Australia to get secret tests of UK’s killer drone aircraft
Drones have become a mainstay of warfare but are shrouded in secrecy. The US, ramping up its drone program under President Barack Obama, has used them against “kill list” targets in place such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
Britain’s Taranis tests Australia appealed because it contains a lot of wide open spaces with next to no electromagnetic signals. He believed the tests would take place around Woomera in South Australia…..
It is estimated about 3000 people have been killed in US drone strikes, including hundreds of civilians
$190 million drone coming to Australia, The Age Asher Moses, January 16, 2013 An unmanned British stealth drone that can fly faster than the speed of sound and go undetected by radar will soon have its first test flight in Australia.
The £125 million ($190 million) Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, can attack targets across continents, automatically dodge missiles and other efforts to bring it down and independently identify targets. It can refuel in mid-air and carry weapons including laser guided bombs and missiles.
Designed to avoid having to put human lives at risk (?) on long and dangerous missions, the drone will be flown for the first time in a series of tests over the Australian outback early this year, Britain’s Telegraph reported.
The maker of the drone, BAE Systems, conducts much of its unmanned aircraft work and research in Australia, with its engineering hub based in Melbourne. BAE did not respond to a request for comment but told the Telegraph that Taranis will “have a major impact on the future of the UK military”.
Drones have become a mainstay of warfare but are shrouded in secrecy. The US, ramping up its drone program under President Barack Obama, has used them against “kill list” targets in place such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
About 95 per cent of targeted killings since the September 11 terrorist attacks have been conducted by drones, ProPublica reported. The US drone war has been carried out remotely from the US as well as through secret bases around the world, including from Australia……
or Britain’s Taranis tests Australia appealed because it contains a lot of wide open spaces with next to no electromagnetic signals. He believed the tests would take place around Woomera in South Australia…..
“For security reasons, details of the location and timing of specific tests or trials of this type are classified and not disclosed prior to the trials,” a Defence spokesman said.
During the test flight Taranis will reportedly fly a simulated mission where it must seek out potential targets and avoid threats such as ground to air missiles. Once it identifies a target, it will only attack after given the all clear by mission command.
But Davies believes it is only a matter of time before drones are making decisions for themselves.
“I think there’s certainly some things to be concerned about; if you look at what’s called Moore’s Law, which is something in the world of computers that says that processing power essentially doubles every 18 months or two years, [and] it’s inevitable that there will be machines sooner rather than later that are able to evaluate the environment around them and make their own decisions,” he said.
“When you look at that in its application to warfare that opens the possibilities of systems that you just let go and they make their own targeting decisions. I think there are both ethical and practical problems with that.”
He said drones such as Taranis were designed from the start as a “weapons delivery platform” but drones currently in use “are really surveillance drones that have had weapons bolted on to them”.
It is estimated about 3000 people have been killed in US drone strikes, including hundreds of civilians which has led to significant controversy. Australian academics have previously told Fairfax Media that the expanding drone program poses human rights and privacy risks and there is a very real danger they could fall into the hands of those aiming to hurt the West.
Davies said the appeal of drone technology for the military was that unlike manned aircraft they “have the ability to hang around almost indefinitely”.
“Any form of air strike runs the risk of civilian casualties on the ground and it doesn’t matter whether it’s manned or unmanned,” he said…….
No comments yet.
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
Leave a comment