T.J.Bertsch
The Rise of the Machines
Since the dawn of life there has been a fight for survival, conflict and struggle. The earliest civilizations quickly learned that victory can be swayed by the influence of technology, thus developing superior weapons and armor to that of the enemy. Wars have been waged in a similar manner from the beginning to modern times, but this is changing with the rise of mechanized warfare. Allowing machines to do the fighting in place of human soldiers has decreased the risk to the operators and increased fear in the enemy. Although fully functioning artificially intelligent machines are not quite at reach, there is a rapidly expanding fleet of remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s). ROV’s are being used by a multitude of different groups that range from the military to the commercial to the civil. Military ROV’s are becoming more utilized by every branch of the service as well as Dept of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency. Civil Unmanned Arial Vehicles alone are used by agencies such as the US Forestry Dept, USDA, UPS, Fed Ex, General Atomics, Nav Tech/ John Deere, Dept of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and many more. The rise of the remotely operated vehicles is quickly revolutionizing the way traditional wars are waged while effecting civilian life simultaneously.
USAF MQ1 - “Predator”There are variety of kinds of remotely operated vehicles used for remote sensing, scientific research, transport, search and rescue, armed attacks, and more. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are used by all the US Armed Forces and have been in use for longer than most people realize. They have been with, or in development with, the U.S. military since the early 1960’s, and possibly earlier! (Dawkins, 6) They are separated into “tiers” which are primarily decided by the operational elevation which goes from low, medium, to high altitude. The low altitude aircraft are predominantly for reconnaissance and scouting, and are mostly hand-held and have a short flight time. Some, such as the “Raven” can be collapsible for easy transport.
Medium altitude U.S. Air Force (USAF) planes are the Predator and Hunter drones which are used for large area reconnaissance and attacks. They can be modified to hold varying weapons as well as medical supplies for drop off. High altitude planes such as the Global Hawk can fly for up to 40 continuous hours and are used for communication support and information superiority. Often these planes will have a programed course that they will follow, allowing them to record information over long periods of time while the operators do other work. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencey (DARPA) is in an attempt to make a UAV with an extreme endurance flight time of 5 years. (Piel, 7)
Unmanned Ground Vehicles used by the US Army and Marines for reconnaissance and even some offensive measures. These keep soldiers out of harms way and can be deployed in all environments including urban neighborhoods which demonstrates the flexibility and versatility of these machines. Necessity demands innovation which is why there are so many kinds of ROV’s in use. Some are deployed because there is a potential target but stairs keep conventional vehicles on the ground. Most of these can be fitted or modified with different videocameras, weapons, and armor making.
Unmanned Water Vehicles used by the Coast Guard and Navy to protect boarders from drug smuggling and illegal entry into the US. These UWV’s can attack hostile targets with great accuracy and travel high speeds as stealth crafts. These can also be used as rescue vehicles as demonstrated by the new water craft of the Israeli military. These are quickly being developed by the United State’s military to add to the force which guards the water borders.
As stated earlier, every branch of the US Armed Forces use some sort of ROV to accomplish their respective missions and to best protect their people. The required training for the soldiers to use the machines is minimal compared to the conventional training required for each individual soldier. Training a pilot in the Air Force will take a 2 year pilot training and around 1 to 1.5 million dollars, not including the maintenance, fuel costs, and basic training. (Dawkins, 10) With UAV pilots the training period is cut down to about 2 months of pilot training and less energy waste. Other types of vehicle operator training programs are also minimal and do not require a technical degree or advanced training which is ideal for field use. Simplicity is key in the military, overcomplicated solutions often cause problems. As these ROV’s were in development many researchers found that it was hard to train operators to use the original controls because they were unfamiliar with it and uncomfortable with the placement of the controls. A suggestion came that maybe using a video game controller would work better, and as show below, nothing could have been truer. Controllers from the Xbox 360, or the Play Station 3, have shown to be much more compatable for the operator, rather than using what the designers originally came up with.
For these reasons the Armed Forces are expanding their use of the ROV’s as a cheap yet effective way to fight. Anna Mulrine, senior editor and defense correspondent for US News & World Report magazine wrote in the Air Force magazine: “By 2012, the Air Force plans to increase the ranks of UAV pilots and air operations staffers to a total of 1,100. That is up from just over 450 Predator and Reaper operators today—and 180 just a couple of years ago.” There is much positive reinforcement by military leaders such as the USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, who is advocating a fleet that rivals that of the fleet of F-16’s. Eventually there will be a time that manned fighter pilots will be obsolete, out performed by programming and technology. (Wise)
Most industrialized nations have some sort of operational ROV systems giving the edge to the most technologically advanced nations. A Russian online news source known as PRAVDA, explain that military leaders in Russia are concerned with their UAV programs because they can not create a UAV model that works as well as other nations’, forcing them to buy from Israel which is obviously a security hazard. Not to be isolated within military ranks, the ROV has spread to domestic law enforcement agencies such as the Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies. Border Patrol agents are currently using modified USAF UAV’s, such as the Predator, to get a very large view of the American border which gives quick and precise information, which is cheaper than having many groups of agents on constant patrol. Police and SWAT teams can use UAV’s to get an overhead view of a potentially dangerous area or track a fleeing criminal from a safe distance. Some types of UAV’s, similar to the U.S. Army’s “Raven”, can be small enough to fit into a police cruiser, be unfolded, and deployed in a short amount of time.
The line does not stop with government use, but also civilian and commercial uses. Many agencies are using modified airplanes to do research in hazardous areas or environments that require unusual care. Rainforests, farms, and weather phenomenon are the biggest targets for research. The “National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration flew a 6-ft.-long Aerosonde into the heart of tropical storm Ophelia.” (Wise) US Forest service uses non-military Predator drones to observe forest fires and used the same aircraft to attain a census of seals and sea lions in California as well as in Hawaii to determine when coffee beans were ripe. (Wise) Along with the benefits of using ROV’s there are the economic effects caused by supply and demand. Businesses are growing because of contracts with varying agencies, producing many varieties and competition with other businesses. Business will have no need to pay for a highly trained pilot when there are simple to use planes that cost much less and can be owned by the business to be used more often. For bigger aircraft there would be less stopping and starting due to the biological needs of a pilot onboard. Current laws and regulations make it hard to obtain permission to fly in the United States of America. Many no fly zones are already set up for traditional manned aircraft and it takes a lot of paperwork to get permission to gain a small area to fly UAV’s. (Manning, 22)
Support of ROV’s is not hard to find as it obviously it saves lives and money to keep the programs functional and upgraded to best defend the nation. Reliability is an issue with all technology but is constantly upgraded and improved for maximum efficiency. Detractors speculate that mechanized warfare will lead to more atrocities of war caused by malfunctions that could be avoided with a manned machine. Some soldiers feel that there a lack of personal attention or reliability when working with machines. Some USAF pilots are forced to take a position as a UAV operator because so few pilots want to go into that particular job. (Dawkins, 56) The excitement factor is absent, which is the main reason most people want to become pilots in the first place. It is given equal respect as playing video games while on the job, and to an extent this is true. Pilots have also felt that the loss of the piloted aircraft would be a big loss of the old dog fighting style hero. With a lack of air to air combat the vision of the heroic and courageous fighter pilots is waning. Although cargo and commercial jet liners are still piloted it is only a matter of time before such things are also animated to fly without human control.
As civilizations evolve so does the manner in which actions are taken. War has been a constant in the equation of human history, permanently set in place as a necessary evil or absolute atrocity. The way wars have been fought the past few thousand years has changed with the advent of steal, gunpowder, and atomic research, yet some argue that it the time is approaching when war will be civilized to the extent that wars will be attrition of machines with no loss of human life. ROV’s are undeniably going to be a major player in the world and will be changed time and time again in incredible ways. “The age of the robot planes has begun. Soon, it will be hard to imagine how we ever lived without them.” (Wise)
Since the dawn of life there has been a fight for survival, conflict and struggle. The earliest civilizations quickly learned that victory can be swayed by the influence of technology, thus developing superior weapons and armor to that of the enemy. Wars have been waged in a similar manner from the beginning to modern times, but this is changing with the rise of mechanized warfare. Allowing machines to do the fighting in place of human soldiers has decreased the risk to the operators and increased fear in the enemy. Although fully functioning artificially intelligent machines are not quite at reach, there is a rapidly expanding fleet of remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s). ROV’s are being used by a multitude of different groups that range from the military to the commercial to the civil. Military ROV’s are becoming more utilized by every branch of the service as well as Dept of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency. Civil Unmanned Arial Vehicles alone are used by agencies such as the US Forestry Dept, USDA, UPS, Fed Ex, General Atomics, Nav Tech/ John Deere, Dept of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and many more. The rise of the remotely operated vehicles is quickly revolutionizing the way traditional wars are waged while effecting civilian life simultaneously.
USAF MQ1 - “Predator”There are variety of kinds of remotely operated vehicles used for remote sensing, scientific research, transport, search and rescue, armed attacks, and more. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are used by all the US Armed Forces and have been in use for longer than most people realize. They have been with, or in development with, the U.S. military since the early 1960’s, and possibly earlier! (Dawkins, 6) They are separated into “tiers” which are primarily decided by the operational elevation which goes from low, medium, to high altitude. The low altitude aircraft are predominantly for reconnaissance and scouting, and are mostly hand-held and have a short flight time. Some, such as the “Raven” can be collapsible for easy transport.
Medium altitude U.S. Air Force (USAF) planes are the Predator and Hunter drones which are used for large area reconnaissance and attacks. They can be modified to hold varying weapons as well as medical supplies for drop off. High altitude planes such as the Global Hawk can fly for up to 40 continuous hours and are used for communication support and information superiority. Often these planes will have a programed course that they will follow, allowing them to record information over long periods of time while the operators do other work. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agencey (DARPA) is in an attempt to make a UAV with an extreme endurance flight time of 5 years. (Piel, 7)
Unmanned Ground Vehicles used by the US Army and Marines for reconnaissance and even some offensive measures. These keep soldiers out of harms way and can be deployed in all environments including urban neighborhoods which demonstrates the flexibility and versatility of these machines. Necessity demands innovation which is why there are so many kinds of ROV’s in use. Some are deployed because there is a potential target but stairs keep conventional vehicles on the ground. Most of these can be fitted or modified with different videocameras, weapons, and armor making.
Unmanned Water Vehicles used by the Coast Guard and Navy to protect boarders from drug smuggling and illegal entry into the US. These UWV’s can attack hostile targets with great accuracy and travel high speeds as stealth crafts. These can also be used as rescue vehicles as demonstrated by the new water craft of the Israeli military. These are quickly being developed by the United State’s military to add to the force which guards the water borders.
As stated earlier, every branch of the US Armed Forces use some sort of ROV to accomplish their respective missions and to best protect their people. The required training for the soldiers to use the machines is minimal compared to the conventional training required for each individual soldier. Training a pilot in the Air Force will take a 2 year pilot training and around 1 to 1.5 million dollars, not including the maintenance, fuel costs, and basic training. (Dawkins, 10) With UAV pilots the training period is cut down to about 2 months of pilot training and less energy waste. Other types of vehicle operator training programs are also minimal and do not require a technical degree or advanced training which is ideal for field use. Simplicity is key in the military, overcomplicated solutions often cause problems. As these ROV’s were in development many researchers found that it was hard to train operators to use the original controls because they were unfamiliar with it and uncomfortable with the placement of the controls. A suggestion came that maybe using a video game controller would work better, and as show below, nothing could have been truer. Controllers from the Xbox 360, or the Play Station 3, have shown to be much more compatable for the operator, rather than using what the designers originally came up with.
For these reasons the Armed Forces are expanding their use of the ROV’s as a cheap yet effective way to fight. Anna Mulrine, senior editor and defense correspondent for US News & World Report magazine wrote in the Air Force magazine: “By 2012, the Air Force plans to increase the ranks of UAV pilots and air operations staffers to a total of 1,100. That is up from just over 450 Predator and Reaper operators today—and 180 just a couple of years ago.” There is much positive reinforcement by military leaders such as the USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, who is advocating a fleet that rivals that of the fleet of F-16’s. Eventually there will be a time that manned fighter pilots will be obsolete, out performed by programming and technology. (Wise)
Most industrialized nations have some sort of operational ROV systems giving the edge to the most technologically advanced nations. A Russian online news source known as PRAVDA, explain that military leaders in Russia are concerned with their UAV programs because they can not create a UAV model that works as well as other nations’, forcing them to buy from Israel which is obviously a security hazard. Not to be isolated within military ranks, the ROV has spread to domestic law enforcement agencies such as the Border Patrol and local law enforcement agencies. Border Patrol agents are currently using modified USAF UAV’s, such as the Predator, to get a very large view of the American border which gives quick and precise information, which is cheaper than having many groups of agents on constant patrol. Police and SWAT teams can use UAV’s to get an overhead view of a potentially dangerous area or track a fleeing criminal from a safe distance. Some types of UAV’s, similar to the U.S. Army’s “Raven”, can be small enough to fit into a police cruiser, be unfolded, and deployed in a short amount of time.
The line does not stop with government use, but also civilian and commercial uses. Many agencies are using modified airplanes to do research in hazardous areas or environments that require unusual care. Rainforests, farms, and weather phenomenon are the biggest targets for research. The “National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration flew a 6-ft.-long Aerosonde into the heart of tropical storm Ophelia.” (Wise) US Forest service uses non-military Predator drones to observe forest fires and used the same aircraft to attain a census of seals and sea lions in California as well as in Hawaii to determine when coffee beans were ripe. (Wise) Along with the benefits of using ROV’s there are the economic effects caused by supply and demand. Businesses are growing because of contracts with varying agencies, producing many varieties and competition with other businesses. Business will have no need to pay for a highly trained pilot when there are simple to use planes that cost much less and can be owned by the business to be used more often. For bigger aircraft there would be less stopping and starting due to the biological needs of a pilot onboard. Current laws and regulations make it hard to obtain permission to fly in the United States of America. Many no fly zones are already set up for traditional manned aircraft and it takes a lot of paperwork to get permission to gain a small area to fly UAV’s. (Manning, 22)
Support of ROV’s is not hard to find as it obviously it saves lives and money to keep the programs functional and upgraded to best defend the nation. Reliability is an issue with all technology but is constantly upgraded and improved for maximum efficiency. Detractors speculate that mechanized warfare will lead to more atrocities of war caused by malfunctions that could be avoided with a manned machine. Some soldiers feel that there a lack of personal attention or reliability when working with machines. Some USAF pilots are forced to take a position as a UAV operator because so few pilots want to go into that particular job. (Dawkins, 56) The excitement factor is absent, which is the main reason most people want to become pilots in the first place. It is given equal respect as playing video games while on the job, and to an extent this is true. Pilots have also felt that the loss of the piloted aircraft would be a big loss of the old dog fighting style hero. With a lack of air to air combat the vision of the heroic and courageous fighter pilots is waning. Although cargo and commercial jet liners are still piloted it is only a matter of time before such things are also animated to fly without human control.
As civilizations evolve so does the manner in which actions are taken. War has been a constant in the equation of human history, permanently set in place as a necessary evil or absolute atrocity. The way wars have been fought the past few thousand years has changed with the advent of steal, gunpowder, and atomic research, yet some argue that it the time is approaching when war will be civilized to the extent that wars will be attrition of machines with no loss of human life. ROV’s are undeniably going to be a major player in the world and will be changed time and time again in incredible ways. “The age of the robot planes has begun. Soon, it will be hard to imagine how we ever lived without them.” (Wise)
Overall, this is a good piece about what the future holds for the military, but these remotely operated vehicles seem more like a positive than a negative. You briefly noted some of the problems have with the ROVs, but I think I would have like to have seen more about problems that will arise and how they will be fixed. Also, you talked about how much training costs as opposed to training for tradition vehicles and planes, but how much does on of these machines costs in relation to a manned plane or vehicle? If the training is less expensive but the cost of the machine is astronomically more, is there actually a benefit? That is, of course, hypothetical.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I would have liked to know more about was how these are beneficial to the military. A lot of time is spent on what these machines are, how they work, and who wants them, but I don’t think enough time is spent how they are actually benefitting the people who are using them. How many lives have been saved? How many places have these machines been able to go that there is no possible way man could safely get to? You also just brush over the history, but I think it is important to know what the first machines were and how they have evolved since.
One of the most interesting and surprising parts of this paper was the fact that the military had to configure video game controllers for the soldiers because the original controllers were too foreign.
The paper definitely gives a good looked at the machines the military is currently working with, I just think it left a little to be desired. A little bit more substance would have helped, but it gave a clear depiction of what is to come for ROVs in both military and civilian usage.
Overall you did a good job with this paper. I think it is a very positive future for our military and human life. You did a good job describing each machine but I would have liked to know a little more about the machines--- their build and descriptions about specifics of what they do. Is there any proof that these machines actually save human lives? If so, then I think that is great. I know many people would support this, if it means their loved one is safe. I think the military has a better future with these machines. Do humans need to operate these machines, would they operate them from a safe location, or do these machines operate on their own? If humans need to operate these machines in the actual machine or close by, would it harm them?
ReplyDeleteWould this cut down on the number people we have joining the military? I think we still need people to defend our country other than operating these machines.
Do other countries use these types of machines—our allies and enemies? It would be amazing if the United States was the first to do this. In order to save lives, we could collaborate with other countries about this technology and further the exploration of these machines and their use in war.
You wrote that costs would decrease but would the cost of the machine still be a lot? I would have also liked to know the risks of having machines fight the wars for us. After reading this paper, I feel like we are going to be in a science fiction movie like The Terminator or I-Robot. With technology growing, I would understand why the military is making this move --- we have technology running our lives and saving our lives in ways so why not have them fight our battles.
Good paper and I look forward to seeing the future of the United States and its military.
I really enjoyed reading this paper, learned a lot that I was not aware of about the military. I found the whole part about technology very interesting. Although this has become a large part of our military I was unaware of the possible both negative and positive effects it has, will have on our military and country.
ReplyDeleteI liked how most of your paper was based on the ROV. I knew nothing about ROV’s until I read this paper, but will these benefit us in the long run? Do we spend too much money on these vehicles? Do we spend too much money training military personnel on how to use these vehicles? In the long run will these vehicles help the U.S. with fighting, and other military incidents? Do other countries use these vehicles, to improve their fighting in wars and etc. I couldn’t quite understand how you felt about this subject. You wrote both negative and positive ways these help and/or don’t help the military, but I found the information to be all kind of jumbled together and not clear. So do these ROV’s benefit the U.S. and military personnel. After talking about the ROV, I feel like you skip around to the airplanes and other flight materials that the military uses. Although that information has a large importance on your paper.
Technology has changed our society in many ways, most people don’t think of how technology has changed our military and fighting techniques. I like that you included this insight in your introduction, because it has made a big difference in our society. Enjoyed reading your paper, very well written, lots of information, and I learned a lot. Considering I know pretty much nothing about the Military, or the types of vehicles they use.