I was watching Terminator 3 last night and it got me to reflect on just how much the military relies on computers. I’ve been in 20 years now and remember using punch cards to track cargo. Now we use bar codes and web browsers. Everything we do is tracked in a database or becoming “virtual. But the big revolution in the military is coming in the air.

Unmanned fighters and bombers are becoming the future of warfare. The thing is that the future isn’t that far off. In fact it’s practically here. Northrop Grumman just received a $1B contract to develop 3 full scale prototypes of unmanned aircraft. The Air Force already has unmanned drones flying reconnaissance. The big push now is to link all Air Force aircraft into one big network. Every aircraft becomes a sensor in the network. We won’t need pilots to fly missions. Aircraft can be designed to withstand higher G-forces as there is no need to worry about the pilot. They can carry more weapons and fuel. All linked together to carry out the mission. The actual pilots sit thousands of miles away safe and secure. How long until it’s all managed by software? Will a human even need to be involved? Just please don’t call it Skynet…