Military Drones | 60 Minutes Full Episodes
In a Nutshell
The 60 Minutes episode explores the US military's rapid shift to autonomous drones like Perdix swarms (up to 104 launched from F-18s), AI-powered robots for reconnaissance and targeting, and Anduril's AI weapons (e.g., Roadrunner, Fury jet), emphasizing faster, expendable systems that reduce human risk but raise ethical debates on machines making lethal decisions—Pentagon policy mandates human oversight. Mystery drone swarms over US bases like Langley AFB (dozens nightly for 17 days in 2023) exposed detection gaps, prompting NORAD upgrades and counter-drone kits within a year, amid fears of foreign spying. Germany is rearming aggressively post-Ukraine war, targeting war readiness by 2029 with €100B+ spending, drone contracts, innovative bio-swarms, and 5,000 troops to Lithuania, ditching pacifism for NATO deterrence.
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One of the biggest revolutions over the past 15 years of war has been the rise of drones, remotely piloted vehicles that conduct air strikes and dismantle roadside bombs. A new generation of autonomous drones operates without humans controlling them from a joystick. Some use artificial intelligence to learn and improve. No one knows exactly where this revolution is headed, but the potential exists for all missions too dangerous or complex for humans to be turned over to autonomous machines that make decisions faster and go into harm's way without fear.
Think of it as the coming swarm. This swarm over the California desert is like nothing the US military has fielded before. Each tiny drone flies itself. Humans on the ground gave them a mission to patrol a three square mile area, but the drones figure out how to do it autonomously.
Pentagon's Dr. Will Roper, head of the once-secret Strategic Capabilities Office, says, "What you're seeing is a glimpse into the future of combat. It opens up a completely different level of warfare, a completely different level of maneuver."
The drone is called Perdix, named after a bird from Greek mythology. Roper remembers the first time he saw Perdix: "I held it up in my hand. It's about as big as my hand. And I looked at it and said, 'Really? This is what you want me to get excited about? You know, it looks like a toy.'"
Perdix flies too fast and too high to follow, so 60 Minutes used specialized high-speed cameras at the China Lake Weapons Station in California to capture it. Developed by 20- and 30-somethings from MIT's Lincoln Labs, Perdix operates as a team, visible when following a group of eight on a computer screen.
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