This isn't as novel as this somewhat breathless article makes it out to be: same thing has been done with many retired Air Force planes, including the F-4 Phantom (drone/target version was redesignated QF-4). I do appreciate the Beeb's reaching out to the brilliantly-named Campaign to Stop Killer Robots for comment, however.<p>Edit: here's a video of some F-15s blowing up QF-4s <a href="http://youtu.be/xISpZYajveA" rel="nofollow">http://youtu.be/xISpZYajveA</a>
<i>However, a spokesman for the</i> Campaign to Stop Killer Robots <i>warned of the temptation to use them in warfare.</i><p>I had no idea such an organization existed. The future is now, I guess.
<p><pre><code> The firm added that the flight attained 7Gs of acceleration but was capable
of carrying out manoeuvres at 9Gs - something that might cause physical problems
for a pilot.
</code></pre>
Wow, I guess this means they can push the machines to their mechanical limit without worrying about blackouts/redouts/etc. I wonder what kind of crazy maneuvers they can pull off without the biological factor?<p>Also: I'm not sure how I feel about a $15-18 million target dummy...<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_...</a>
Just what modern warfare needs, even less proximity. Boeing like to say its for target practise but quite obviously its real life applications are far more violent.<p>Powerful nations will be able to conduct warfare even more secretly (less witnesses and potential whistleblowers) and reduction in home casualty will allow them to conduct their wars for even longer.<p>Can we really trust these countries to use this sort of technology responsibly? Clearly not. Interesting and clever technology but ultimately distasteful and sinister.
> Boeing suggested that the innovation could ultimately be used to help train pilots, providing an adversary they could practise firing on.<p>They're not even trying, are they.
This is hardly news. The Air Force recently ran out of the old F-4 Phantoms we used to use for target practice, so they've moved on to converting the aging (and plentiful) F-16 fleet. That's all.
Ohh, so that's what they kept them for - <a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01583/planes-big_1583925a.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01583/planes-big...</a>
"I'm particularly worried about the high speed at which they can travel because they might not be able to distinguish their targets very clearly."<p>I really don't understand what he is trying to say here.
So technically... The Netherlands could still decide not to buy the Joint Strike Fighter, Rip some stouf out of our 'old' F16's, retrofit it with a souped-up PS4 and it can still go for miles and miles?<p>That's going to get interesting in Dutch parliament...
It seems logical to me that this would have occurred long ago....I'm sort of stunned that it's just happening now. There is simply no reason to have humans in fighter planes or bombers these days, and retrofitting the old equipment should be relatively inexpensive. We should be retrofitting tanks and helicopters for this as well.
Well it's about damn time - pretty much all of our planes are capable of faster maneuvers <i>without</i> the pilot inside.<p>This would make old planes useable on the battlefield again (recon, escort, decoys, you name it)... oh how useless the F35 program will be :-)...
China has a bunch of "UAV" versions of their J-6. Pretty cool looking without a cockpit. <a href="http://i.imgur.com/B9yXf.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/B9yXf.jpg</a>