Optionally Manned I guess by now everyone knows the militaries of the world are trying to get into new types of weapons which do not need human intervention. Every time I hear this I think of Terminator. I can’t help myself especially when I hear experts saying if machines get smart enough, they may resent the fact humans are using them this way and turn on us. You might say while that is only a computer program in the machine so there is no way for it to seize control. What many of us fail to realize is the fact scientists are working feverishly on artificial brains. The idea is to create a brain which works like our own and possibly use this brain to control weapons. If they get the brain developed, it may decide it’s on the wrong side of the fight and turn on us.
One of the programs the U.S. Army has is the “Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicles” program. The Army is trying to develop a replacement for the Bradley fighting vehicle. The Bradley was never as good as it was intended to be. The idea was a troop mover which could protect itself. Sometimes it was mistaken for a tank by the enemy and they concentrated all their firepower on killing everyone inside. It is armored much more lightly than a tank. I’m not saying it wouldn’t have been fired on anyway, what I am saying is at times it drew more firepower from the enemy who thought it was a much more deadly machine. Aside from this fact I can understand the Army wanted to replace it because it is 40 years old. Can you imagine driving your car for 40 years and expecting it to perform exactly as it did when it was first made? The Army’s argument for replacing the Bradley is there is no way to put some of the new technology into it or the new armor on it. The” Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicles” program has been stopped and started and its latest start was in February 2020. In case you are wondering what the term “Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicles” means in this case, when the soldiers get out of the vehicle, the vehicle can be sent on its own on a mission using its weapons. It becomes a drone. It will require a crew of two and be able to transport at least six soldiers. The new vehicle has to be able to be transported by air and be made ready for combat within 15 minutes. The military wanted it to be able to fit on a C-17 transport plane, which means it can’t weigh more than 38.5 tons, the limit for the plane. The weapons on the vehicle have to be able to be elevated for urban operations and it should be protected in such a way it has a high degree of survivability from its armor. The Army also wants the vehicle to be easily upgraded and be extremely lethal. They are asking for it to have energy directed weapons along with missiles and more traditional weapons. And have a built in capacity to train crews. The military wants at least a 30 mm cannon but prefers the new 50 mm Bushmaster XM 913. The vehicle is to have sensors from at least the second generation and have Infa-Red capability, but that is the minimum they will accept. They prefer a third-generation FLIR capability because this would allow them to attack before they were seen. Here is the biggy, they want the machine to have artificial intelligence. Reactive armor panels are also on the list. The military wants to buy 3,590 units, but like so many other projects will it get so expensive the number of units will be cut? Probably one of the jobs of a soldier which is the most demanding is that of being a sniper. It’s demanding in a couple of different ways, first you have to be an excellent shot at all times and secondly it is not easy to shoot people when they may not be in threatening positions or carrying out daily activities. The military may not be able to do anything about the mental side of shooting somebody, but they are working very hard on the targeting side. This reminds me of the situation in the Middle Ages when bowmen had to be excellent shots until the crossbow came out. When that weapon was invented, anybody could pick it up and shoot it pretty accurately. The military wants to do the modern version of this so they have been working on smart ammunition. Smart ammunition is ammunition would seek out its target after it was fired honing in on a heat signature. The Army wants to replace it ammunition with the smart ammunition after that technology is fully developed. At that point they will be able to put anybody on sniper duty because all the soldier firing his weapon would have to do is fire his rifle in the general direction of the target and the bullet will hone in even if the target is moving. I personally hate to see smart bullets, I guess you can’t stop progress, but you have to realize some of these bullets will make it into society. Can you imagine gangsters in Chicago using smart bullets? Instead of 30 people killed and one hundred wounded for a weekend there, you would have may 300 people killed and far more wounded because the bullets which would have missed their target will find somebody. DARPA the Defense Advance Research Agency has estimated the cost of each bullet purchased in a thousand round bundle would be $100. The Army pays between five cents and six dollars per round. The five cents is for a 22-caliber bullet and the six dollars is the cost of a 50 mm round. We are moving towards robotics in almost every weapon. Being able to send out the Bradley replacement vehicle on its own on a mission, reminds me of the new exoskeletons the military is developing. One of the features is the subject can take it off and it can be used as a robot soldier. This is not its only mission of course, the exoskeleton is designed to make tough tasks much easier. It is said it will cut down fatigue on long marches and make lifting heavy loads a piece of cake. In time the soldier wearing it may feel a certain attachment to it on a psychological level if he uses it a lot as a robot. The exoskeleton can be used to carry a wounded soldier off the battlefield. Just insert them into one and send it towards help. I wonder how long it will be before there are no humans on the battlefield?
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