia

 

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Flexible and deadly.

 Key point: Armed robots are becoming the norm of future warfare. The question is how long humans will stay in the loop.

An Estonian company has teamed up with a Singaporean firm and joined the expanding global race to develop robotic fighting vehicles.

More and more firms are developing armed unmanned ground vehicles, some as private ventures and others in response to formal government programs. But it’s unclear how quickly armies might actually field meaningful numbers of tank-like ground robots.

News broke in June 2019 that Estonia’s Milrem Robotics and Singapore’s ST Engineering had tested a new UGV. “The companies demonstrated the UGV during a live-fire exercise held in Tapa, Estonia,” Estonian World reported.

“The new UGV is armed with a 40-millimeter automatic grenade launcher and a 12.7-millimeter heavy machine gun,” according to Estonian World.

Continue reading… “Amazing : Meet the robot tank Estonia and Singapore built to deter Russia”

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