The US Navy's S-47B, a tail less, stealth, unmanned, autonomous aircraft flew on Feb 4, 2011. Under development by Northrop Grumman since 2007, it is expected to begin carrier trials by 2013. The Navy's new Top Gun is going to be a robot, and an autonomous one at that. The fighter sized aircraft will be armed and deadly some day soon, not to suffer from fatigue, with the ability to stay on station as long as the equipment holds out. War will soon be shoved off to our robotic counterparts, which while it will save lives, will cease to be horrible, which does slow down the human race's eagerness to get involved in war in the first place.
This, however, is quite a feat. The human race is proving itself capable of building robotic equipment that can go to war, fly to and explore other planets, and drive ourselves around. That capability isn't completely accepted yet for our highways, but the ability to make cars drive themselves is already done. One does think that we may be too clever, and that Cyberdyne's Skynet may be lurking just around the corner.
The News
First flight for US Navy's autonomous fighter
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