{"id":34379,"date":"2021-09-29T09:50:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=34379"},"modified":"2021-09-29T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T14:50:11","slug":"preventing-keith-laumers-bolo-ctd-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/09\/29\/preventing-keith-laumers-bolo-ctd-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Keith Laumer\u2019s Bolo, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This quiet thread may resurge with this <strong><em>NewScientist<\/em><\/strong> (18 September 2021, paywall) report of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2289467-a-us-military-robot-ship-has-fired-a-large-missile-for-the-first-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>A US military robot ship has fired a large missile for the first time<\/em><\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The US Department of Defense has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeptofDefense\/status\/1433852377870839808\">released footage<\/a>\u00a0of an uncrewed ship firing a large missile, in a demonstration of its Ghost Fleet Overlord programme, an initiative to develop robot vessels that can operate alongside crewed warships.<\/p>\n<p>Previous Ghost Fleet operations have focused on endurance missions without human assistance, including the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2260008-us-navys-huge-uncrewed-robot-ship-has-journeyed-through-panama-canal\/\">first uncrewed transit of the Panama Canal<\/a>, but the firing is the first indication that the vessels will be armed.<\/p>\n<p>The SM-6 weapon used in the demonstration is a 1500-kilogram missile travelling at Mach 3.5 with a range of over 240 kilometres, fired from a modular launcher on the ship, the USV Ranger. Although the missile was launched without a human on board, US policy requires that the target selection and order to fire would be controlled by a person. The demonstration isn\u2019t the first launch of a missile from a robot boat, but the SM-6 is about 100 times larger than the missile used in an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.israeldefense.co.il\/en\/node\/34530\">Israeli test in 2017<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here&#8217;s that video:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">See the game-changing, cross-domain, cross-service concepts the Strategic Capabilities Office and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/USNavy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@USNavy<\/a> are rapidly developing: an SM-6 launched from a modular launcher off of USV Ranger. Such innovation drives the future of joint capabilities. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/DoDInnovates?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#DoDInnovates<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yCG57lFcNW\">pic.twitter.com\/yCG57lFcNW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Department of Defense \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@DeptofDefense) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DeptofDefense\/status\/1433852377870839808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 3, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>An analyst suggests a possible weakness:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[Sidharth Kaushal of Royal United Services Institute] notes that, given current limitations of sensors and artificial intelligence, the new vessels will work with rather than replace crewed vessels, but he says there could be a greater risk of them being attacked in peacetime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey may become targets for sub-threshold aggression, given that damaging or destroying them involves no loss of life,\u201d says Kaushal. He points to a 2016 incident in which\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2016\/12\/16\/breaking-chinese-seize-u-s-navy-unmanned-vehicle\">China seized a small US unmanned underwater research craft<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>More provocations &#8211; are they more dangerous, or are they a relatively safe way for the Big Powers to poke at each other and evaluate responses? The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cold_War\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Cold War<\/em><\/a> was notorious for such tactics, but with live people in the planes and ships; if lives are not at risk, this may be a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This quiet thread may resurge with this NewScientist (18 September 2021, paywall) report of A US military robot ship has fired a large missile for the first time: The US Department of Defense has\u00a0released footage\u00a0of an uncrewed ship firing a large missile, in a demonstration of its Ghost Fleet Overlord \u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2021\/09\/29\/preventing-keith-laumers-bolo-ctd-24\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34380,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34379\/revisions\/34380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}