Technology inspiration: weapons in development

[tnjrp]

Tech tips for your future warriors. Even near future, possibly, since the technologies are currently in development according to the article:
http://futurism.com/images/futuristic-weapons-how-we-will-fight-in-the-future/

Still not convinced about the invisibility bit. Less so now they've added the term "quantum".

[mcfonz]

Doubt it at this point Scurv.

For that to be possible all conflicts would be between people with the tech. As it stands, at this point, you wouldn't want to sell artificial soldiers to your enemies as it gives you an advantage.

If someone knows they will have to put humans up against robots then they know they will be losing lives and not the enemy who will just be losing bots. So it would only really come about when all nations have access to it, which is not going to happen for quite a while. Remember some military of countries around the world are still equipped with 70's to 80's cast offs from other nations. Some even older.

[zizi666]

You'd definitly want your enemies to use your droids as you'd most certainly could switch 'em off when fielded against you 

[Tactalvanic]

Hmmm

Software updates and poor customer support.

should be more than enough to stop it catching on anytime soon.

I can see them advancing on the battlefield, loads of robot soldiers, raising guns, and suddenly all stopping as the opperators have to download the latest version of adobe, without forgetting to un-select the optional toolbar..

Still the drone swarm and smart weaponry thats in development is damned scary enough.

[CptJake]

have you seen the drone swarm stuff. Freaking scary as. Personally I think we are at the cusp of making human warriors obsolete. We may even be entering a 'golden age' of warfare where conflicts are settled in a matter of hours with little to no civilian casualties.   

I don't think that ever happens.   If my enemy uses drone swarms and other robotics, I am purposely targeting the guys who maintain the comms links and dissemination points as well as the guys who do the logistics.   Yeah, a lot of that is automated or done remotely, but when the actual humans involved start getting capped you degrade the capabilities quickly.   You can only 'win' when the humans running the robots believe they are beaten, getting them to that point means killing people.   Once you start that, unfortunately, civilians always get caught up in it.

[commissarmoody]

So how does that factor in, when the enemy is the civilian population?

[Etranger]

by limited to no civilian casualties I am assuming you will be able to bring a nation state to its knees in a few hours via a conjunction of cyber and drone attacks. We have turned the power water and sewage off in all your major cities, everyone above the rank of major in your armed forces just got a self guided insect sized drone bomb to the head and selected members of your government too. etc etc.

If your command and control and logistics and economy are all defunct you cannot continue the fight.

Or just get them to 'upgrade' their operating system. AS that ALWAYS works so well.

[commissarmoody]

Is that not an oxymoron? By definition a civilian can not be a combatant.

Not exactly. In my experience over in Iraq and Afghanistan, the difference was if his buddies couldn't hide the guys rifle fast enough. 

[commissarmoody]

Your right, I from time to time start to take things seriously. 
Its a curse I tell you.  Yeah it would be cool, if that was the thing. Would make cyberdin a lot more fearsome it they just used bug swarms instead of endo-skeletons.

[Michi]

My imagination is a far nicer place to hang out in.

Something like a AI defence system like Skynet that deploays a couple of T-800s perhaps...