I can't remember how long ago it was that I warned 'Dim Dave' that all those squillions of quid he is spending on French-built(?) aircraft carriers could go down in history as the biggest waste of time, money and effort since, er, well, whatever was the last big spend by his daft government. I warned that small, mobile, robot, weapon platforms would soon put aircraft carriers our of business. This from the Stars and Stripes site:
The military is starting tests on the world's largest unmanned surface vessel — a self-driving, 132-foot ship designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board.
The so-called "Sea Hunter" has the potential to revolutionize not only the military's maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. If successful, it could usher in the arrival of unmanned cargo vessels moving between countries.
Sorry, Prime Minister, but the world has moved on since you were taught our glorious naval history at Eton!
Let's hope Bill Gates isn't supplying the software!
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Tuesday, 03 May 2016 at 15:10
No shit.
Posted by: JK | Tuesday, 03 May 2016 at 16:29
No, no, BOE, my new best friend Bill can be relied upon, it's 'crapple' you have to watch out for!
Thank you, JK, cryptic, or perhaps craptic, as always!
Posted by: David Duff | Tuesday, 03 May 2016 at 18:19
USS Obama, new unmanned warship sinks Chinese cruise liner. Sorry says Bill Gates!
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Tuesday, 03 May 2016 at 21:42
If the USS Obama turned out to be as useless as the person it would be named after it would be lucky to get past the limits of territorial waters without a teleprompter.
Or they could name it the Hillary Rodham-Clinton. Now that would be a mouth full - or was that Bill Clinton?
Posted by: AussieD | Wednesday, 04 May 2016 at 07:43
Autonomous ships are one thing - don't get in their way!
But I am much more concerned, in a military sense, with smaller things than that, whether autonomous or not.
How, for instance, would any modern warship cope with an attack by thousands of drones simultaneously, some of which (but you won't know which ones, of course) will be carrying a few pounds of Semtex?
I hope someone has thought of this, but given that our people are usually planning how to win the last war, I don't have much confidence!
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | Wednesday, 04 May 2016 at 12:12
Those drones could be carrying far more dangerous items than Semtex - radio-active isotopes, virulent bio-chem samples and so on.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 04 May 2016 at 12:18
Given your impeccable records David, I figured this especially would be right-up-your-alley:
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/04/beyond-schadenfreude-the-spectacular-pundit-failure-on-trump-is-worth-remembering/
Posted by: JK | Saturday, 07 May 2016 at 19:59