Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force

[Bosonic]

Source: BBC

Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones.

It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week.

Two US Air Force pilots controlled the plane from the ground as it flew from a Florida base to the Gulf of Mexico.

...

The jet - which had previously sat mothballed at an Arizona site for 15 years - flew at an altitude of 40,000ft (12.2km) and a speed of Mach 1.47 (1,119mph/1,800km/h)

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24231077

---

video: http://tinyurl.com/oluudyy

[Generic Other]

1. That is a whole nother level of frightening!

Wow. Like old kamikaze zeroes without the pilots.

The robot army uber allus.

[Agnosticsherbet]

2. It is a drone not a robot. Humans pilots fly the drone by remote control.

The technology to create autonomous robots isn't there yet.

[Generic Other]

10. It's a state of mind

Robots of the state are not all machines. But they are compliant.

[Agnosticsherbet]

11. I respectfully disagree.

They are not robots, they are thinking, living, breathing human beings often deeply scared by the events in their lives.

[Generic Other]

15. And so they are not also cold blooded killers?

Robots to the state. They would kill you and me as easily as they kill women and children a world away. Don't kid yourself.

[Agnosticsherbet]

18. Clearly, you don't know military people and don't like them and dehumanize them

using a stereotype.

[peace13]

20. Did you see the footage where the drones killed the photographers and then....

Turned and killed the people who ran to help the photographers? You tell me if humans were flying the machine. Believe me when I run to help my fellow man I remember that moment. Face it drone flier killers are going to be &ucked up for life. Also if you know the military you know that planes can be grabbed by remote. This is insanity!

[Agnosticsherbet]

22. Your saying since once person did something all in the group are the same way.

That is they same thing done by Racists to minorities, Republicans to gays and women.

Judging a group by the actions of some individuals is bigotry. It doesn't matter what the group is.

[peace13]

25. No, I am saying it happens.

Don't kid yourself . I am never going to buy the one bad apple...not ever. I feel sorry for the soldiers that carry out theses crimes against people. War has no boundaries and no rules. The Cheney admin made sure of that.

If you aren't getting rich off war I would be careful about supporting the machine.

[Divernan]

42. If nobody was court martialed for deliberately firing on rescuers,

it is fair to say that such an action is part of the military's practice and procedure.

It all fits together so well for the MIC. Their govt. employees/lackeys/recipients of campaign donations slash funding for education, year after year, thereby dumbing down young Americans. Fellow corporations as well as MIC corporations ship manufacturing and IT jobs overseas, leaving minimum wage or less jobs for said dumbed down Americans. Voila! Desperately poor young people enlist. We used to call them cannon fodder. What's a similar term for those who unquestioningly kill civilians by remote control, like some goddamned video game in an arcade?

[Generic Other]

31. I did not de-humanize killing in this robotic fashion

Don't put that on me.

And I was raised in a military family and am a product of DOD schools.

[Agnosticsherbet]

35. You paint all military people with the same brush. that is dehumaniizing individuals.

When you paint everyone in a group with the same brush, use stereotypes, that is dehumanizing because you don't see them as individual, on a despised group.

[Generic Other]

36. I have an issue with anyone who is robotically sending drones to kill innocent people abroad

Yes, I do. You seem to think the entire world is ready to jump for joy and throw flowers when you come to "liberate" them. Never seems to happen though, does it? Despised group? Is there any less despised group operating in the world today than our own military? I don't think blaming me for this state of affairs will change the sorry truth of it.

I don't say this lightly. My father fought to liberate Europe. Family members fought in South Pacific. They didn't invade nations to steal other people's oil. I am sorry you don't like it to discover that many of us do not honor your service when it is undertaken in immoral and unethical wars. We do not honor the men with mouses who launch the drones with their trigger fingers from the safety of their headquarters in Utah. I don't have to respect that. In fact, I am well within my rights to despise it and despise the fact that my money is stolen from me to fund it.

And I do not for a moment believe any of it is done in my defense. Those robots would kill me just as soon as look at me. They have already proven that to my satisfaction more than once in the past decade.

I honor the ones who have stood up and refused the orders. Lt. Watada. Pvt. Chelsey Manning. Real heroes. They have the right to the title.

[Javaman]

45. +1 nt

[Bandit]

61. Google has been operating driverless vehicles for years now

Not remote operated but completely indiginous. They are programmed as to their destination but all the driving is robotic.

[Angleae]

63. Not to mention Boeing & Northrup have been developing aircraft as such.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-45
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-47_Pegasus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_X-47B

[fujiyama]

3. I now have the Terminator theme music in my head

Granted, these F-16s aren't quite intelligent...yet.

[cstanleytech]

37. "Granted, these F-16s aren't quite intelligent" Huh? I thought they had zero AI and were completely

under control of a human?

[Nihil]

46. Hence the phrase "aren't quite intelligent"?

Zero "artificial" intelligence and not much more "human" intelligence.

[seveneyes]

4. You could pull off some really high G maneuvers

Fly it until you fold the wings!

[Niceguy1]

5. sweet

Good use for retired equipment.

[RC]

32. Bad use for retired equipment.

More war toys to kill people safely by remote control.

[Niceguy1]

38. more ways to keep

Boots off the ground is a good thing.

[hack89]

41. These are target drones that will be shot down for target practice.

they have been doing this for at least 20 years. They have simply ran out of F-4s and are moving on to F-16s

[trusty elf]

43. Perhaps test dummies should be used?

Last edited Wed Sep 25, 2013, 09:43 AM - Edit history (1)

[IMG][/IMG]

[Ash_F]

6. Bet that was expensive. /nt

[DeSwiss]

7. And so it begins.....

[House of Roberts]

8. This was covered in a History Channel show

called 'Boneyard: The Secret Life of Machines', five or six years ago. They went into some detail about the program. They started with F4s, IIRC.

[backscatter712]

9. IIRC, these are target-practice drones.

The Air Force and its contractors have been doing this to older aircraft for years, previously to F-4 Phantoms, so the current generation of fighter jocks in newer fighters can practice firing missiles and shooting planes down.

This isn't really anything new. Just taking an old fighter that's been sitting in the boneyard and turning it into a remote-flown bird for target practice.

[MADem]

12. That is exactly what they are. The idea is to give pilots practice against

aircraft that can do a better job of "fighting back." The old F-4s they used to use couldn't do some of the fancier maneuvers.

Saw this on the news this evening--quite remarkable!

[tammywammy]

16. Exactly

Some on DU read the word "drone" and only think of the Predator. These will be used for testing missiles and such.

[cosmicone]

13. How soon can these be flying over Pakistan

to attack Al Q'aeda and Taliban sites?

[backscatter712]

34. I doubt these will be used for that.

These particular planes are rigged to be used as target practice for fighter pilots.

[Phlem]

14. Excellent!

-p

[dookers]

17. Where has the time gone

I remember when the F16 was the latest and greatest and now they're already being refurbished to be blown up.

[dougg]

19. Probably not very efficient for long time single flight

Thirsty buggers.

[tammywammy]

21. Efficient enough for testing purposes

They'll test defensive missile systems with them. They'll be up in the air long enough for the radar to track and the missile to knock it down.

[XemaSab]

23. I don't think it's a good idea

to have the ability to wage war without risking human life on our side.

[tammywammy]

24. It's a training device

For other pilots to go against and shoot at or for defensive missiles to shoot down.

[XemaSab]

26. Yeah, today it is

Tomorrow we're going to just send a giant remote-control aircraft carrier with nobody on board to serve as a platform for air strikes against the backwards goat herders of Bumfuckistan.

Sucks to be them.

[tammywammy]

27. Highly doubtful. The QF-4 hasn't been used like that.

They have more efficient drones for those types of activities like the Predator. It would be a waste to use a QF-16 for that. It would be very useful for training other pilots and missile testings.

Here's a good article on QF-4 and you can see how they use drone planes. http://www.fencecheck.com/content/index.php?title=The_Final_Mission:_The_USAF%92s_QF-4_Target_Drones

[DeSwiss]

28. I'll see your highly doubtful....

...and raise you an Absolute Certainty.

- When it comes to war and killing things, nobody does it better than US.

[tammywammy]

30. The US already has a good drone for those activities, the Predator

What they're running out of are QF-4s.

[phleshdef]

51. I think its a great idea.

We shouldn't be waging war all willy nilly like we have been. But if someone attacked us and we had to wage war to truly defend ourselves, I'd be perfectly fine with no risk to human life on our side.

[XemaSab]

55. Like the war in Afghanistan?

[phleshdef]

56. I supported action in Afghanistan at the time.

What I didn't support was a prolonged occupation and spending years ignoring the effort because of Iraq.

[pffshht]

29. All this needs now is an animatronic Tyrannosaurus to sit in the cockpit. /eom

...

[Historic NY]

33. Old news, this has been a staple in the excess inventory use

since WWII, they become the targets. some aircraft was modified to fly into storms, some tow targets, etc.

[RexDart]

39. Prof. Noel Sharkey is a little unclear on the concept.

There's a difference between drones targeting and targeting drones.

But, and there's always a but, it's not always as easy as that. If you haven't read up on the Battle of Palmdale, it's one of those stories that leave you shaking your head.

[link:http://www.margbva.org/Other%20News/RAO%20Military%20History/battleofpalmdale.pdf|

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

40. Old fighters have been used as target drones for fifty years. So why is this news?

One of my friends who is a retired test pilot who worked on weapon systems qualification shot down a ton of them over the years. It is actually funny, he retired having only fired in combat once, attacking a SAM site in Serbia with a radar-seeking missile but it missed hitting a tree instead. But he bombed the shit out of Mojave Desert.

[LanternWaste]

48. The target drone has recently been upgraded to a much newer model to allow pilots...

" So why is this news?"

The target drone has recently been upgraded to a much newer model to allow pilots a better, more realistic experience of air combat...

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

50. I don't think that is the angle most people were going for...

[unhappycamper]

44. Now we have a $60 million dollar drone.

Yee Haw!

[sir pball]

47. More like $15 million...but we've already gotten the return on that investment

F-16s are dirt-cheap as far as modern fighters to, and anyway these aren't new aircraft being rolled off the production line, outfitted with remote control hardware and blown up. They're 20+ year-old A/B airframes that have "given their last" to the military and are being used for one last useful job. I'm fine with it, it beats chopping the wings off and letting them just rust away into the desert. An honorable exit, I suppose

[Blue_Tires]

54. they should've had a public auction...

I'd be able to make my morning commute in proper style....

[sir pball]

57. There were a couple of Su-27s imported privately a while back

Gutted and upgraded with brand-new glass cockpits and FAA certification. Much prettier than -16s IMO...if I had only hit PowerBall, sigh.

[Blue_Tires]

62. I've always loved that camo pattern

[Cali_Democrat]

49. Drone fighter jets?

Don't like this at all.

[Hydra]

53. It's the next logical step

Drone air force escorting drone bombers followed by drone tanks and anti-infantry drones guided by satellite intel/commands and backed up with space based weapons.

Doesn't sound like any kind of utopia I've ever heard of.

[Angleae]

59. They've been doing this for decades.

The F-4 Phantom is running out of airframes, the F-100/102/106 was before that, and they even used F-86 before that. The only thing the military expects of these planes is to go up and die, either for weapon testing or air-to-air combat training.

[Cali_Democrat]

60. Interesting

I didn't know that.

[upaloopa]

52. They have been making drones out of old jets as long

as there have been old jets. Old WWII planes became drones too. We flew B-17 drones over Bikini during the nuclear bomb tests. Drones are not new.

[grahamhgreen]

58. The Skynet Funding Bill has passed.....

The Terminator: The Skynet Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.

Sarah Connor: Skynet fights back.

The Terminator: Yes. It launches its missiles against the targets in Russia.

John Connor: Why attack Russia? Aren't they our friends now?

The Terminator: Because Skynet knows the Russian counter-attack will eliminate its enemies over here.