The Mad MUSIC of Machine Warfare

Future Combat Systems

Activist Post

The symphony of destruction continues to get louder, as an unabashed war project has been named MUSIC.

We have been discussing drones almost ad nauseam as of late, because a dystopian science fiction plot has entered our reality whereby machines have not only supplanted humans on the battlefield, but they have become autonomous -- they can work together and make decisions on their own.

If the use of drones to unilaterally bomb six countries from thousands of miles away doesn't get people's attention, then perhaps fleets of weaponized surveillance drones with the ability to communicate amongst themselves and wage war independently will.

The MUSIC project officially integrates unmanned and manned aircraft in combat, and was put on display with the largest showcase of "aircraft interoperability" to date:

"...all have the capability to shoot and stream live video. These aircraft also possess the ability to exchange and use the information as needed, whether it is to conduct surveillance or reconnaissance of a given area."

This interoperability creates a Universal Ground Control Station, or network of drones and their payloads.  In addition to the dangers presented by this technology and its use in undeclared wars, a single operator can orchestrate movements on the platform.  This would seem to greatly increase the negative effects of operator error or abuse. 

A single operator is then able to take control of a given payload, or sensor, on the aviation platform by using the One System Remote Video Terminal. The operator can steer the aircraft's payload in any direction to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance of an area.

This fusion of multiple platforms is also slated to extend across the different branches of the military and can thus potentially play a concert of war between the aerial and ground drones of the Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy:

Not only is MUSIC helping shape the future of CAB units and the Army but its creating connections across joint boundaries to include the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, said Maj. Gen. William T. Crosby, the Program Executive Office, Aviation.

The capabilities reported in the ASD press release are echoed in an article from the Washington Post today entitled A Future for Drones: Automated Killing.  This is where things begin to get creepy.  The drone network that is being set up is designed to conduct its mission without the need for human direction:

One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.

The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control.

As we reported last week, an additional capability is being added to keep the drone network aloft indefinitely using lasers to convert power from multiple sources.  Therefore, in the near future an unblinking, unfeeling, permanent matrix of war will confirm its target independently by data supplied to its sensors, orchestrate the attack plan between its member drones and robots, and execute the mission:

This successful exercise in autonomous robotics could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans.

Whoever said that machines can't surpass humanity's ability to make music?

Perhaps the better question is whether or not humanity will be around to hear the final note.

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Helicopter lost over Libya is new US drone: officials

An unmanned MQ-8B Fire Scout
© AFP/File Jim Watson

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A drone helicopter that lost radar contact with NATO over Libya is a Fire Scout, an unmanned US chopper, defense officials said Tuesday, revealing the use of the new robotic aircraft in the war.

"We don't know yet" why NATO's command center in Naples, Italy lost contact with the MQ-8B Fire Scout, a US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Is Military Spending Saving or Enslaving?

Michael Edwards
Activist Post

The latest announcement that the Pentagon's military research division, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), has created shape-shifting robots sounds like anotherTerminator sequel, but this is mainstream news.  Sure, this is still theoretical, as these robots are just half a millimeter thick, but it portends a future where, "it will be used to create full-sized cars and aircraft that morph as they move, or robots that can 'flow' like mercury into small openings, or multipurpose military uniforms that can adapt to different environments."  There is no discussion in the article about the benefits to mankind, only the military applications.

Whether or not the categories listed below were conceived of by individuals who had a desire to contribute to Humanity's progress, the fact remains that  between 45%-90% of American taxpayer money now goes to military spending.  The U.S. has set the stage, but many other governments certainly have received their marching orders.  The relationship between the foreign battlefield and civilian life at home can be traced back to the advent of world wars, as private research and development was often subsumed into the military mission.  In our modern era of perpetual war on nebulous terror, it might be worthwhile to ask:  Is our support of military spending helping humanity or enslaving us?  

Surveillance -- Spy technology was naturally a military creation.  One could certainly argue that every country has real enemies, and it would be profoundly naive not to conduct surveillance against potential saboteurs.  However, the citizens of the world who have paid the bill for this technology have clearly had it turned upon us.  The ways we are being tracked, traced, and databased certainly makes it seem like we the people are the enemy.

Communications --  High-tech surveillance is at its core pure communications.  The military enhanced telephone, radio and TV technologies long ago.  A joint working relationship with communications companies led to the eyes in the skies of satellite technology, which initially was designed to communicate with military units.  It eventually had wide applications in the early space program.  Radar is ubiquitous; another military application.  And, yes, the Internet was conceived in a DARPA think-tank; it became a vehicle for secure communications between universities and military research sites in the early '60s.  Since then, the Internet has positively affected the lives of billions of people, offering freedom to communicate to anyone, anywhere in the world.  However, the new Cybersecurity Act calls for government oversight of not only the infrastructure, but of citizen-created content as well (noted in the bill as "data").  

Transportation --  The military academy, West Point, was the first engineering school in the United States.  It was denounced early on as being incompatible with democracy, as its graduates became key civil engineers and educators in every part of society.  Those four-lane highways that we all love, as we cruise down them in cars that have come to signify American independence, were created by an Eisenhower directive in 1956 to accommodate military transport and escape from atomic attack.  Naval passage has had wonderful uses, but funding by taxpayers has still led to "stealth, speed, and firepower"  as an enduring submarine slogan.  The first practical helicopters were used by the Germans in WWII.  The Wright Brothers are American legends, but they had their military connections as well.  We need only to compare the flight technology used in commercial travel vs. what was announced the other day by the British military: Taranis.  Taranis (pronounced: Tyrannis, of course) is an unmanned stealth fighter that can hit any continent in the world and, "is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors."  The cost is £143 million during the worst economic crisis of modern times.

Weapons and Security -- Tasers and sound cannons, are just two of the myriad weapons of modern war.  And, yet, these torture technologies are now routinely appearing where citizens attempt to peaceably assemble.  This militarization of domestic security functions can create an adversarial relationship between law enforcement and the people they are sworn to protect.  One only has to walk through a naked body scanner at the airport, under the auspices of the abusive TSA, to learn what it feels like to live in a war zone.

Science -- Scientific research has always been the thread that binds all of the disciplines of modern warfare.  The history is a byzantine one, but had its official origins in the Council of National Defense, 1916, which coordinated industry for national defense.  This mindset led eventually to The Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941.  Vannevar Bush, the director of The Carnegie Institution at the time, was bothered by the "lack of cooperation between civilian scientists and the military."  He was an early computer genius, a proponent of technocracy, and he advocated a system of connectedness called The Memex that was an absolute blueprint for the functions of the Internet that we see today.  In short, a scientific dictatorship has been imagined, beta tested, improved upon again, and activated.  Consider this quote from Bush in 1945:

  

Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, "memex" will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory. 

It consists of a desk, and while it can presumably be operated from a distance, it is primarily the piece of furniture at which he works. On the top are slanting translucent screens, on which material can be projected for convenient reading. There is a keyboard, and sets of buttons and levers. Otherwise it looks like an ordinary desk. 
      - Vannevar Bush; As We May Think; Atlantic Monthly; July 1945.

This is how behind the times we are as recipients of information from the elite circles.  Perhaps, when we hear that terrahertz surveillance blimps are hovering above us; or that nanotech particles can control our minds from a distance; or there is a military-UFO connection in China; or weather modification arrays can ignite the atmosphere, we might do well not to immediately laugh at such "crazy" claims, but to investigate them.

Dwight Eisenhower succinctly warned us 50 years ago of a "Military-Industrial Complex."



Do we in fact have a military-industrial complex today?  This list of companies fulfilling military contracts certainly is indicative.  Maybe the question shouldn't be:  Is military spending enslaving us, but are we enslaving ourselves when we support the concept of war itself?

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Military One Step Closer to Battlefield Holograms

David Axe
Wired

It’s one of those grandiose ideas that gets bandied about by Pentagon scientists and pops up in the press every few years. The “Face of Allah” weapon would beam a massive, lifelike hologram over a battlefield, projecting the image of some deity “to incite fear in soldiers on a battlefield,” according to one researcher.

We last checked in on holographic weapons research two years ago, when the University of New Hampshire was working on some Pentagon-funded projects. Since then, another university team has turned holograms into a reality — but not as tools of war. Not yet, at least.

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US military developing flying car

US military commanders are considering procuring flying cars to transport troops around the battlefield.

Photo: FERRARI PRESS AGENCY

Telegraph

The vehicle would function just like a big four-wheel-drive Humvee when on the ground.

But it would also be able to take off like a helicopter and fly away from trouble or to avoid enemy road blocks.

Part of the American research and development money, worth £41 million and led by American defence and aerospace firm AAI, has gone to US firm Terrafugia which is already developing the world's first flying production car.

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