US DoD reveals plans for new, improved drones: report

LONDON: The US Department of Defence (DoD) has revealed its plan for the improved next generation unmanned aircraft, according to which the military drones will be equipped with stronger chemical weapons, a UK newspaper reported.

According to the Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap revealed by the DoD, the US is setting out its technology that aims for the next 25 years, thus, unmanned aircrafts will likely be equipped with better sensors and navigational equipment, plus superior autonomous systems that could soon make their OWN decisions during missions.

Drones that can choose to deviate from a set mission and hunt in ‘swarms’ could be patrolling skies within the next 25 years, according to a new roadmap.

It may also be mentioned that current drones require intensive manpower on the ground to fly, which is expensive and the DoD plans on cutting costs by letting the machines make more decisions themselves.

At the moment, drones follow precise commands to complete a predetermined step-by-step mission, but the unmanned aircraft of the future could deviate from tasks, informed by ‘laws’ that govern their behaviour, laid out in algorithms and machine learning, as well as advanced sensors.

The technologies combined are intended to help the US military be ‘more effective through greater automation and greater performance,’ the report stated.