Latest news with #MichaelDonnelly
ABC News
25-04-2025
- ABC News
NT's 'largest' ketamine bust involves drugs found in energy and protein packs
A man has faced court over the Northern Territory's "largest" ketamine bust, after investigators found drugs concealed in energy drink and protein bar packs. The operation was launched earlier this month after Australian Border Force officers intercepted a consignment at Sydney Airport that had arrived on a flight from Germany. Officers retrieved just over 4 kilograms of crystallised ketamine from "several sports energy drink and protein bar packages" in the consignment, which they said had an estimated street value of $800,000. Authorities say the ketamine had an estimated street value of $800,000. ( Supplied ) An organised crime task force involving NT police, Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission replaced the illicit drugs with an "inert substance". "The parcel was then delivered to its intended address in Zuccoli, near Darwin, where officers allegedly observed a man signing and taking possession of the delivery," an AFP spokesperson said. Investigators executed a search warrant at the property and arrested the 32-year-old man on Wednesday. "During the search, officers allegedly located the opened parcel containing the substituted illicit drugs," the spokesperson said. The man was charged with importing a commercial quantity of ketamine, possessing a dangerous drug and supplying a dangerous drug. Each of these offences carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The man faced the Darwin Local Court on Thursday and his matter is due to return on May 2. The man is to due to face court again on May 2. ( ABC News: Michael Donnelly ) AFP Superintendent Greg Davies said the operation should serve as "a significant warning" to transnational organised crime syndicates. "Our investigators continue to work collaboratively to ensure Australia remains a hostile environment for criminal syndicates in order to prevent any form of illicit drugs from entering the Australian community and causing widespread harm," he said. "The AFP and our partners remain one step ahead of your illicit activities and will ensure you are brought to justice." Superintendent Davies said ketamine was "a dangerous sedative", which could block sensory brain signals and cause memory loss.
Asia Times
18-04-2025
- Asia Times
AI-controlled fighter jets are closer than you think
Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence? US Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy's last one with a pilot in the cockpit. That marks a striking, if not entirely surprising, shift in thinking about the future of aerial warfare. The US Navy is not alone. Other programs to develop next-generation fighter jets are also touting uncrewed options as a distinct possibility. However, we have been here before. Senior leaders in the US Navy said they believed the last crewed fighter jet had been procured in 2015. As far back as 1957, premature obituaries were being written for the fighter pilot era. So, is there anything different now? The ability of a fighter jet to maneuver, accelerate and maintain high speeds, crucial for air combat, is called kinematic performance. Estimates are as high as 80% on how much pilots reduce kinematic performance. Though this figure may be disputed, there is no question that uncrewed aircraft enjoy several key advantages. Without the need for life support systems such as ejection seats and oxygen supplies, these aircraft can perform in ways that are beyond the scope of piloted aircraft. But additional trends are pushing militaries to reconsider the role of the human pilot altogether. Systems enabled by AI are already demonstrating superior performance in military exercises. In existing remotely piloted aircraft, a human operator remains in control. This model is known as 'human-in-the-loop.' AI is now enabling the possibility of human-on-the-loop (where humans take a step back, supervising and intervening if necessary) and even 'human-out-of-the-loop' systems (in which AI selects and engages targets autonomously). The latter category, while controversial, may offer decisive advantages. In scenarios where milliseconds matter, a fully autonomous system could outperform any human operator, to the extent that senior defense leaders have expressed a willingness to trust AI with lethal decision-making under certain conditions. Others add that autonomous systems could adhere more rigorously to the laws of armed conflict compared with a human operator. Unpiloted combat jets also offer potential financial savings. Fighter jets are expensive to build, operate and maintain, not least because of the training and equipment needed to support pilots. A 2011 study found that the life cycle cost of a surveillance drone was roughly half that of a comparable piloted platform. And cheaper aircraft are important because of the likely losses which will be inflicted on air forces in the event of a conflict with Russia or China. Another advantage of fully autonomous aircraft is risk mitigation. As NATO militaries grapple with a shortage of trained pilots for potential conflicts between states, uncrewed systems offer a way to restore the balance without putting lives at risk of death or capture. An F-16 Fighting Falcon undergoes modifications as part of the Venom autonomous fighter jet programme at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Photo: US Air Force / Samuel King Jr Therefore, one option for militaries is to expand the use of remotely piloted aircraft – drones similar to those deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Crucially, this would ensure humans maintain control over weapons use. The only difference with the present would be in making these systems the backbone of the fleet, rather than supplementary systems struggling to operate in hostile airspace. This would require upgrading them with state-of-the-art technologies like stealth. This helps aircraft reduce their chances of being detected by the enemy's radar and infrared (heat) sensors. A step up from this would be autonomous combat aircraft, carrying the advantages of on- or off-the-loop technologies. The US Air Force's Project Venom is training AI in modified F-16 jets for eventual transfer to drones. These drones will operate alongside crewed aircraft, as part of mixed human and machine teams. But if this AI software was retained on the F-16s (or transferred to more advanced fighter jets), it could produce a squadron of autonomous jets just as capable as those piloted by humans. A more radical idea is to forgo traditional fighter jets altogether. Proponents of this vision imagine swarms of low-cost, expendable drones working together to overwhelm enemy defenses. While current drones have limitations in range, payload, and labor requirements, true 'swarming' could change the equation. Current limitations So what is stopping militaries from pressing ahead with these options? A few things. AI isn't ready, yet. Machine learning – a subset of AI where algorithms learn from experience – underpins all this. But it still struggles with the inherent ambiguity and creativity of war. Simply putting tires on an aircraft can thwart computer vision – the field of AI that allows computers to interpret images and videos. So training AI to operate in the full range of possible combat situations is a mammoth task. In the words of one air force commander, 'robotified warfare…is centuries away.' The US military has used AI agents to pilot the X-62A Vista aircraft. Photo: USAF / Kyle Brasier / The Conversation Another issue concerns communications, since remotely operated drone systems, especially interconnected, swarming ones, need data links. Given how much adversaries are investing in jamming these signals, designs may be pushed in opposite directions: either keeping a pilot onboard or embracing autonomy so the aircraft can keep fighting, even if it is cut off. Yet the real limit may be a fear of crossing the Rubicon. While the US and its allies have a de facto 'no first use' policy on fully autonomous weapons, the demands of warfare against an enemy willing to use such systems may erode these norms. So, the US Navy's statement is a warning: the age of the human fighter pilot might be ending. But it's the next war that could make that decision for us. Arun Dawson is PhD Candidate, Department of War Studies, King's College London This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
F/A-XX could be the Navy's last piloted fighter, bring greater range
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Navy's upcoming sixth-generation fighter may be its last manned fighter, the director of the service's air warfare division said Tuesday. F/A-XX will include new capabilities and technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, Rear Adm. Michael Donnelly said at the Navy League's Sea Air Space conference. The upgrades will provide more battlespace awareness and improve how naval aviators make decisions. Those technological advancements could help bring the Navy into a new era where piloted and unmanned aircraft operate more closely together, such as with the Navy's planned AI-operated drone wingmen, known as collaborative combat aircraft, or larger, unmanned platforms that might come in the future. 'It could be our last tactical manned fighter that we operate out of the Navy,' Donnelly said. 'It will actually be at a point where we are more man-on-the-loop than man-in-the-loop, and be the bridge to fully integrating towards the hybrid air wing [combining crewed and uncrewed platforms] in the future, in the 2040s.' Donnelly said the F/A-XX will allow the Navy to operate in contested environments and outmatch adversaries in ways that surpass the Navy's current fighters. 'We do that today, but we do it at parity because of the capabilities we have fielded today,' Donnelly said. 'So F/A-XX is going to be that next improvement.' Navy officials would not say when an announcement on F/A-XX would be made, but it could come soon. The Air Force's counterpart to the Navy's F/A-XX — the Boeing-made F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter — was announced by President Donald Trump in an Oval Office event March 21. Breaking Defense reported last month that Lockheed Martin had been eliminated from the running for F/A-XX, leaving Boeing and Northrop Grumman as the remaining competitors. At the Sea Air Space event, Donnelly told reporters that F/A-XX is expected to be able to fly more than 25% farther than Navy's current fighters before having to top up with a refueling tanker. The F/A-18 Super Hornet has a combat range of about 1,275 nautical miles, and the carrier-based F-35C Joint Strike Fighter can fly more than 1,200 nautical miles. 'That's a core attribute of the F/A-XX,' Donnelly told reporters. 'It will definitely have longer inherent range, and then with refueling, you could say that's indefinite, as long as refueling is available.'
