Important Innovations

Combat Surveillance Source:  Russia Add caption Bird of Pre y Russia has designed a new combat surveillance drone that has the appearance of a snowy owl.  The drone was just unveiled at the Defense Ministry's annual military expo in Moscow. UAV that's Laser Equipped The drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle.  It's equipped with a laser in its tail that can guide artillery,  laser-guided bombs and aircraft to swoop in for an attack.  Russia's Defense Ministry says it will be able to spot targets without being detected. Portable This new device weighs only 5 kilograms and can be handled, carried and launched by one person.  It can fly up to 40 minutes and has a range of 12 miles.  It's one of Russia's new military assets now on display at the expo.

New DARPA Challenge for Artificial Intelligence in Close Combat Source: DARPA AI Powered Aircraft Dogfighting This is an intriguing use for Artificial intelligence.  Split second AI decision making in 1-on-1, air to air combat to free up pilots for the bigger combat decisions beyond a 1-on-1 dogfight.  The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA just started a program to develop such an advanced AI system to give the US military an overwhelming technological advantage. Manned and Unmanned Platforms This is a case of manned and unmanned platforms in combat flights working side by side.  The human pilots need to have total confidence in the autonomous system.  That's a key part of this new DARPA project.  They want pilots to totally trust these unmanned, autonomous systems fighting right along side of them.  They call it ACE, the Aerial Combat Evolution program. A programmer's day kicks off on May 17, 2019