Yesterday was a day of historic change for the World but it went largely unnoticed. While most of us in the Midwest enjoyed the Sun in the Spring sky after a grey Winter, the world changed. Yesterday our country ushered in a new era of War and of arms races. While not nearly as remarkable as the last time we did this in Hiroshima the implications will likley be as profound.
The Plane
The X-45A is a new unmanned robotic plane developed by Boeing. Funded by the Air Force, and NASA, the plane weighs about 8,000 pounds and has a 34-foot wingspan. The plane is now about two years old. If your interested in seeing the firstflight check out the Boeing video.
The Plain Problem
Yesterday, for the first time in human history, a unmanned aircraft dropped a smart bomb from the sky and came within inches of hitting its target.
Directed by remote control from eighty miles away the X-45 dropped a 250 pound smart bomb from 35,000 feet as it flew at 442 miles per hour. The bomb guided by global positioning satellites landed within inches of its target.
The problem is that yesterday we came a step closer to ushering in an era of drone wars. Killing without having to take on causalities has been around since the V2 but each year we lower the barriers and make the cost less for killing.
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