"BAMS! Northrop Wins Billion-Dollar UAS Deal"
Northrop Grumman wins a new contract that will provide new “UAV’s” for naval maritime use. BAMS is “Broad Area Maritime Surveillance,’ a continuation of current systems being deployed in all aspects of government, from the Border Patrol to the foot soldier in Iraq, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have gone from science fiction to science fact in the course of about 10 years. DARPA is now conducting studies that include micro sized units no larger than a dragonfly. UAV’s have taken the burden of an active pilot in an airplane and place him in a centralized ground station, thus sparing the life of a person in the case of a mishap, but there is a negative side to this benefit and that is the shortage of training UAV pilots and personal. The Air Force has already adjusted the rotation of hundreds of F-16 pilots because of this shortage. Looking at these systems, one has to wonder when they would be used for more than just aerial reconnaissance. Many of the larger UAV’s are capable of carrying all types of munitions, from simple rockets to much more. The real question is how far we are going to go before warfare is so impersonal and distant that the decisions to kill people is not felt at humane level and thought of as trivial action. Life is a miracle and to simplify and degrade it through the use of technological terrors will be the end of our civilization.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/04/22/index.html#entry-48862844
2 comments:
Good post Paul - seems our government can always find ways and $$ for the tools of war. Wonder what would happen if we actually tried to sit down and listen & negotiate with others for a change.
I believe we are advancing dramatically and rather rapidly in the field of military technology. I was reading a story recently about a new nano-technology military suit which will enable soldiers to blend in with their surrounding, forgoing heavy attire. I work as an Air Force Reservist in the Recon Unit which specializes in the Predator, a UAV. I must say, it is quite intriguing to think further down the road, when war may not involve human interaction, but machines all together.
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