02 February 2008

Robots



I got the word that the Republicans have a significant gender problem, not the same one the Democrats have, but significant just the same. The women seem to like Mitt, and the men seem to like Big John.

It is simplistic and patronizing to put it this way, but I think it has some genetic validity. Romney is cute, and the granola regime tells the tale. John McCain drinks whiskey. Women would prefer to reproduce with Romney, since he will be the good provider, and not disappear for six years at a time like stray-cat McCain.

The only problem is that Romney is a robot, and can only replicate, not fornicate. Well, strictly speaking, that is not quite true, since part of him vibrate quite effectively. Still, fornicating is traditionally considered to be an act between consenting adults and not electrical devices regardless of the combination.

I was stung, anyway, since I was going to talk more about robots this morning. I got a swipe from a pal who is in a position to know this morning. He is still in the business, and he took issue with my characterization of the well-deserved killing of the latest Jihadi to be ushered abruptly to meet his 71 Virginians.

I realized I was losing my knowledge of the tools deployed in the field, or adjacent to it, anyway, in Afghanistan. He informed me that the Predator is much improved, and the new model has been in the field since last year.

I was chagrined, of course. How quickly our hard-earned skills are dated! I used to be able to do a target package in my sleep.

I thought it was like professional development to talk about the electro-magnetic rail-gun test by the Office of Naval Research down at Dahlgren this week. Instead I wound up looking at Reaper, stung by the criticism that the familiar Predator shape I have know over the last fifteen years has now metastasized into the B-variant, still sleek, but with multiple outboard pylons, more fuel, more payload.

It is more muscular. More sophisticated. More deadly.

They call the new model the "Reaper," for all the obvious reasons, not even needing to add the fact that it is grimly efficient at what it does. It is probably what did the necessary violence in Waziristan last Tuesday. It is a thing of wonder, since it has eyes on target.

I dutifully did my homework, something that is in short supply these days, and possible only by deferring other things that need doing on a Saturday morning. I note the impressive increase in the operational ceiling, to 50,000ft, which is important for operations in place like the Hindu Kush. Comparing the anemic Predator A's snow-mobile engine with the hotter Honeywell TP331-10 engine is also gratifying, since 950 shaft horsepower produces maximum speeds over 250 knots, cruising at an efficient 160-180.

The improved wing camber gives more lift capability, and a payload of more than 1.5 tons gives a new world of flexible response options to the pilots, intently staring at their screens on some other continent. 1,500 pounds can be hoisted on each of two inboard weapons stations, or 500-600 pounds on the two middle stations, with 150-200 pounds on the outboard pylons.

Compared to the two Hellfires the original armed Predator could carry, Reaper is now capable of carrying fourteen, and patrols the skies above a prospective target for half a day, including transit time. If you chose to trade off some of the missiles, Reaper can carry laser guided bombs, such as the marvelous Guided Bomb Unit-12. That provides the sort of stopping power one needs in Waziristan, or against hardened structures anywhere in the world.

I support that. It is a good idea taken to the next level. I am still uncomfortable with the hype that accompanies our other ventures into the future. There are systems coming that do not have eyes directly associated have not worked out quite the way we wanted.

You know about the hype, since words of the same sort always accompany our technical triumphs. I remember, as callow youth, hearing the miraculous qualities of the .223 caliber M-16, which was precision-made to incredible tolerances to replace all those clunky old WW II weapons. It featured the small, incredibly hot round, not much larger than the target-plinking caliber of the .22 long we all knew as kids. The .223 round tumbled on impact, they said, and would travel all around the body; entering an arm, exiting somewhere in the central body cavity.

The personal automatic infantry weapon of the future!

It has taken a generation of jamming at inopportune moments and hundreds of failures to kill the intended targets to reconsider the matter. Again and again, jihdais have taken a lick from the M-16 and lep on coming. The same could be said of the 9mm follow-on to the venerable Colt semi-automatic sidearm. As the lessons-learned from Iraq have said, again and again, "if it doesn't start with a "4" it ain't shit."

The hype about the Navy's new rail-gun is as compelling as the argument for the M-16.   This weapons system will bypass traditional chemical propellants and rocket motors as the propulsion for the next generation of the Main Battery. Electromagnetic rail-guns mounted on U.S. naval vessels will use electricity to launch projectiles farther and faster than ever before. The hype states: "When fully operational, the electromagnetic rail-gun (EMRG) will:

     * Deliver hypervelocity projectiles at Mach 5 on impact.
     * Strike within 5 meters of a pinpointed target from 200 NM away.
     * Maximize damage through kinetic energy while minimizing risks to the firing platform, since these will be the equivalent of large, incredibly fast BBs.

Because of its design, EMRG uses electrical energy to extend the range of Marine Corps combat capability ashore in distributed operations, and improves the safety aboard Navy ships since no-one will be horsing munitions around down in the bomb farm, or jamming high explosives into the breach of the guns. The electromagnetic rail-gun is just one more leap-ahead technology catapulting into the future.

I imagine a mach-five BB would get my attention, even if it landed fifteen feet away. But I wondered exactly who exactly will be providing the target information. A Green Beret or a SEAL with actual eyes on target, or perhaps the automated silent sentinels in space high above.

Or perhaps a Reaper, whispering silently above could provide it, no humans required at all, except those at the target area.

It also occurred to me that the ships would not really need crews anymore, since they would be far beyond the coast in the wide ocean, and the whole sensor picture could be remotely conveyed to an operator comfortably standing watch in some hardened structure within an easy commute of his or her home.

I like the future. Maybe only the robots will have to deploy.

Enjoy the Superbowl, should you choose to sit through the hype that sandwiches the human drama. I am going to have to work on a proposal, and I may just have one of the household robots record it for me.

Actually, they could probably just watch it, too. Their surveillance capabilities are getting really quite good.

Copyright 2008 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

Close Window