Saturday, June 23, 2018

Terminator Times #46

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Drones):

The Trump Administration continues drone strikes.

US and Chinese UAVs get compared.

USAF has started operating Reaper UAVs from Poland and Greece (more).

The AgilePod has flown on USAF Reapers at least 3 times.

The US Coast Guard has signed a $117 million contract for UAVs.

The USMC has ordered Switchblade suicide drones from AeroVironment.

The USMC has started taking deliveries of cargo from helicopters converted to being drones.

The USMC discusses more about the MUX UAV being a mini AWACS.

The USMC's new quadcopters for its infantry squads have been grounded for potential cyber security reasons.

The USMC will have contractor owned Reapers provide support in Afghanistan.

The USN has officially inducted the Triton UAV into service and gave Northrop a contract for the Triton.

The USN is requesting almost $700M for the MQ-25 effort.

The USN is helping to test the DARPA/Northrop TERN UAV.

US SOCOM is looking for new drones.

Australia is integrating the Black Hornet nano UAV at the infantry squad level.

The British had a 5th Watchkeeper drone crash in Wales.

Bulgaria is proposing joint UAV production with Israel.

Images of China's Dark Sword stealthy UCAV have emerged.

China is rocking and rolling in the international drone market.

A European MALE UAV has flown under satellite control for the first time.

Germany signed the Heron TP contract.

Israel tested the Cormorant UAV for medical evacs.

Israel sold Heron UAVs to India.

Russian Katrans robo helicopter will start trials this summer.

The Russians have unveiled the export version of the Orland 10 UAV.

Spain has ordered more Fulmar UAVs.

Airbus is advancing its VSR700 VTOL UAV project.

The Black Hornet nano UAV is being integrated into vehicles.

A new version of the Black Hornet can now navigate without GPS.

The Blue Bird ThunderB was profiled.

General Atomics tested a mockup of the inlet with their proposed engine for the MQ-25.

General Atomics will retrofit 122 Reapers.

General Atomics also got a contract for radars for the Reapers.

General Atomics also got a contract from the USMC for its Reapers.

General Atomics successfully conducted lightning testing on the MQ-9B.

General Atomics' demonstration of the Guardian UAV in Japan has been completed.

Lockheed has unveiled the Stalker VTOL UAV.

MIT has a virtual world setup for UAVs to "fly" in.

Nexter unveiled a tethered UAV concept for SpecOps.

Piaggo is planning its next gen UAV.

Rafael unveiled its Firefly suicide drone.

Swedish/Swiss drone maker Skeldar has bought German engine maker Hirth.

TAI & KAI have signed an agreement for the Anka UAV.

YugoImport unveiled its X-01 Strsljen VTOL UAV.

Unmanned Ground Vehicles:

The US Army just awarded another contract to make its logistics vehicles unmanned.

The US Army wants an optionally manned replacement for the Bradley.

Australia has ordered extra UGVs for testing.

The British want to use UGVs for logistics.

Horiba Mira unveiled a new Centaur 6x6 UGV.

Milrem & MBDA are making an antitank UGV.

Polus-ST unveiled its KRMM-06 UGV.

Russia's Uran-9 UGV performed extremely badly in Syria.

Unmanned Surface Vehicles (Roboats):

The Chinese tested a swarm of 56 USVs.

The US Navy has a CRADA to test the SwarmDiver USV.

NATO and Israel are training to repel swarm attacks.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (Robo Subs):

The US Navy is looking at putting MCM sonars on UUVs.

The US Navy's Knifefish passed recent tests.

The US Navy gave Metron a contract for modules for UUVs.

3d Printing:

The US Army is experimenting with 3d printing in exercises.

Software Bots:

A secret software bot program is hunting for hidden nuclear weapons.

India is putting together an AI teask force to play catchup to China and the US.

Google may not renew its contract with the Pentagon for its software bots.  This is due to the Pentagon wanting to expand the contract and employees at Google protesting and even resigning.  Google management thought the program would expand enormously and be very lucrative.  That's been kiboshed.  Google is promising an ethical guideline for military AI.

Some are stating AI researchers should help with military projects.

A company working on an AI project for the military was hacked.

META:

The US Navy wants unmanned systems to be ubiquitous in warfare.  Here's their roadmap.

The British are worried AI will learn war from computer games.

Some claim the ideal of humans in the loop to contract autonomous weapons is a fallacy.

Killer robots will only happen if we are stupid enough to let them.

Russia is attempting to greatly increase their unmanned military capabilities.

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