This seems like science fiction -- our military is insane

Good question, and what happens if the signals from those controlling the things get jammed? Inquiring minds want to know (or want some stimulation!).

 

I suppose you're going to keep us abreast during the first land-on-the-carrier test this summer, Señor Chita?

Answer:

Spoiler

 

Good lord, SwoLy! The dude in that image is a dead ringer of a fellow that was a great friend of mine 30-something years ago. Man, did we have great parties! And he loved cats. Too freaky. :-O-

(and that's exactly the sort of thing he'd do!)

 

Jack Ryan Jr. tracks the hackers down behind enemy lines and we bomb them with an old timey dumb bomb from a Marine reserve F-18.

Actually the X-47B isn't a 'drone', it flies by onboard AI.

 

So what happens when the unexpected happens? And it always does. Would have to be a pretty amazing group of ones and zeros, with computing power to match.

 

Here you go:

1010101010100101010101010101001010101010101010010101010101001010101010100101010101001010101001010101010010101010100101010101010010101010101010101010010101010100101010010101010101001010101010010101101010101010010101010101010100101010101010101001010101010100101010101010010101010100101010100101010101001010101010010101010101001010101010101010101001010101010010101001010101010100101010101001010110101010101001010101010101010010101010101010100101010101010010101010101001010101010010101010010101010100101010101001010101010100101010101010101010100101010101001010100101010101010010101010100101011010101010100101010101010101001010101010101010010101010101001010101010100101010101001010101001010101010010101010100101010101010010101010101010101010010101010100101010010101010101001010101010010101101010101010010101010101010100101010101010101001010101010100101010101010010101010100101010100101010101001010101010010101010101001010101010101010101001010101010010101001010101010100101010101001010110101010101001010101010101010010101010101010100101010101010010101010101001010101010010101010010101010100101010101001010101010100101010101010101010100101010101001010100101010101010010101010100101011010101010100101010101010101001010101010101010010101010101001010101010100101010101001010101001010101010010101010100101010101010010101010101010101010010101010100101010010101010101001010101010010101101010101010010101010101010100101010101010101001010101010100101010101010010101010100101010100101010101001010101010010101010101001010101010101010101001010101010010101001010101010100101010101001010110101010101001010101010101010010101010101010100101010101010010101010101001010101010010101010010101010100101010101001010101010100101010101010101010100101010101001010100101010101010010101010100101011010101010100101010101010101001010101010101010010101010101001010101010100101010101001010101001010101010010101010100101010101010010101010101010101010010101010100101010010101010101001010101010010101101010101010010101010101010100101010101010101001010101010100101010101010010101010100101010100101010101001010101010010101010101001010101010101010101001010101010010101001010101010100101010101001010110101010101001010101010101010010101010101010100101010101010010101010101001010101010010101010010101010100101010101001010101010100101010101010101010100101010101001010100101010101010010101010100101011010101010100101010101010101001010101010101010010101010101001010101010100101010101001010101001010101010010101010100101010101010010101010101010101010010101010100101010010101010101001010101010010101

 

A lot of good comments and discussion here:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/military/read.main/148585

I was just looking for information on the computing power built in the X-47.

 

1.4 billion to basically do what a drone already does besides take off/land on aircraft carrier. That's a joke.

 

nope, big difference between a ground controlled drone and an autonomous platform. And, landing on a cruising, rolling, gusty carrier is a massively complex task.

 

The Navy just hired this guy to fly their drones

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=3b98808860c4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

These events were set in motion at 2:14 AM Eastern Time on August 4, 1997.

Our fate is already sealed.

 

Isn't it Jihadist dream to be sent to afterlife by virgin?

 

instead of fighter pilots there will be fat nerds with acne controlling our fighter jets in a room somewhere stateside

 

people are confusing automated with remotely controlled

there can still be a human pilot, just no need for them to be sitting inside the plane

 

soon we will have these armed drones on the land as well, then Skynet is born and we all die.

 

You could think of it as possibly the next step in evolution and humans as just another rung on the ladder to wherever it's is going.

The limits of physics on our fragile corporeal entities probably means we aren't leaving Earth or existing for millennia in this form anyway.

The dinosaurs say "get back to me when you have a couple of million years under your belt."

 

That's supposedly what happened too one of those uav that landed in an Iranian air field. Russian tech? forgot to install Norton?

 

The next step in human evolution is improvements to the human body that will make it smarter and stronger through DNA manipulation, nanotechnology and probably some advanced robotics thrown in there somewhere.

So for now, we say to the dinosaurs, "get back to us when your brain is bigger than your balls".

 

Ever since that Voyager episode, it makes me strongly consider whether dinosaurs (or any past life for that matter) went to space but left no proof of it over the age.

 

Josh Lucas, Jessica Biel, and Jamie Foxx not impressed