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Smithsonian Gets Military UAVs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the skynet-positioning-assets dept.

NetworkWorld is reporting that a new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum is featuring some of the military's more prominent UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). In addition to the vehicles themselves, a large number of supporting technologies are also on display. "Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used by all four military branches for missions ranging from reconnaissance and surveillance to attack and each branch is represented in this exhibit: Predator, DarkStar, X-45A (Air Force); Shadow 200 (Army); Dragon Eye (Marine Corps); and Pioneer (Navy)."

20 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot on a military roll by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's funny that this is the second story on Slashdot in a row about military technology. For me, this shows an interesting dichotomy in how military issues are treated here. On one hand, us nerds show certain tendencies to pacifism, especially with the current war in Iraq. War, in a Star Trek sense, is often seen as belonging to a backward age of Man. On the other hand, among the nerd community there has always been an admiration of military technological advances and the efficiency of military organization. Look at the long popularity of Heinlein's Starship Troopers , for example.

    1. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Although war is bad (though, depending on your viewpoint, a necessary evil), some of the tools of war (UAVs, etc) are engineering marvels. An example would be the SR-71 blackbird.

    2. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by jd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That tends to be because the military get substantial funding for research and for recruiting the best minds. If the US Government put a trillion or so a year into civilian road car development, Slashdot would look more like Automart. Likewise, if they boosted Linux development by that amount, you'd be able to download it as a neural implant by now. The reason development accelerates in wartime is because Governments underfund research whenever possible, but the military (as much as I distrust them) have a much better grasp of the importance of such work.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
    3. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by couchslug · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are plenty of "us nerds" that are far from being pacifists.
      Pacifism is fine in Moms basement. It equals "surrender" everywhere else, because it is only effective against people who aren't serious in the first place.

      "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms."
                          Robert Anson Heinlein

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    4. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by ArmyOfFun · · Score: 5, Funny

      As with most things, The Onion has already tapped this comedy vein:
      Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool

    5. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by SCHecklerX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The reason you have your beloved Internet is because of military technology. Most good stuff comes from the military. And porn.

    6. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, the military gets the money to buy the toys; if we moved, say, 20% of the military tech budget into space exploration, that would be a lot sexier right now.

      This is one of the things the general public doesn't understand about nerds/geeks/whatever you call people who are defined by enthusiasms for difficult to understand things. Geeks differentiate between the utility of things as objects of study, and their intended utility, as any computer security researcher would tell you.

      So just because you are fascinated by things that go boom doesn't mean you want to see them used on people. In fact, it's only idiots who like to play with explosives. The geek aspect of the game is doing things that would be stupid for other people, but not for you because you know exactly what is safe and what is not.

      As far as geek militarism/pacifism goes, it seems to follow a pendulum like with everyone else, with the geeks being a bit ahead of the curve. You wouldn't be a geek exactly if your way of looking at things made you fit in.

      Geeks are just smarter than the average populace. They aren't necessarily wiser. The very basis of wisdom is accepting that you might be wrong. Some people are so good at arguing and so used to being more right than their neighbor that they never have to confront their own fallibility. So geeks can represent both the best and worst humanity has to offer, the most enlightened viewpoints and the most stubbornly insular.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    7. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by Charcharodon · · Score: 2, Funny
      On one hand, us nerds show certain tendencies to pacifism, especially with the current war in Iraq. War, in a Star Trek sense, is often seen as belonging to a backward age of Man.

      Haha that reminds of a song!

      Star Trek'n

      Captain James T. Kirk

      "We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, We come in peace, shoot to kill, Scotty beam me up!"

      If you mean nerd as in a WOW/ART/Music/Myspace Nerd, then yes I might agree with you. They are typically a notch or two on the evolutionary scale above Dirty Hippy, which as we all know is the lowest know species of man. They tend to be pacifistic in nature due to miss-informed biased world view based on You-Tube and blogs rather than a more practical & more accurate hands on, been there, looked at it with my own two eyes life experience.

      On the other hand if you mean Nerd as in an engineering student (the highest form of life) then you are WAY off base.

      An engineering nerd can appreciate the cold unfeeling efficiency of high-tech death as well as a society that doesn't reward pacfism. Hell if you didn't get that from reading Star Ship troopers then you can't hardly call yourself a proper nerd.

      If President Bush had read ST and been a proper Nerd, we wouldn't be still fucking around with Iraq, Iran, and N. Korea.

      This is how it would have played out if he had.

      9/11 they fucked with us

      10/11 President declares the Axis of Evil must be delt with.

      10/12 we drop a nuke on Iraq
      10/13 we drop a nuke on Iran
      10/14 we drop a nuke on N. Korea
      10/15 France protests
      10/16 we drop a nuke on France, they retract their protest

      1 month later we find out Bin Laden did it and that he is hiding in Pakistan

      We demand they catch him and extradite him to the US....or else.

      24 hours later Pakistan delivers up Osama Bid Laden

      24 hours after that we nuke Pakistan for dragging their feet.

      The UN becomes much less "whinny" for some odd reason.

    8. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by R2.0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Well, the military gets the money to buy the toys; if we moved, say, 20% of the military tech budget into space exploration, that would be a lot sexier right now."

      Social Security took up 20.2% of the 2007 federal budget. Defense took up 19%. By your logic, most geeks would be turned on by granny porn.

      Not that there's anything wrong with that...

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    9. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by turgid · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That reminds me, Gandhi had a contemporary who advocated India joining up with Nazi Germany in WWII to defeat the British. He had quite a sizable following.

      Goodness only knows what would have happened had Gandhi not been successful.

      --
      Stick Men
    10. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Efficiency? You mean like designing and building four different UVAs for each branch of the US military? You mean like designing a computer language for its own projects that nobody else uses (Ada)?

      Don't get me started about government efficiency.

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    11. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 2, Funny

      The very basis of wisdom is accepting that you might be wrong. Some people are so good at arguing and so used to being more right than their neighbor that they never have to confront their own fallibility. Yeah, I used to think that, but I was wrong .... so wrong.
      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
    12. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by hey! · · Score: 2

      Correction -- you might have been wrong. You might still be wrong now. Keep trying, and you'll get there.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    13. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by ravan_a · · Score: 3, Informative

      Subhash Chandra Bose is the guy you are talking about.

      --
      -ravan_a
    14. Re:Slashdot on a military roll by shmlco · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "Anyway in a ST world France wouldn't exist anyway since if you weren't willing to do service in the military you pretty much were bred out of the human race since "Civilians" were only allowed to have 1 child per couple."

      Got a reference for that one? As I recall, in the book you needed military service in order to gain your franchise (the ability to vote). Everyone had to serve for a limited period in som fashion (e.g. public service), but only military service conferred the vote.

      So if you wanted a say in how the country was run, you had to prove that you had its best interests at heart by also being willing to die for it.

      The ulimate "put your money where your mouth is" clause.

      --
      Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  2. Used Daily by the SGC by jameskojiro · · Score: 2, Funny

    They use them more now than the little electric carts with six wheels. They go through the gate and can fly and some have little missles that can take out small squads of Jaffa really quickly.

    --
    Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
  3. Re:All Five? by techpawn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Coast Guard? Coast Guard is the strange cousin of the Military. They invite him to the family get together but you know they talk about him when he's not in ear shot.
    Don't get me wrong. I respect the men and women who do it, I don't want to be on the water like that.

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  4. Re:All Five? by Solandri · · Score: 2, Informative

    Coast Guard? Coast Guard is the strange cousin of the Military. They invite him to the family get together but you know they talk about him when he's not in ear shot.
    Prior to the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, the US Coast Guard was part of the Treasury Department (along with Customs and Border Patrol) during peacetime, and transferred to the Department of Defense during times of war. e.g. During Desert Storm (Iraq War I), the Coast Guard was transferred to the DoD and some of its ships and service members saw action there. I think there was a brief stint in the Department of Transportation as well.

    The same arrangement continues with the USCG switching from DHS to DoD during times of war.

  5. New? by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not sure how new this is, we were there well over a month ago and it was already there.

    I found it underwhelming - I mean, instead of an interesting exhibition on some of the capabilities of UAVs and how significantly they are changing the tactical landscape, it was just a few UAVs hanging at one end of the hall. (shrug).

    --
    -Styopa
  6. Re:Funny part of the article by CompMD · · Score: 2, Funny

    See? Some people do welcome their robotic overlords.