Not uncommon for the military to develop technologies that will eventually be applied within the private/commercial sector.
Delivering Devastation, (Washington Times)…Sara A. Carter
Unmanned aircraft controlled from U.S. fly over Afghanistan, Iraq on ‘kill’ missions.
Air Force officials say that the Predator and Reaper are just the first in a revolution in cyber and warfare technology that will take pilots out of the skies and put them behind computers and joysticks.
“We believe we’ll have a computer with as much computing power as a human no later than 2012,” Gen. Peterson said in reference to meetings he had with IBM and other computer technology firms. “We want the aircraft to initially think through the problem and offer the pilot a couple of solutions to choose from.”
Although the technology is still being developed, he said he hopes that one day advanced aircraft will be able to “plan ahead” and evaluate changes in the mission if required.
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