Comment Uncle Sam Buys an Airplane... (Score 1) 550
...is an interesting article in The Atlantic Monthly magazine by James Fallows, who knows his politics and his airplanes (I think he's a pilot).
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/06/fallow s. htm
In case you don't want to read the whole article: The JSF is the Pentagon's attempt to control the cost of developing reducing that spending is a good goal. We can (and should) try to do that by making peace via diplomacy and global co-operation (e.g. the U.N. & world criminal court), but we're still going to need armed forces to enforce the peace, no matter how good our diplomats are.
2. I think drones will first be used to knock out anti-aircraft guns and similar targets to make everything safe for the piloted planes.
3. I'd like to see how well an unmanned fighter can do in a "John Henry-style" contest against a plane with a pilot. I'd guess the piloted plane will still be better in most real-world scenarios, so it must come down to cost. In no particular order, there are two costs when a plane is shot down: building a new plane, and training a new pilot. (Yes, of course, there's also the "priceless" human life involved, but in a war some soldiers are going to die, no matter how careful we are.)
4. All of the discussion about whether drones are more or less moral than piloted planes strikes me as pointless. Just like computers, weapons are tools. They can be used to do bad things or good things, depending on the people operating them. I'm not a believer in artificial intelligence, but I definitely believe in human stupidity.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/06/fallo
In case you don't want to read the whole article: The JSF is the Pentagon's attempt to control the cost of developing reducing that spending is a good goal. We can (and should) try to do that by making peace via diplomacy and global co-operation (e.g. the U.N. & world criminal court), but we're still going to need armed forces to enforce the peace, no matter how good our diplomats are.
2. I think drones will first be used to knock out anti-aircraft guns and similar targets to make everything safe for the piloted planes.
3. I'd like to see how well an unmanned fighter can do in a "John Henry-style" contest against a plane with a pilot. I'd guess the piloted plane will still be better in most real-world scenarios, so it must come down to cost. In no particular order, there are two costs when a plane is shot down: building a new plane, and training a new pilot. (Yes, of course, there's also the "priceless" human life involved, but in a war some soldiers are going to die, no matter how careful we are.)
4. All of the discussion about whether drones are more or less moral than piloted planes strikes me as pointless. Just like computers, weapons are tools. They can be used to do bad things or good things, depending on the people operating them. I'm not a believer in artificial intelligence, but I definitely believe in human stupidity.
