Valkyrie: This Autonomous AI Drone Could Be the Military’s Next Weapon | WSJ Equipped
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- The Valkyrie XQ-58A is a combat drone designed to deliver weapons or assist fighter jets - using artificial intelligence. The prototype has been in development for years and is able to travel 3,000 miles at an altitude of up to 45,000 ft. Experts now say this unmanned vehicle could play a role in a multi-billion-dollar U.S. military effort to use AI to expand its assets to keep up with increasingly advanced adversaries like China.
WSJ looks at how the Valkyrie is built for stealth and how it could fit in the U.S. military’s plans to establish a fleet of AI systems.
0:00 Valkyrie drones
0:58 Specs
4:50 Utility and cost
6:57 Future development
WSJ Equipped
Equipped examines military innovation and tactics emerging around the world, breaking down the tech behind the weaponry and its potential impact.
#Valkyrie #Weapons #WSJ
From just a purely engineering standpoint these types of weapons make a great deal of common sense. This is the future, like it or not. A drone is always going to be able to out G anything with a human onboard. Plus without the need for things like ejection seats, pressurization and environmental systems the drone is always going to be lighter, faster and more maneuverable as well as cheaper to build and maintain. Additionally when a drone gets shot down there’s no need to launch multiple men and equipment to conduct a search and recovery operation since there’s nothing to recover. It just makes so much more sense.
Better have self destruct bomb on it to destroy itself if it get shot down.
Another game changer 😂
Yeah except you forget the lag of decision and maneuvering. A human cab make real tine decisions on their own. They know when to pull off and disengage. These systmes sre not a gane changer.
@@amazinkay4512
If one were to apply that logic then why would we ever use Cruise missiles ? Heck, why would we use any missiles ?
We’ve had drones for like 10-15 years now tho? This is just the newest model. We really don’t need an iPhone upgrade drone each year.
3,000 mile range, 1800 lbs of munitions, and under $10M, with low radar signature. What an awesome machine.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Waste of money. Just like the F-35's that the USA refuses to give to Ukraine because the USA is afraid Russia might shoot one down. I'm sure China is aware of how scared the USA is to deploy these advanced systems. They'll be fine for air shows within the USA though.
Correction, it will be $30 mil when it comes out for sale.
Reduce the range to 700, miles, make it disposable, and reduce the price to 1 million and there goes the Kerch Bridge. Send 15 to 20 cheap rockets to get the Russian air defense crazy, or even firecrackers.
@@Moskva-uf9bc *cheers for russia*
I always think about the relative weight against grand pianos when guessing weight of large heavy objects.
Well, at least they didn't use the weight of bananas per black hole.
Yeah, I'm always out there comparing things to grand pianos. I'm glad it's not just me. 🤯
Makes the Imperial System look downright levelheaded.
Maurican system
if anything, the Valkyrie looks pretty badass lol
Good name too
But.. can’t be used on reality in most cases😒..like the Russian hypersonic missiles, expensive more advanced weapons limit targets. u only use them against extremely valuable target or it would be waste of money🤏
I wonder when we will see or whether we will even see Marauder drones from the Division 2 game in real life
@duran9664 this drone is disposable, send them to Chinese carrier fleet. It will sink all of em
weighs about two or three concert grand pianos? riiight... because the average heft of concert grand pianos is common knowledge. can i get the weight of the valkyrie in units of washing machines? or how about in truck tires?
I literally thought the same thing but why not say,"the weight of a small car,"Or "several plastic sporks?"
Lol! How about it weighs about the equivalent of 50 Chinese spies?
@waxinyomomma1375 quick, without doing a web search, what is the typical approximate weight of a small car? 😊
@@leftwingersareweaklol 2500 lbs?
The first "small car"suggestion was a better suggestion... the "sporks" for play play.
This platform should be adopted. It is one of the most mature unmanned systems out. Kratos is a smaller player, but history tells us that can be a good thing with us government contracts.
It absolutely will be, if not by the US then by someone else. It’s an amazing platform that fits literally perfectly into the Pacific theater’s strategic calculus.
If your watching it on RUclips, it is probably in gen 3 at least
@@Propaneo-insaneo ok grandpa
People just throw out the buzzword AI for everything. If he means autonomous flight and control, then he should just say that. People have been using machine learning since the 90s or even earlier.
They're not referring to simple autonomous drones. They mean actual AI agents with decision making authority. Look up the Skyborg program and the recent test flights with AI agents flying real world F-16s in exercises.
@@CaptainBrawnson My guy, AI agents and autonomous flight/control are literally the same thing. Nothing in AI is particularly novel, we've had perceptrons and regression algorithms for well over many decades. The use of "AI" for marketing is overblown, I can guarantee you that it's nowhere as intelligent as you think it is. The only thing novel is that they're actually willing to trust drones to be autonomous.
General Dynamics X-62 VISTA. US has a fleet of AI piloted F-16s
oh it weighs the same as 3 Grand Pianos? everyone knows how much that is. I'm glad they didn't compare it to other aircraft weights for instance
lol I always love how journalists use comparisons that give absolutely no help to understanding whatever they are explaining. I always joke we should use one standard, the Little Smokie, for dimensions, weights, and volumes. Yes those little sausages. Example: That length is the same as Little Smokies stacked end to end going to the moon and back seven times. See. A perfectly comprehesible immediately understandable explaination.
Or a compact car or something
🤖
The fact that it doesn't need a run way either way is huge. Can bring air power to bear from anywhere!
So everything that is autonomous is called AI now. Is my 10-year-old Roomba also AI now?
Technically yeah. I mean perception and planning is an integral part of AI which is what the Roomba does so yeah that’s AI.
@@dmeister98Or, AI is a buzzword that is so ambiguous that it effectively means nothing.
@ It's just a computer program. Like all programs it can be broken down to millions of individual operations of input, process, output.
Yes
This is horrifying and fascinating at the same time. I believe that in nearest future more powerful military will be not even for the number of drones or other hardware but for more witted algorithms and AI systems on that hardware. And also it will be about clever orchestration of all that stuff.
As a middle eastern, I can’t wait to be bummed by one of those. 😂
Forget about human error, now we have to worry about Ai errors as well 😂
Then start acting like a human being and stop terror attacks.
This is both impressive and horrifying at the same time.
The airframe looks very similar to the German-Spanish EADS Barracuda which had its first flight in 2003 or so. Barracuda was way ahead of its time.
The airframe itself doesn't mean a ton.
@@onyxfinger7431 true but back then, in the late 90s early 00s, EVERYONE designed drones completely differently. Drones looked either like Dassault Neutron or like Northrop Global Hawk. These were the two common layouts for jet Propeller UAVs or UCAVs. And now for the last years, everyone copies the Barracudas airframe, even Russia (Kronstadt Grom) and India (HAL CATS).
*jet propelled, stupid autocorrect
Sadly stealth means many future aircraft will look similar.
This thing seems like a step backwards. It is so small, and so not a lot of internal space for either long stand off weapons or fuel.
I would say it wouldn't be an issue if it will mean you get a ton more for the buck. Yet ha. Haha! Yeah that ain't happening.
And what's surprising in that ?? Almost all of US weapons origin can be traced back to German engineering & their military Tech.
"It's my time", said by Skynet.
You beat me to this comment😂! First thing I thought watching this was Skynet is almost here. Anyone seen John Conner lately?
The "AI" they're describing is a glorified flowchart. People need to stop mixing up Sci-fi and reality.
Yea this is exactly how it plays out in the Terminator too
"Eddy is the whole idea"
I’m an aerospace engineering student designing autonomous drones that drop water bottles on targets. It is incredible how easily and rapidly college students can create these devices at very low cost with the technology available to the public. With the US’ defense spending and available technologies, it’s difficult to imagine what we have in our arsenal.
How difficult and expensive would it be to make that watter bottle guided, so you you could drop it from 600 meters with high precision? A mini-JDAM basically. Asking for an Ukrainian friend :)
@@MishaAmashukeli literally $10k it’s absurdly easy
Yeah, it's just RC plane. So I never amazed when a country produces drone
@@drone51 If fpv drones cost 400$, why does a glide bomb that needs no propulsion(just 4 control surfaces and actuators), no camera(let's assume it uses radio SACLOS guidance), and a much shorter comms range, cost so much more? Which parts are the most expensive? I'm not talking about R&D, just unit cost.
france signing that agreement not to use AI for military vehicles is going to keep it wayyyy back compared to other countries
A big advantage for using AI for aircraft / ships is that the skies and seas tend to be far simpler, as environments, than land regions tend to be. The AI doesn't have to do nearly as much processing, and it's a lot more likely to make good decisions (especially against air-based/sea-based targets).
Begun, the drone wars have...
这些该死的军火商又需要钱，随便找个国家就说是他们的威胁。比如出现频率最多的中国，俄罗斯，伊朗……为什么？因为这些国家不听美国左右，想让自己家国民过的更幸福。华盛顿邮报是军火商和美国资本寡头的口舌
Given the nature and mission requirements and capabilities no one drone (AI/or not), as well as keeping the cost low, there must be a "family" of drones for dedicated roles in the future fighter strike group. There will be "loyal wingman" to provide traditional "wingman" roles to protect the designated leaders of airstrike groups. As well as drones for ELINT warfare. As well as drones dedicated for attack rolls. The "loyal wingman" will require attributes of a modern stealth fighters to escort the manned fighters into any future battles.
I want to be part of this. This is freakin awesome!
dw, you'll be one of its victims in the upcoming AI uprising
The US are always the innovators, awesome job USA
the Germans definitely had this idea first with the V1 in WW2, though obviously technically was much more limited then
@@CC-bigig Yes, Germans innovated many of the military technologies we still use today, especially at the conceptual stage. But it took the United States in many cases to bring those technologies from the drawing board to reality. And the Germans of WWII also had no idea about software or about functioning AI.
Valkyrie- Old Norse meaning: 'chooser of the slain' Perfect name
Still primitive, but over time it will work. Clear to see the technical evolution. From stealth to drones, to stealthy drones, to AI controlled stealthy drones.
And on its wat to Skynet 😅😅😅
Think of how far we've come in 20 yrs. I believe it was the early days of Obama admin when they drones were strictly for surveillance and they had a confirmed sighting or location of Bin ladin, but were unable to take him out bc drones had no weapons and the target went underground before manned craft could get there.
So they put weapons systems on them. Now we have drones of every shape, size, and use on the water in the air on the ground. Ukrainians taking out Russians with relatively cheap drones and grenades. Now Hamas is doing that too
@@DarthVader20201We should remain thankful to Cameron for solidifying that concern in our collective consciousness. At EVERY step with AI and drone tech Skynet is mentioned (as it should be)
But that was hardly the first rogue AI in fiction that killed people. Still it's the one we all mention. Not the Matrix sentinels or HAL from 2001.
Turns out AI poses a very different threat. It's like TicToc - a threat to what's good in our society. Like how AI art is taking over and stealing artists' styles generating loads of mediocre stuff for pennies.
I guess Army of Drone program from Ukraine side in the war has made a significant impact on the US military. It shows how the future WILL be shaped!
looks like a deadly "Thunderbird "
MCAS Miramar is where that hangar is. I was at that airshow and saw this display.
Better armed, better tech, better range, cheaper than the Reaper drone
This is the future for certain. Better start buying up all the Kratos shares you can!
Seeing this bird you understand that vlad has no chances at all i mean zero😂
Isn’t it better if we’re just throwing robots at robots? Like, in the future if the human is completely out of the equation, all war would be is throwing metal at metal and seeing which one wins.
And then recycling of course.
@@mmaranta785
Not entirely. In order to win you'd still need to target fuel depots, drone manufacturing centers and command staff.
While this could reduce the amount of people who perish, people will still die.
Lol. No, those drones are going to kill people just like the current ones.
It should get some… live action tests in Ukraine. Send them 50 of those a year. It is not expensive for its capabilities and will help from a program-perspective
I bet the thought has occured to them, the reason for many arms companies not doing so is a mystery to me.
First of all it's not ready to be deployed yet. But the answer is obvious to your question. The Russians will do everything to strike one down and recover its pieces and eventually, they will manage to do so, then you have lost years of technological development. Billions of dollars spent on technological advantage will be gone in a matter of months if not days...
You need 2-3 to trail every jet. You can make some very cheap ones to draw missiles away from Jets as decoys. At the last seconds they can do high-g maneuvers that could escape the rockets. Then automatically catch up to the US jet.
Can't we all just get along ?
AI can't even write a decent research paper, making life and death decisions with 1800 lbs of ordinance on board doesn't give me warm feelings of safety. Instead, I get that, we're really going down that road feeling.😮
Very cool they should add a modular infrastructure
I hope it has a self-destruct mechanism to prevent it's secret technology from getting into the wrong hands in case it malfunctions and is recovered by the enemy.
I doubt that's an oversight, it likely would have something designed to serve that purpose
Within the first fraction of a second when I seen that on the launchpad.
I thought World War II Germany, the V2 rocket.
Escalate? I would assume you would only deploy this in a war situation. Escalation is the last thing you would care about. Neutralizing your enemies would be top priority.
Love the design its so sleek!
"...we chose to act in a way that conforms with our values..."
pretty awesome!
"Let's do that!!"
- DoD after watching The Terminator
So it weighs between 20 to 30 washing machines?
What does that equal in microwaves?
@@JT-hx8xr industrial or dorm sized?
97.8 (+/- 2.7 ) for regular home microwaves...
All the missiles need to be painted with Winnie The Pooh on their sides 😆
These should really be equipped with that new military laser.
First, I want to commend The Wall Street Journal for producing such an insightful video on the Valkyrie drone. This content highlights a crucial and rapidly evolving area of military technology that is increasingly relevant in today’s geopolitical landscape. The Valkyrie drone exemplifies the growing integration of artificial intelligence into military applications, a trend that aligns with my own views on the future of warfare. This development signifies a major shift in how military operations are conducted, with AI-driven systems playing an ever more significant role. However, this advancement also underscores a critical concern: the potential for an AI arms race. As the video points out, the U.S. is expanding its drone arsenal to keep pace with countries like China, which has been significantly bolstering its military capabilities. This reciprocal escalation could lead to a scenario where AI technologies are pitted against each other in warfare, which might result in unpredictable and possibly catastrophic outcomes. The autonomous nature of these AI systems raises serious ethical and safety issues. Decisions made by AI, especially in life-and-death situations, pose profound questions about accountability and control. While AI can enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness, there is a significant risk if these systems malfunction or are misused. It is imperative that we approach the deployment of AI in military contexts with extreme caution. International regulations and collaborative frameworks are needed to ensure these technologies are used responsibly and ethically. Fostering dialogue among nations to establish norms and agreements is crucial to preventing an uncontrollable arms race and ensuring global security. In summary, while the Valkyrie drone represents a leap forward in military technology, it also brings to light the urgent need for thoughtful regulation and international cooperation to mitigate the risks associated with AI in warfare.
hmmm. Only thing it lacks is Skynet. We're getting there.
WSJ: why so much debt? Also WSJ: We Love Defense Spending!
Everyone cheers while we start building the terminator air force. This is the beginning of the end, friends
Thank you
Please, could you provide weight measurements on a full-size fridge scale next time as I'm unfamiliar with grand piano metrics.
Aaaahhh! The US military industrial complex, I smell victory!
You want SkyNet and Terminators? ‘Cause this is how you get SkyNet and Terminators.
its kinda funny how they mentioned the price oh its alot cheaper than a manned jet...i can guarantee they are still ripping off the gov its so overpriced im sure compared to if the french or gb or ukraine made the same thing
And using China as bogeyman to squeeze every last drop of funding. Previously it was Russia or USSR. I bet it’s going to be India or Brazil in the future. 😂
well the problem is that the tech is moving faster than the decision makers.
MORE drones!!! 🎉
For the cost of one F35 you can have 15 of these valkyries. In a straight up dogfight the F35 could probably win a 15 vs 1 but the valks are replaceable and the F35 is not.
these drones are bombers/strike aircraft, not fighters
@@yarmgl1613 ahh okay I may have misunderstood. I assume the point stands, that an unmanned fighter would be similarly cheap, but yeah I don't actually know.
What a well spoken guy
It's crazy to think that defence systems in the near future will also have the touch of AI. Sounds fascinating but risky too given that the program needs more tweaks . But so far this tech looks really good.
Gradius
Our values! The US has values! Wow!
Skynet origin story. Note my words!
US needs to focus on extremely cheap weapons 🤏
Oh Look, A Civilian Airliner
Most mentally stable drone
It would be much more financially feasible to mass produce these instead of an expensive aircraft like the F-35.
The thunderbird five model springs to mind. Didn’t see any nylon threads throw.
Hmmm... Thunderbird five was the orbital space station. I think you are confusing it with thunderbird 2.
How does it land?
Here comes skynet :D
How do they recover this drone ?
parachute
It dives into the nearest crowd
That's a good question. Can it land on a carrier, or does it need an airfield with a long runway?
Drones can already land themselves just fine
@@radustana Too bad the video didn't show the Valkyrie landing.
Pffft only 1800 pounds of bombs? Not even a single 2,000 lb bomb?
Curved shape is the last thing you want when designing a stealth aircraft. Curved shapes reflect radar signals more readily than flat or angular shapes. Please correct this.
I was thinking the same when she said it...
"if round/curve is what you want, why do all stealth fighters look like someone went crazy with a triangular ruler?"
skynet be like , its about time
Modern manned aircraft should be designed only to be super stealthy and fast and have enough computing power to control and be the satalight datalink to pass info and control AI autonomous aircraft, so all manned aircraft should forget about having the need to be manoeuverable as it’s no longer needed in the modern battle space, plus new missiles should be the only thing that needs to be able and designed to out manoeuvre enemy aircraft and kill them at extreme distances
After what Elon Musk did to Ukraine in shutting down his starlink satellites I'd be very careful about giving him access to any military capabilities for The US. Yes I know he has done a lot of good things but this behavior is very concerning at least to me as he may pivot on a whim and cause grave harm to an operation if he doesn't like what's going down. JMHO!
That's exactly what the air force NGAD and navy F/A/XX 6th gen fighter programs are making
What's the error rate of piloted planes? What is the basis for assuming autonomous drones will have higher error rates than piloted planes?
Simply inexperience. Once AI learns to override the human fail safes, we'll see how good they are. It will also be the last thing we see
@@carloshour8263 Fair, although I imagine the models behind the AI pilots are trained on historical data (every combat flight in history, potentially) and against other human-controlled agents in simulation.
@@emoneytrainchips can fail and so can software so I hope the manufacturers have built in enough redundancy to accommodate combat situations.
Thanks, Wall Street Journal.
Gotta prep for Drone wars 😮
If only the US military spent as much R&D in deescalation tech like forcefields as they do this tech that's violent. Something like a forcefield as a defensive strategy would render all forms of way meaningless, but these weapons just keep that spiral of war going without end.
When the video first started, I thought I was watching Thunderbird 2. 😆
Skynet has entered the building.
Need a sky full of million of AI drones 🫡 swarm of small, to large drones
Russian Sukhoi-70 Okhotnik stealth drone has 6000 mile range and 4500 lb. capacity, and prototypes already spotted over Ukraine. Outperforms Valkyrie at half the cost.....which we now see is typical of all Russian weapons vs. their Western equivalent
With one big difference. Western equivalents tend to be more reliable.
China’s entire fleet of drones will respond to _”Hey Siri…”._
Skynet is live!!!!!!
Does a 3,000 mile range mean out and back, or, because it’s a drone, does that mean just “out”. 3,000 both ways is giant…even in the Pacific.
Range is range. Standard aviation term for 100 years.
Just out. Combat radius is both ways.
Some drones are not designed to return and others are designed to return, therefore it depends on the drone.
When we develop the first AI fighter jet is all over 😂
War isn't key to solve problems in the world.
⚠️But.. can’t be used in reality in most cases as it always needs valuable targets😒 US military main goal seems to enrich their contractors first instead of practical & logical solutions.
nobody of the filming team thought to tell that guy in the suit behind the table, that it's incredably rude and offencise to sit with your hands under the table like that?
0:28 do people really need to talk up or overhype the capabilities of potential adversaries to justify the US making advancement in these fields?
what better laboratory than the bloodsoaked battlefield
We're doing Skynet lol
Keep in mind that a lot of this is also because we don't have the recruitment to fill those seats. If you have more pilots, you'll statistically have more aces, and more aces means lesser reliance on technology. it might be a little bit anachronistic but it's all about what you use to fill the meter called "combat effectiveness"
Not really true. All these platforms come with significant personnel requirements due to maintenance. Any single aircraft only needs one pilot, but will need many more maintainers. Cutting out the pilot makes a pretty small difference in personnel requirements.
The real value with these platforms is their attritable nature.
Dude at 1:00 sounds like Hank Hill. Not that that's bad.
Terrifying
Peace through Strength
🦬🌀🇺🇸
Could we perhaps try to not have adversaries?
The 🤨pentagon has been watching my Kerbal builds 😆😆😆
Someone has to pay rights to gerry anderson. For a moment i thought that it was the Thunderbird 2.
Interesting that you would use pianos as a unit of measurement. You could use Metric, you know, DARPA, NASA, and other organizations alike use it.
they could use imperial as well. everybody knows what a ton is
@@thafunktapus Except that a metric ton is 1,000kg (2,204.6 pounds), The short ton used in the US is 2,000 pounds and the imperial ton is 2,240 pounds. Which one is it that you think that everybody knows?