Smooth-Running Gun
When most of us think of robots, it's usually as slow, dumb, unwieldy beasts slaving in factories, much as oxen slaved in fields generations ago. But robots aren't only in the factory, helping us make our cars; they're also on the battlefield, helping us make our wars. And they certainly aren't slow, dumb, and unwieldy.During the 1991 Gulf War, America released 288 cruise missiles against Iraq; 80 percent of them hit their targets, with no loss of human pilots---at least, no American ones. Each missile delivered up to 450 kilograms of high explosives. They could just as easily have carried nuclear warheads.
A cruise missile is essentially a robotic bomber. It's like a piloted bomber, but better: It's smaller, cheaper, stealthier, and very precise. Its computers record exactly where it is at all times, thanks to radio contact with world-spanning satellites; and it has extensive electronic maps of where it's going. Like a bloodhound straining at the leash, it can be launched more than two thousand kilometers from its target and reach it to within a few meters. It could hit a garage door in Dallas from a rooftop in Los Angeles.
Flying at treetop level, it can turn corners, avoid obstacles, and fly through doorways. Its small size and low flight path lets it hide from enemy radars in the radar clutter near the ground. Even if detected, it's almost impossible to hit. Its next generation, to be deployed during this decade, will be smarter, stealthier, and faster and will peel off independently targeted smart missiles and bomblets as it flies.
Since each cruise missile has its own computer---and satellite links to establish its exact location---a cruise missile salvo can regroup in flight like a flight of deadly birds to hit its targets in precise sequences. The first wave usually destroys the foe's radar and surface-to-air missiles. Later waves mow down the installation itself---a missile complex, an air base, a command bunker. Next-generation missiles will adapt their targeting in flight as conditions on the battlefield change and as targets move around.
Today's cruise missiles cost about 1.3 million dollars each. Since much of that cost pays for sophisticated electronics, the price will drop as computer technology matures. A single American stealth bomber, on the other hand, costs hundreds of millions. And that's not counting the costs of employing several dozen mechanics per plane, training flight crews, and transporting many tons of fuel, munitions, and support equipment. It's certainly not counting the human and political cost of losing even a single pilot. Although nowhere near as adaptive, robot planes are cheaper and decidedly more expendable. It's clear where the future of air war lies.
Nintendo War