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| Fig. 1: The Australian Army learning about the capabilities of the American built RQ- 11B Raven aerial reconnaissance drone. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
The current rate of research and development on the use artificial intelligence and autonomy has very strong implications for the future of warfare and national defense. Being able to mobilize military weapons like the RQ-11B Raven pictured in Fig. 1 that make real-time decisions on their own can increase the damage and precision from adversarial attack given their previous levels of reconnoissance. Perhaps what is most surprising about drones like the RQ-11B Raven is that one weighs around 4.2 pounds and can reach a maximum altitude of about 500 feet from a single handheld deployment and still capture and transmit real-time pictures and videos. Additionally, the drone's capability to be in air for around 90 minutes shows an ample amount of flight endurance. [1] The relatively small size of these drones compared to other modern aircraft may imply uselessness in large-scale battle, but to military organizations, the drone may appear as a discrete and efficient means to expand their destructive capacity and execute nuclear missions.
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| Fig. 2:A Russian submarine patrolling the Baltic Sea. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Aside from enhanced reconnaissance through imagery and mapping techniques, there has been other employments of drones in nuclear warfare. In recent news, Russia has begun testing and planning to use "Poseidon" drones within their fleet of submarines like the one pictured in Fig. 2. In fact, the Russian navy has 32 lethal drones that will be spread out amongst 4 submarine ships. [2] This development shows the versatility drones have. The advent of nuclear weapons has allowed for relatively small vehicles like underwater drones to have impressive destructive capabilities through integration with other military vehicles.
© Esteban Abbate. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] "RQ-11B Raven System," U.S. Air Force, November 2009.
[2] M. Episkopos, "Russian Navy Will Soon Deploy 32 "Poseidon" Nuclear Drones Across 4 Submarines," The National Interest, 15 Jan 19.
