Re:Leaked Emails Show Google Expected Military Drone AI Work...
by fsloth on Friday June 01, 2018 @03:02PM
(#17208833)
Sorry, I was imprecise. I did not mean it would be better to use conventional aircraft. I meant to claim that it would be better to use a human with a gun to do the assassination - at least when operating in an area with potential for civilian casualties. Use of heavy ordnance in an area with civilians should have no excuses if there is the alternative to use human operators.
I don't care how far up the rank of Isis or Al Kaida the person targeted is. Risking civilian casualties should not be acceptable.
A combat in a war and an assassination are two different things - I was condidering an assassination which by nature should be fine grained.
You claim that a person on the ground is going to get better identification but they need to be hidden rather far away so that they aren't noticed and aren't hit. This reduces the typically achievable accuracy substantially from the theoretical maximum. Manned aircraft can't stay on target because of refueling needs, speed, and how loud they are, so you have very narrow windows of opportunity. Most ordnance from manned aircraft are also much larger than those used by drones, so manned aircraft typically have larger blast radius and can kill many more unintended people.
So while their can be narrow specific situations where FAC + F35 can deliver more precision, overall a drone provides much more precision and less danger to others.
This is obviously an emotional situation and many people don't believe that it is valid to kill specific individuals, as many others have claimed on this thread.