Whoops Navy drone strays from program

[mugaliens]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100826/tc_yblog_upshot/renegade-unmanned-drone-wandered-skies-near-nations-capital"

I'm glad the grounded the "fleet" until they figure out what happened. If anything, the Navy is usually fairly conservative with respect to their ops. I am all for drones, though, and hope they continue their advancement.

 

[Office_Shredder]

I for one welcome our new skynet overlords.

Or maybe it's like Eagle Eye and all we need is the (spoiler alert!)

Spoiler

twin brother to finish the job

 

[Integral]

LOL, reminds me of a sea story.

I was aboard the USS JFK in the early '70's when they brought aboard 2 remote controlled power boats. they were between 15 - 20 ft long each powered by a massive v8 engine. The idea was to use them as bombing targets which would be too small and moving to fast for the planes to actually hit. They put the first one in the water, powered it up, it took off never to be seen again. It was out of control range before they ever got control of it. They managed to get control of the 2nd one but much to their dismay a plane manged to but a small dummy bomb right through it. The ship came along side of it, all we could see was about 3ft of bow sticking out of the water, divers dropped into the water and tied a line to the exposed tie downs. The ships crane attempted to lift it only to have the tie downs tear loose. The were designed to lift the boat, not the boat full of water! After the divers failed to get a net under it they gave up and called out the Marines who opened with rifle fire. We watched as it disappeared under the waves.

So I would say the Navy has some long term experience in loosing control of remote devices!