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The British Army is Carrying Out a Massive Test of Military Robots and Drones (technologyreview.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

The British Army is testing out over 70 new technologies, including unmanned vehicles and surveillance drones, in a four-week experiment on one of its biggest training grounds. From a report: What sort of stuff? The department isn't giving out specifics but said the focus will be on "surveillance, long-range, and precision targeting, enhanced mobility and the re-supply of forces, urban warfare and enhanced situational awareness." The development is part of a $1030 million "innovation fund" launched in 2016. The aim? Primarily it's about reducing the danger to troops during combat, according to the UK's Ministry of Defense (MoD). One of the main areas it'll test is "last mile" supply of fuel, food, and ammunition. The exercise will culminate in a simulated battle involving over 200 soldiers to test out the ideas and products.

56 comments

  1. $1030 million? by shaitand · · Score: 1

    You mean a billion dollar fund?

    1. Re:$1030 million? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      You mean a billion dollar fund?

      No, they mean a thousand million... is it USD or GBP? Well, what ever. You can't call it a billion, that sounds like a lot of money for some RC toys. The tax payers are much happier when you are only spending a thousand million dollars. They understand that millions isn't all that much when it comes to military spending.

    2. Re:$1030 million? by MrMr · · Score: 1

      £800 million over a 10 year period.

    3. Re:$1030 million? by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Informative

      The U.S. has pretty much always used billion, but in England 1,000 million historically was called a milliard. A billion was a million millions (or 1,000 milliards) so I think there's still some hesitance to use the term as it is leaves everyone a bit nonplussed.

    4. Re:$1030 million? by petes_PoV · · Score: 1

      in England 1,000 million historically was called a milliard

      Nobody has used that term for well over 40 years. It is as obsolete as groats and roods.

      A billion is globally understood to mean 10**9. Trying to confuse the issue doesn't make anyone look clever.

      --
      politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    5. Re:$1030 million? by Nivag064 · · Score: 1

      The U.S. has pretty much always used billion, but in England 1,000 million historically was called a milliard. A billion was a million millions (or 1,000 milliards) so I think there's still some hesitance to use the term as it is leaves everyone a bit nonplussed.

      million = (1000000)^1
      billion = (1000000)^2
      trillion = (1000000)^3

      The initial letters indicate the power.

      Pity the Americans messed things up! :-(

    6. Re:$1030 million? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, that is only true in English. In every other language I know of, the equivalent word means 10^12 and 10^9 is called something resembling the word milliard. It remains confusing except perhaps to those whose mother tongue is English.

    7. Re:$1030 million? by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      a casual observation shows the dollar symbol being used. why the symbol for the British Pound is not used is kind of interesting, maybe the funding was from an American company like google?

    8. Re:$1030 million? by Kjella · · Score: 2

      To be fair, that is only true in English. In every other language I know of, the equivalent word means 10^12 and 10^9 is called something resembling the word milliard. It remains confusing except perhaps to those whose mother tongue is English.

      Actually it's much more confusing than that, like Eastern Europe and Russia, Brazil, Middle East etc. all use the short form but don't speak English while most of Western Europe use the long form. Like here in Norway there's absolutely no confusion about these terms:

      10^6: Million
      10^9: Milliard
      10^12: Billion
      10^15: Billiard

      Fortunately we rarely need the word billion in Norwegian as that would be a trillion in English and because it could be ambiguous on the rare occasions we could use it we tend to simply avoid it like a thousand milliards, So practically it's like "billion" is the English translation of Norwegian "milliard", forget everything past 10^9 and the etymology as you'll only confuse yourself.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    9. Re:$1030 million? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      a casual observation shows the dollar symbol being used.

      That's what I saw in the summary and thought it was kinda weird.

    10. Re:$1030 million? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Milliard is commonly used in continental Europe. The UK is suffering from an Americanism, which hasn't completely infected the rest of Europe yet.

    11. Re:$1030 million? by ricky-road-flats · · Score: 1

      Yes. Someone here has translated 800 (million) GBP into 1,030 (million) USD. Same was when round metric numbers get translated into weird-looking precise imperial equivalents. To put it correctly, "£800 million (just over a billion dollars)".

      FWIW, here in the UK, billion is now completely understood the American way, 10^9. I've never heard milliard used outside of a general knowledge quiz, and the old 10^12 meaning of billion stopped being used here at least 35-40 years ago.

    12. Re:$1030 million? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nobody has used that term for well over 40 years. It is as obsolete as groats and roods.

      Finland here: Miljardi is in everyday use both in common language, engineering and scientific.

    13. Re:$1030 million? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      When languages or dialects disagree it is best to ask Esperanto- the ruler of all languages. The universal mother tongue of humanity.

      Miliardo is 1,000,000,000
      Sorry people who think that's a billion. Esperanto has spoken, the word is Milliard.

      Biliono is 1,000,000,000,000

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    14. Re:$1030 million? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Yes. Someone here has translated 800 (million) GBP into 1,030 (million) USD. Same was when round metric numbers get translated into weird-looking precise imperial equivalents. To put it correctly, "£800 million (just over a billion dollars)".

      FWIW, here in the UK, billion is now completely understood the American way, 10^9. I've never heard milliard used outside of a general knowledge quiz, and the old 10^12 meaning of billion stopped being used here at least 35-40 years ago.

      My father (English) is still quite insistent that Billion is ^12. He's a lone holdout for that number and will never use the word Billion instead of a Milliard if his life depended on it.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    15. Re:$1030 million? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Instead we could perhaps avoid all confusion and say $10.3 Crore

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    16. Re:$1030 million? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      How is that weird? Although it attracts an international audience this is actually a US forum so conversion to American dollar value is appropriate just as you would show a value in dollars for the valuation of a treasure found or other interesting bits.

    17. Re:$1030 million? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      My Esperanto isn't so great but the official language of the forum is American English* and so it is appropriate to express valuations in dollars, billions at 10^9, etc.

      * Subject to trolls, abusers, and ravages of forbidden love affairs.

    18. Re:$1030 million? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      the official language of the forum is American English*

      Hmmmm... That is the language most used, but I don't know about official. I don't see officially stated anywhere that the forum is to use American English. I would quickly leave and not look back if they forced us to use American English.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    19. Re:$1030 million? by shaitand · · Score: 1

      It is a US forum that attracts international guests. If I were on a British forum and using American English and there were discrepancy I'd be the one who is incorrect just as if I were standing in London doing the same or inversely if someone from London were standing in New York.

      It is always correct to use the local dialect even if people are courteous and understanding if you are from elsewhere and doing otherwise.

    20. Re:$1030 million? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Milliard is the origin for the term 'yard' when trading currency pairs. Billion could not be used in case someone mistook it for Million in the good old days of voice interactions. Hence you can trade a 'yard of cable'.

  2. on one of its biggest training grounds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, that's like a couple of square miles near Yorkshire?

    1. Re:on one of its biggest training grounds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somewhere on Salisbury Plain,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

    2. Re:on one of its biggest training grounds? by cavreader · · Score: 1

      It's just a cover story by the UK government to shield the public from the impending Centipede attack. Or maybe they need a large track of land to shoot a beer commercial.

  3. Enjoy your dystopic society. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Half-Life 3 will be released as an AR (actual reality) game near your home soon.

    1. Re: Enjoy your dystopic society. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ED209: You have 5 seconds to comply...

  4. Oi! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ya got a loicense for that there drone, ya cheeky git?

  5. $1030 million by beep54 · · Score: 1

    Looks like the innovation here is in some weird new formatting for money.

    1. Re:$1030 million by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      Looks like the innovation here is in some weird new formatting for money.

      Actually I thought the revelation was that the British armed forces were now using the USD to pay for things rather than the GBP.

  6. You mean a *milliard* dollar fund? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Or rather a ~800 million pound fund.
    (Although I prefer a 800 mega-pound fund.)

  7. Re:Drones should find & stop /. bullies... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    APK = creimer

  8. The aim? by BringsApples · · Score: 1

    The aim? Primarily it's about reducing the danger to troops during combat

    Maybe point that thousand-million-dollar idea into preventing wars to begin with?

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    1. Re:The aim? by aitikin · · Score: 1

      That would eliminate the other aim, making the rich richer.

      --
      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
    2. Re:The aim? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      You of course missed the bit about eliminating soldiers from the battlefield. Loyal, honourable soldiers, soldiers who in the most part would not murder fellow citizens but the robots will. Programme them to dangle babies by the feet and then twist and rip their heads off as a warning to others and they will do it, once, a thousands time, ten thousand times, without a single bit of remorse.

      Robots under authoritarian control, what could possibly go wrong with that ?!? I think the house of Lords (the spawn of the psychopathic monarchy) are worried about losing power and want a robot army they can totally control, fuck democracy. You might think this is a sick and weird idea but the house of Lords are the kind of cunts that used to revel in the idea of publicly torturing people to death who disagreed with them, it is in their bloody genes and those kind of freaks will come up with those kind of ideas, and those ideas fail but only after many have died.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re: The aim? by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      Yeah sure. You shouldn't bother putting seatbelts and air bags in cars. No, just put that money into making sure cars don't crash.

  9. I keep saying this by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    killer robots are coming whether you and I like it or not. If you want to do something about it now's the time.

    I don't think "less government" is the answer either. That just leaves a power vacuum. We need more democracy. We also need to take care of our workers. Make a decent living into a right, not a privilege. Stop getting played against one another. The notion that some people are born to suffer is antiquated and needs to die.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:I keep saying this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      killer robots are coming whether you and I like it or not. If you want to do something about it now's the time.

      I don't think "less government" is the answer either. That just leaves a power vacuum. We need more democracy. We also need to take care of our workers. Make a decent living into a right, not a privilege. Stop getting played against one another. The notion that some people are born to suffer is antiquated and needs to die.

      LOL, dream on. All we have been trying to do since the dawn of time is kill each other. It will never change, so you might as well have a good defense.

    2. Re:I keep saying this by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      "More government" has been tried. It grows out of control and starts fulfilling its own goals instead of the people's goals. Eventually it regards the people as an enemy.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    3. Re:I keep saying this by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      killer robots are coming whether you and I like it or not. If you want to do something about it now's the time.

      And by "do something about it", you mean become the best at it, right?

      Because whoever is best at it is going to be making the decisions.

  10. Obviously ... by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    All robots must have a stiff upper lip.

  11. YOU just WANT it not to change,so you make excuses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What a cheap excuse for being a massive asshole.

    You need to be locked-up at a mental hospitals, as you are clearly a mass-murderer.
    You may not have had a reason yet, but if you had one, you'd mass-murder without even blinking. You probably already have.

  12. To bad this kind of money and effort by fredrated · · Score: 1

    isn't spent fighting the coming war on global warming. But it won't be, and we will lose.

    1. Re:To bad this kind of money and effort by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      isn't spent fighting the coming war on global warming.

      I know, right?

      Then whoever does develop the best battlebots could enjoy a better climate.

  13. Make no assumptions by petes_PoV · · Score: 1
    I do hope they remember to test all of these technologies with all sources of GPS being well and truly jammed.

    It would be rather embarrassing to deploy them for real, only to discover that none of them knew where they were or where they were supposed to go!

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  14. Britain = Frankenstein by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The USA = Frankenstein's Monster.

    Since the rise of the literal Demon Tony Blair, the West has been placed under the total control of 'Blair's Children'. Blair was even key to the rise of Putin, protecting him during his 'difficult days' (when Putin used the Russian Apartment Bombings false flag to justify a final holocaust in chechnya).

    Today, as a consequence, Britain is at the middle of the spider's web of all significal war mongering on our planet. The wahhabi terror invasion of Syria, for instance, was a plan 100% of Blair's design, as was the 'coup' in Saudi Arabia that placed the latest, BBC backed, butcher into power.

    Blair knows there is a 'problem' of pleb backlash against 'autonomous' murder machines- but Blair faced down Britain's greatest public protest, the anti-Iraq-war protest in London, by simply placing one of his lieutenants, George Galloway, in charge of the leading anti-war movement (which Galloway then quickly ran into the ground).

    Obama and Clinton are disciples of Blair. So are Trump's handlers. And Blair seeks one thing- World War.

    It is a little known fact outside of the UK that the UK defies all standards of Human Decency, and formally allows child soldiers to be recruited and trained for the British armed services. Even the USA does not do this- waiting until their cannon fodder is 18.

    There was a pragmatic morality to much of Britain's military efforts UNTIL the rise of the depraved monster Churchill. Churchill was a pure sadistic butcher and set the tone for a new attitude - initially woking to REVERSE Britain's anti-slavery policies in the 1930s. This set the agenda for the rise of wahhabi terror centred on the British creation of Saudi Arabia.

    It is the instinct of the rotten organisation known as the UN to be anti new weapons of war. While the UN is rotten its mutli-nation nature can pose 'problems' to demons like Blair. Britain is at the forefront of ensuring robot killing machines are not 'banned' as chemical weapons (another favourite of Britain) were.

    Britain worked with Izreal to ensure the nuclear treaty with Iran was sabotaged, and the nuclear treaty with Russia likewise. An Age of Treaties would inevitably lead to robot killing machines being banned. While a certain depraved power cult focused in Izrael THINKS they run the world, they are but the dumb servants of far greater evils.

    In the USA, Google is at the forefront of autonomous killing machine R+D. Google's 'self driving car' (which are actually DRONES with radio linked Human controllers able to take over at a moment's notice) initiative is intended to perfect the tech for mostly autonomous tanks (Google's 'streetview' initiative to recognise Human faces is intended to allow the killer tanks to identify Human targets around them (looking behind windows etc) and murder those Humans with high speed rounds accurately targeted at their eyes. Google's intent to shoot through the eye straight into the brain allows the smallest lightest round possible for the kill.

    The greatest act of concentrated mass murder in Human History was the so-called HIGHWAY OF DEATH when the West murdered a retreating convoy (which was more than 50% civilian) leaving wahhabi Kuwait back to Iraq. This was the single worst concentrated slaughter in Human History, far outdoing the 'death' camps of WW2.

    But America has a curious nature, as the unprecendented 'freedom of speech' freedoms there prove. America is one half a hulking psycopath of the most unthinkable destructive power- and one half a philosopher. America's capacity for evil deeds is unique in Human History- and America's ability to question the same is also unique.

    Blair's problem is keeping the 'Monster' on track. One way is for 'moral' (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha) Britain to lead the way, and set an example- hence this promoted story on Slashdot.

    The true nature of evil is anti-life. Let me say that again. The true nature of evil is anti-life. Listen and THINK.

    True evil needs to get Man to commit planetary s

  15. IMPERSONATING me AGAIN? apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're caught impersonating me c6gunner (your name's the submitter signing "APK") https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & you ALTERED /.ers PRAISE of my work (not yours you don't even HAVE).

    (Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house vs. me: RIGHT ZIP? https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... )

    *** IGNORANT LYING CHIMP "ZIP" SHOT DOWN FOR HIS LIES & TECH FUCKUPS vs. me https://it.slashdot.org/commen...

    LIAR ZIP says he has no account "I don't have an account, so I don't have mod points" https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

    Yet LIAR ZIP says he downmods my posts (IMPOSSIBLE MINUS AN ACCOUNT on /.): "I down-modded a few of your post on other threads" - by Anonymous Coward "ZIP" on Thursday October 11, 2018 @11:31AM (#57461058) FROM https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Hosts can stop portsmash (blocking downloads of it) "You basically have to already be able to run your own evil code on a machine in order to PortSmash it." from https://www.theregister.co.uk/... not Spectre/Meltdown AFAIK (but it's POSSIBLE it might but NOT TOTALLY SURE here (vs. say, RPC using them which would be REMOTE vs. LOCAL as in portsmash above) per https://meltdownattack.com/mel... &/or https://spectreattack.com/spec... ACADEMIC RESEARCH into their mechanics ) - & U FAIL a PORTFILTERING TEST https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... ... apk

  16. Naturally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every now and then, Her Majesty the Queen needs to spawn a new series of drones. Nothing to see here.

  17. Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The British Army is Carrying Out a Massive

    Not possible. They don't have the resources to do anything on a massive scale because they are tiny and irrelevant.

  18. Re:YOU just WANT it not to change,so you make excu by webmistressrachel · · Score: 1

    Ender's Game. He plays it and thinks it's not real...

    --
    This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
  19. POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Power On Self Test: OK

  20. Re:YOU just WANT it not to change,so you make excu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But Ender did know what he was doing. He learned of the ansible from Mazer, and after knowing that it was easy to connect the dots. Meanwhile Bean figured out everything by himself. The rest of the kids didn't find out until the war was over - Ender was under shush orders not to tell them, Bean kept quiet because he knew knowing they're getting real people killed would break the kids and make them useless.

  21. ZIP/c6gunner: IMPERSONATING me AGAIN? apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See how STUPID "ZIP" (Zach I. Patterson) CHIMP is (taking credit for what I solved before him) https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (he needs to LEARN TO READ)!

    I even SHOW ways to do it YOURSELF https://tech.slashdot.org/comm... (he couldn't).

    LYING CHIMP "ZIP" SHOT DOWN FOR HIS LIES & TECH FUCKUPS vs. me https://games.slashdot.org/com...

    "I'm a much better programmer than APK" - by Anonymous Coward ZIP on Monday October 08, 2018 @11:27PM (#57449082) FROM https://yro.slashdot.org/comme... yet nothing to show in programs. I can from registered /.ers liking/using/praising my work (& 100k users worldwide too). He can't.

    LIAR ZIP says he has no account "I don't have an account, so I don't have mod points" https://news.slashdot.org/comm...

    Yet LIAR ZIP says he downmods my posts (IMPOSSIBLE MINUS AN ACCOUNT on /.): "I down-modded a few of your post on other threads" - by Anonymous Coward "ZIP" on Thursday October 11, 2018 @11:31AM (#57461058) FROM https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

    c6gunner CAUGHT impersonating me (his name's the submitter signing "APK") https://linux.slashdot.org/com... & you ALTERED /.ers PRAISE of my work (not yours you don't even HAVE).

    BOTH = mere talkers (all talk "ne'er-do-well" DO-NOTHINGS).

    APK

    P.S.=> Hosts can stop portsmash (blocking downloads of it) "You basically have to already be able to run your own evil code on a machine in order to PortSmash it." from https://www.theregister.co.uk/... not Spectre/Meltdown AFAIK (but it's POSSIBLE it might but NOT TOTALLY SURE here (vs. say, RPC using them which would be REMOTE vs. LOCAL as in portsmash above) per https://meltdownattack.com/mel... &/or https://spectreattack.com/spec... ACADEMIC RESEARCH into their mechanics ) - & U FAIL a PORTFILTER TEST https://yro.slashdot.org/comme...

  22. No, I mean establish a high standard of living by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    as a basic human right, such that if a member of the ruling class moved to use killer robots to oppress us that we'd have a financially stable and well educated electorate that would recognize it's happening and stop it.

    As it stands the dog eat dog capitalism we've been taught from birth is the norm leaves people too blasted out at the end of a work day to do anything about the coming dystopia.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/