Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first
by actionfromafar on Thursday June 05, 2025 @05:15AM
(#44189839)
There are no silver bullets. It's just that having (solely) an elite warrior class is an extra risk.
Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first
by david-gpu on Thursday June 05, 2025 @10:02AM
(#44191814)
Decision-making in the armed forces is always performed by a "warrior class". The people who operate heavy war machinery are also career soldiers; conscripts are light infantry.
And there is a very real economic cost to mandatory military service. It only makes sense in the context of a small country (in terms of population) bordering a large aggressive neighbor, such as Finland or (possibly) Canada.
Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first
by impossiblefork on Thursday June 05, 2025 @04:28PM
(#44195483)
No, conscripts operate also tanks and artillery. They also load and prepare combat aircraft.
Artillery and tanks will have some kind of professional officer though.
Re:Autonomous drone defeats human champions in racing first
by actionfromafar on Thursday June 05, 2025 @06:43PM
(#44196362)
Armed forces culture is also incredibly important. Goal/mission oriented organizations are harder to co-opt than top-down command structure organizations.
Meanwhile Spain suffered an attempted coup in 1981 [0] while mandatory military service was still in place [1]. The conscripts did not play a role in protecting democracy.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Spanish_coup_attempt
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Service_(Spain)