back to article Robocopter gunship abandons sinking warship project

American arms'n'aerospace tech titan Northrop Grumman has announced that its "Fire Scout" unmanned helicopter will now be trialled by the US Navy on a different class of warship than that planned. This is good news for the robochopper, as the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) it was originally intended to fly from is in severe trouble …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    This helicopter needs gok wan

    Why has someone designed the heicopter to look like a mini submarine. It's a bit ugly and doesn't really stoke fear like this Killer Robot should. Nobody is going to bow and worship our Robotic masters if that's how it looks!

    Posted anonymous coward as any reference to gok wan should be shot!

  2. pctechxp

    Sounds a tad like Stealth to me

    Lets hope it don't get struck by lightning.

    Be afraid, be very afraid!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    The Beggining of the end

    This is just how Terminator predicted it, the end is near. the end is near

  4. triky
    Pirate

    maybe not so scary

    but i don't like the sound of the 'US Army's future networked droid legion'... sounds like a bad hollywood nightmare coming true ! yikes ! quick get me on richard branson's first spatial flight outta here !

  5. George

    Insert robot reference here...

    The Fear...the fear!

  6. Ishkandar

    All hot and running....

    ...until SUDDENLY...***Blue Screen Of Death***....robots continues in a straight line as per last instruction; then splat, splat, splat...

    So much for networked driod legion !!

    Meanwhile, US flesh-and-blood troops are hammered by the enemy's Linux based weaponry !!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Hands up all those

    That read it as the Clittoral Combat ship?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    until SUDDENLY...***Blue Screen Of Death***

    Erm, my guess is it won't be running Windows

  9. Niall
    Joke

    @Stu Reeves

    Sound the perfect name for a stealth ship...No one will ever be able to locate it.

  10. Matthew Hepburn
    Pirate

    *Holds up hand to above*

    Why wouldnt you be scared of this? It doesnt have to be mean, huge and scary.... the primary way for an enemy of the Good ol' US of A (and Lord knows, the list is getting bigger fast!) to win, was to increase the bodybag total.

    Remove any chance of sending bodybags back to the home States in quantity, and you remove the ability to "beat" the USA per se - they'll just send more robots. Would you like to shoot one down, knowing that 3 more will follow?

    Skull and cross bones..... quality death-tech if you ask me, beats silly raygun 747 tripe!

  11. Geoff Mackenzie

    Logical extreme

    Soon wars will be fought entirely by robots, against robots. Then we can move them into simulations to avoid the environmental impact and collateral damage. Then we can just switch to chess and save CPU time too.

  12. Fred
    Flame

    @ Matthew Hepburn

    You have a point. Take the bodies away and no nobody in the US will be sad / see army officers deliviring letters to mothers and no more soppy films with mel gibson showing how sad modern warfare really is...

    All part of the grand sheme of things...

    That way u cant have a repeat of vietnam's anti war rallies cos no one will get killed.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BSOD

    Regarding Future Combat Systems and BSOD:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/23/AR2008012303695.html

    "Boeing and the Army said they chose not to use Microsoft's proprietary software because they didn't want to be beholden to the company. Instead, they chose to develop a Linux-based operating system based on publicly available code."

  14. Adrian Esdaile
    Thumb Up

    Gimme some of those!

    ""Viper Strike" mini-glider pocket smartbombs"

    That has got to be perhaps the coolest product description EVER.

    I want one. NOW. Infact I want at least ten.

  15. Joe Cooper
    Pirate

    @This helicopter needs gok wan

    You vision of a scary robot is learned; you see hollywood robots, and they make them scary, so then when you see them, they look scary. It's built up associations.

    ...If this things works and is effective, and you have to fight them or see them in action, you will likewise ~learn to be scared~ because new associations will build up with it's image.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A for engineering, F for styling

    Slap some stainless steel teeth on the front or something, some long scythe wielding arms would be good for close support work. It's not a proper kill bot till it can drip with blood. Make it whisper to it's self when it's parked and anyone approaches, nonsense or something creepy.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Fred

    No one will get killed, well except the enemy... and their families...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    Bye Bye Birdies

    Cool - can't wait to see this thing in service. No more whinging from prima donna pilots and their 1001 reasons for why they can't fly today, and no more collecting flying pay for actually not doing any flying. Good riddance to the whole lot of them, the overpaid, underworked, whining, precious, talentless bunch of tossers.

    And the fire scout can actually go in harm's way, too.

    The only downside is losing the ability to hop ashore to pick up the latest newspapers. Then again, on the upside, the padre can't demand to hop onboard for his weekly confessional either.

    It sounds like win-win to me.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    @Adrian

    Just hang on a second while we translate your IP address to GPS co-ordinates and we'll send several 'Tests' your way.

    De'Ath Ro'Bot

  20. McIntyre
    Alert

    Cyberdyne Systems Model IV

    The article should have concluded as:

    Fire Scout is also planned to form part of the US Army's future Skynet droid legion (aka Future Combat Systems), in which role it is known as Cyberdyne Systems Model IV...

  21. Chris Long

    Progress

    We will soon arrive at a point where wars are entirely fought by robots while all the humans stay safely at home in their bunkers. At that point, humanity will finally recognise the futility of war, and will decide to play tic-tac-toe instead.

  22. Morely Dotes
    Linux

    @ Ishkandar

    Uhm...

    "Meanwhile, US flesh-and-blood troops are hammered by the enemy's Linux based weaponry !!"

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/27/us_army_going_to_linux/

  23. Michael Compton

    Third Time lucky

    Try one more time to comment on this story as it seems to be rather hard to get one accepted.

    I recommend reading Joe Haldeman's Forever Peace it has some great insights into where this might lead technologically as well as politicalky and socially, though I'd also recommend reading Forever War first (great book by the way).

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