The U.S. Navy’s efforts to build a fleet of unmanned vessels are faltering because the Pentagon remains wedded to big shipbuilding projects, according to some officials and company executives, exposing a weakness as sea drones reshape naval warfare.
I am confused as to even what size you conceive these drones to be. Will they be carried or attached to the carrier (the aircraft carrier? A helicopter/landing ship?). Will they be able to independently travel in the ocean like proper escorts do?
Will they actually be supposed to provide air defense and/or anti-submarine capabilities on their own? Because you will need size to house the equipment for all those capabilities and of course all that equipment is expensive.
Guns are not much used in modern destroyers, especially in escort duty as they are not really effective at engaging air targets and not capable of attacking submarines at all.
Then there are CIWS, which can provide self-defense for the ship they are on but can’t really protect other ships. 1 or 2 per ship are enough but if we split a destroyer’s capabilities to multiple hulls we might need more or just accept that if missiles get past outer defenses they can hit our drones.
Outer air defense, which can cover other ships on the fleet, being a very important role for modern destroyers. It’s accomplished via missiles of various sizes and necessitates expensive electronics such as air search radars and fire-control radars. Those are housed in vertical enclosed tubes and are also fired from them. Current US destroyers have ~90 of those as does the plan for the future replacement.
We certainly are not going to make a ship for each cell but we presumably are going to split it some otherwise the ship will be practically the same size as the current destroyer. Of course we are going to have to replicate some elements and/or add new networking equipment to make things work. It certainly ain’t going to be cheaper or more robust than the current destroyer for the same amount of missiles.
Then there are 4-8 anti-ship missiles per destroyer, we could put those on a drone along perhaps along with the torpedoes. We are going to need a surface radar for those.
Then a sonar array (and torpedoes maybe) for the anti-submarine role.
There are also some self defense measures (electronics and decoys) that the destroyer have. Maybe we put then on some of the drones that we deem more important?
But the point is why? What you get will be more expensive unless you choose to reduce capabilities significantly, less robust, less survivable and probably less seaworthy (if you are envisioning lots of small ships).
What is the benefit ? Reducing crews? It is already being done via automation to the extend that it is possible. You also still have a crew (and the ability to increase crew) if the automation is not performing well unlike the case with a drone.
Also your existing carriers, they already carry stuff, you can’t just have them carry the drones around nor do they have the means to safely attach them somehow.
Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu....
Well if both sides get working stealth dogfights are going to become more common.
But the US seems to estimate it’s adversaries do not have such capability at the moment since it’s ordering new F-15s with the major change being air to air missile capacity.
Missiles also did not have 100 miles range 20 years ago. That’s without considering actually detecting and tracking the target.
Retrofitting F-16s to become drones (whether rc or ai-controlled) as well as designing a variant ditching human support for weight and monetary gains is the rational choice as long as non stealth aircraft are viable. In that case you’d stick to F-35s.
It makes no sense to waste billions worth of perfectly capable and proven airframes, engines and avionics. Any future drone that will have at least the same level of capabilities as an f-16 will cost practically cost the same. At the cost of high performance aircraft life support does not add that much cost to a plane, pilot costs (and availability) are a much bigger issue.
No not really, my point is that people have a distorted and exaggerated view of BVR. 100 miles was beyond even the max range of common missiles and even with modern missiles like meteor it’s completely unrealistic to fire at that kind of range. Provided that you have detected and are able to track the target at that range.
I don’t know if modern planes will have to resort to guns but WVR dogfights with IR missiles are more likely than destroying F-35s at BVR ranges.
It doesn’t matter how ‘insanely efficient’ they are. If your tasks need to use more than 8Gb of memory you are going to run out and start swapping to disk.
8gb worth of data is not heavy lifting for professional use.
The path to the April 1 attack started months ago, as aid groups desperately looked for ways to feed millions cut off from regular food deliveries. Gaza was sealed off by Israeli forces within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that ignited the war. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and more...
Starbuck milkshake is like tobacco
Just realize: They call coffee, but unless I order black coffee, anything else feel like milkshake....
It's okay, tankies love fascism, so they're not put out by the result (lemmy.world)
France imposes state of emergency, bans TikTok in riot-hit New Caledonia (www.france24.com)
Journalism (lemmy.world)
Novel attack against virtually all VPN apps neuters their entire purpose (arstechnica.com)
Sea drone warfare has arrived. The U.S. is floundering (www.reuters.com)
The U.S. Navy’s efforts to build a fleet of unmanned vessels are faltering because the Pentagon remains wedded to big shipbuilding projects, according to some officials and company executives, exposing a weakness as sea drones reshape naval warfare.
Voyager 1 (mander.xyz)
George Washington University encampment... (lemmy.world)
source: x.com/jmcmaster29/status/1786588095162335328
Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed (news.sky.com)
Windows 11 Start menu ads are now rolling out to everyone (www.theverge.com)
Microsoft is starting to enable ads inside the Start menu on Windows 11 for all users. After testing these briefly with Windows Insiders earlier this month, Microsoft has started to distribute update KB5036980 to Windows 11 users this week, which includes “recommendations” for apps from the Microsoft Store in the Start menu....
Senate passes TikTok ban bill, sending it to Biden, who has already committed to signing it (www.theverge.com)
House approves sell-or-be-banned TikTok measure, attaching it to foreign aid bill (www.npr.org)
First known test dogfight between AI and human pilot carried out, US military says (news.sky.com)
The aircraft flew up to speeds of 1,200mph. DARPA did not reveal which aircraft won the dogfight.
Apple keeps flogging 8GB of RAM for its Mac computers but it's still a dead horse (www.pcgamer.com)
Apple argues in favor of selling Macs with only 8GB of RAM (9to5mac.com)
A mission of mercy, then a fatal mistake: How an aid convoy in Gaza became Israel's target (apnews.com)
The path to the April 1 attack started months ago, as aid groups desperately looked for ways to feed millions cut off from regular food deliveries. Gaza was sealed off by Israeli forces within hours of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that ignited the war. Since then, more than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and more...