Allies plough billions into drones (BBC)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Unmanned robot planes which roam across the battlefield to hunt and kill the enemy are not the stuff of comic books.

They are here, now, and proving so useful that the Pentagon is about to spend $13bn on a new generation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

The US and the British militaries are also looking at ways to make these drones invisible - to radar, the naked eye or even to infra-red sensors.

Both governments are spending large amounts on radical ideas about war-fighting.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4422539.stm

[SouthernDem2004]

1. Good. Better then risking the life of a pilot.

[reprobate]

2. Bad. It's easier to kill when you aren't in danger.

And easier to go to war.

[rooboy]

4. And guaranteed to encourage enemies to act preemptively. n/t

[Theduckno2]

3. I always get a bit queazy when.....

there is some new high tech weapon that is portrayed as some sort of cure-all. I think back to the British with their dreadnaught battleships and how a little thing like an airplane brought about their doom. I think the drones are still susceptible to jamming and are very expensive to use against low value targets. They do protect pilots though.

[MisterP]

5. I think of Terminators. And since when is the New Axis the "Allies"?

[saigon68]

6. Children Starve and Seniors have no prescriptions

So the new generation of Pentagon Masturbators can enjoy, a new form of arousal for their evil souls

Thanks amerikan taxpayer you idiot.

now back to the michael jackson trial for the SHEEP.

[zann725]

7. Didn't a few of these un-manned planes lose control & crash recently?

That's a few billions per crash (as our Economy crashes as well)!! And how can pilot drones tell the difference between U.S. Military and Insurgents on the ground? My guess is, some times (or maybe often) they can't. Oh well...war is Hell.

[saigon68]

8. Yes I believe several did.

At an extreme cost.

But then those pesky nursing home residents, don't know how we have prevented suicide bombers from coming into their filthy rooms and blowing them up, as they were waiting for their "ONCE A DAY" diaper change.

</sarcasm>

[Name removed]

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[Massacure]

11. I could have sworn that the predator has a preprogrammed flight path?

I know the programs can be updated via satalite that that tacks precious time to do. You wouldn't be able to do air to air combat with them.

[truthisfreedom]

10. remember the star trek episode (old school) where a perpetual war is waged

on a planet but nobody is killed, because it's all simulated by computers? and the people voluntarily die (painlessly, one would presume) to match the losses in the simulation?

[struggle4progress]

12. Oh, planes. I was expectin somethin about "Bugsy" Delay and ...

... other nonproductive insects currently scurryin about DC.