Expendable Remotely Piloted Vehicles for Strategic Offensive ...

cybornaut activates engine thrusters and, at the end of an accelerated 20G-force dive (the cybornaut visually sees the acceleration but does notphysically experience G force), vehicle two explodes into the bridge’s centerspan. At impact the connection ceases to exist, and she switches totake control of vehicle three.Flipping the visor up, the cybornaut looks at her displays and rewindsthe last 20 seconds of vehicle three’s video. As she replays the video, sheactually witnesses her own attack conducted less than a minute earlier;the cybornaut watches as vehicle two makes its dive attack into thebridge. Antiaircraft fire has begun and is increasing in intensity so she directsvehicle one to an even higher altitude. Flipping the visor back down,she regains cybornautic control of vehicle three and circles over thebridge. The cybornaut can see her attack with vehicle two has taken outa large portion of the center span, but one lane is still intact. From the intelligencereport received just prior to the attack, she knows she must destroythe span to ensure she completely severs telephone cables runningunderneath it. She immediately arms the explosive weapons and cybornauticallypilots vehicle three into the remaining portion of the structure.Keeping the visor down, she switches to vehicle one. Directing its syntheticaperture radar camera towards the target, the cybornaut sees thatshe has completely destroyed the center span. Alternating between othercameras, she collects different images of the destroyed center span. Lookingback at the work station displays, she now directs vehicle one towardsthe next target—an electrical power plant. This particular target has heavilydefended aim points, so she selects three additional expendable RPVsto join in the attack.At the command post module, decision makers witness the bridge attack,as well as all other expendable RPV attacks, in near real time. Decisionmakers approve updates to situation displays, and they reallocatethe remaining expendable RPVs as required. Leaders review and selectportions of video from vehicle two and vehicle three used in the bridge attackdescribed above; these they authorize for release to the Cable NewsNetwork, as well as other televised news media. The clips clearly show theprecision of the attack, the limited collateral damage, and the documentedfact that the cybornaut temporarily delayed the first strike until the bushad safely crossed.In conclusion, this scenario presented a situation where the UnitedStates explored, developed, and successfully employed expendable RPVsin a strategic offensive airpower role. US military and political leaders realizedthey could no longer simply adapt to the changing environmentwith belated upgrades to existing military systems and strategies.This study does not suggest taking the pilot out of the cockpit butrather taking the cockpit out of the aircraft. The idea that artificial intelligencewill someday not only allow systems to operate autonomously butalso to make decisions on their own has been in existence for quite some66