[esonica]

I would guess the autonomous image recognition will be for use in the drones, which seems to be the way US warfare is heading.

It still makes me uncomfortable, the thought of armed drones wandering our skies. I often wonder if the future wars will be about cyber warfare in controlling those drones?

[benkant]

Drones are fine for taking pictures from the sky and sending missiles into specific locations, but to get those locations you often need troops on the group to provide that intel- the enemy knows the drones are out there, so they don't stand in the open unless they can help it. Satellite imagery is the same deal.

Sure, we'll see an increased use of UAVs, both airborne and otherwise in the years to come, but I think you'll find we're a long way off replacing troops with drones.

On a similar note- despite the increased used of signals intelligence, we're a long way from doing away with human intelligence gathering.

Warfare is changing but kenetic warfare involving boots on the ground isn't going anywhere. In fact the modern war zone makes using UAVs harder. It's dudes in caves and villages wearing civilian clothes, walking amongst innocents. War on the scale of the World Wars was probably better suited to UAV versus UAV. These days it's different.