Pakistan to develop combat drones.

Begun, the drone-race has.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/13/drones-pakistan

Also, it looks like a new Cold War has manifested between China and the US.

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_08_23/China-US-to-begin-new-arms-race/

To be honest, the only difference between drones and planes, is that people don't have to die if drones are shot down. Other than that, they're very similar, people shooting people from the air. They're still controlled from people, just remotely, as opposed to inside the vehicle itself.

Cold War between US and China? I thought the US and China were in a Cold War since the Korean War.

@minigunman123 said:

To be honest, the only difference between drones and planes, is that people don't have to die if drones are shot down. Other than that, they're very similar, people shooting people from the air. They're still controlled from people, just remotely, as opposed to inside the vehicle itself.

Cold War between US and China? I thought the US and China were in a Cold War since the Korean War.

The theory is that this will lead to a pioneering of a new type of weapon, which would be robots that are programmed to carry out functions in war and let the people sit back and simply wait to fix them if need be.

You're thinking of Russia. China has really only come into it's own in the last two decades or so, after the fall of the USSR in particular.

Back to Uranus we go.

This reminds of Skyfall, and a scene between Q and Bond.

Q: I can do more damage on my laptop in my pyjamas than you can do in a year in the field.

James Bond: Then what do you need me for?

Q: Every now and then a trigger has to be pulled.

James Bond: Or not pulled. It's hard to know which in your pyjamas... Q.

I know it's for safety and protecting lives but this just seems ridiculous to me, drones give you a lot of information but there are times when it can make a mistake. Also, who's flying them? Kids that are good at CoD or Halo?

I didn't know anyone needed more powerful bombs/missiles than they currently have.

@KingUranus said:

Back to Uranus we go.

No homo?

@Illuminatus said:

@minigunman123 said:

To be honest, the only difference between drones and planes, is that people don't have to die if drones are shot down. Other than that, they're very similar, people shooting people from the air. They're still controlled from people, just remotely, as opposed to inside the vehicle itself.

Cold War between US and China? I thought the US and China were in a Cold War since the Korean War.

The theory is that this will lead to a pioneering of a new type of weapon, which would be robots that are programmed to carry out functions in war and let the people sit back and simply wait to fix them if need be.

You're thinking of Russia. China has really only come into it's own in the last two decades or so, after the fall of the USSR in particular.

We're a little ways off from that type of robot being accurate and bug-free enough to deploy in the field, methinks. I've programmed AI for a while and I can tell you there's no real efficient, precise way of determining who's friendly, who's unfriendly, where/what the target is, geography of the terrain, and being able to dodge enemy fire and more, without some large measure of human interraction. The best we have right now are cruise missiles and the like. I can see robots happening in maybe 10 years.

China's always been a bit of a sticky area. They do plenty of things that are questionable at best, so I figured we'd been in a "hostile but non-war" attitude for a little while now. I'll just take a look at the link in the OP.

This will surely end well.

@minigunman123 said:

@KingUranus said:

Back to Uranus we go.

No homo?

Yes, homosapien.

Iran and North Korea have Combat Drones for years, Pakistan doesn't make a difference

@Jonny_Anonymous said:

Iran and North Korea have Combat Drones for years, Pakistan doesn't make a difference

Given North Korea's recent...um..mishaps with anything aerial, I wouldn't be too worried about their drones at any rate, assuming they can even take off. :p

Pakistan doing this will really only piss off one nation more than any other: India.

This reminds me of a tv special I watched when I was younger about Nostradamus were they were interpreting some of his predictions. One of them was about the end of the world and there was war all across the globe with high tech weapons that people were not personally involved and were actually far away from the battlefield

Mediocre Combat Drones won't make much of a difference

Don't see why they shouldn't have drones.

Thus begins Skynet...

@Edamame: Well, the Chinese have been posturing and even attempting to pass themselves off as tougher than they actually seem to be.

For example, they claimed the would "intervene" or something to that effect if NATO launched an assault on Libya. Hu Jintao was adamant about not letting the US and the rest of NATO disrupt the current status-quo in the Middle East/Northern Africa. And yet, China did nothing.

I don't agree with these acts of aggression against sovereign countries, and the one in Libya was particularly unconstitutional on President Obama's part, but really, I think that China is still trying to find their place in this new balance of power. They only just bought and refurbished their first aircraft carrier, because they were apparently unable to construct their own.

If anything, it'll take China ten years at the least to become a legitimate military power that can wage war across the board in every regard, and even pick and choose the next theater of war. Russia, on the other hand, has been working towards this ever since the fall of the USSR. Its only natural, really, and Putin is certainly thinking long-term for the Federation.