Drone exercise will transform future naval warfare, says Navy

"Nations could settle conflicts in a VR environment, [...]"

The results could determine who hosted a future Olympics, World Cup, or the Eurovision Song Contest.

As long as it doesn't mandate human casualties like the Startrek "A Taste of Armageddon" episode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon

Reminds me of a Star Trek episode

Apparently it was called A Taste of Armageddon.

Makes about as much sense as spending trillions to achieve the same result :/

Ah ha!

Back in the 1980s, I designed a video game based on that concept of a virtual war, but between Earth and another planet, that I named 'TiEkun'. :) Was going to develop it for the Amiga and other machines of the day, but we got involved in something else and it never happened. Today, you have (if they finish it!) Star Citizen!

Yes, because countries with lots of tanks always play fair

Given how well the ceasefires in Syria went I think whoever lost would just start shooting anyway. Maybe even while the Top Guns of the other side were still being distracted by the VR

Re: Navy obsoletes itself, not many medal wearers dead. Film at 11

Drone planes make sense. They're on station for short periods of time, and extra weight is a big disadvantage. So the stuff needed to keep the meaty pilot happy slows them down.

Ships and subs need to be big. The systems they carry are bulky, the power requirements large, and they need endurance on station. Which means much fuel, or a nuclear reactor. That also means they need repairs, something else human pilots don't do inflight. So the extra bulk of crew is much less of an issue, even if robots could do the job, which they can't.

A torpedo is already pretty large, and basically a drone. But only has a range of a few miles. We're decades, and autonomous mini nuclear reactors, away from drones replacing submarines.

Aerial drones might be cheap and capable enough to make surface ships obsolete years before drone surface ships are worth it. Except you can defend against that drone swarm with your own, carrier based, drone swarm...

Re: Navy obsoletes itself, not many medal wearers dead. Film at 11

For the rest, Stanislaw Lem's "Upside-Down Evolution" describes well what is happening.

If I had a dozen more upvotes, they'd be yours here. I think another pertinent Lem reference is "Peace on Earth"; in general, most of the ongoining social and technical maladies of the world we live in are remarkably well analyzed by Lem.

For some reason, I am starting to think of "The Futurological Congress". Perhaps I need to have a little lie-down now ... or at least have a lie-down pill.

Re: also attending

and that large submarine. Just there. To your right.

Yep. The one that the UK military can't detect because that limp wristed clown Cameron scrapped both current and next generation Nimrods, with no plans for any alternative.

I'm not sure how Cameron only rated 3rd worst prime minister...

Shouldn't laugh but

My 7 year old's drone piloting skills are out of this world, if you consider getting tangled in his sister, mother, grans hair hair a kill shot he could rack up more fatalities than Chuck Norris !

Re: Job title....

No "Admiral of the Yellow" was the worst...

But in truth, the Royal Navy lacks critical mass.

If a Type 45 has a Navigational Accident, 16% of the UK Air Defence Destroyers are not available. Also add in the rule of 5, e.g One Ship on deployment, One in work up, one in pieces in Refit, and another getting ready for refit and another on it's last legs and needs a refit.

You can quickly see, that 20 FF/DD's gives you 4 on deployment, 4 in work up/ FOST, 4 in light refit, 4 completely decommissioned and in deep refit, and the other 4 returned from Ops / on specific duties like Fleet Ready Escort etc.

It qives you a Surge capacity of about 8-9 ships, as others deployed on the farside of the world may not get to the Area of Operations, or may have to maintain current tasking.

So any navigational issue that takes another Hull out of commission means there are severe consequences down stream. It's not great, the Royal Navy is "fragile" and could not stand up to the kind of losses sustained in the Falklands, where 11 ships were damaged or sunk.

The Royal Navy is first rate, but it's becoming a bit of a Glass Cannon, in that it can hit hard, but cannot take much of a hit back.