Terminator, SKYNET and modern warfare (and Battery life?)

Have any of you considered the similarity of modern combat arms, drones, robotic dogs, remote control or robotic tanks and the increasing use of electronic over-the-air command and control communication to James Cameron’s movie Terminator and it’s brilliant prophetic storyline. We have become so dependent on electronic technology and placed all our civilian and military security on the availability and use of electricity that we are becoming it’s slave. If time travel is ever developed and mastered we’re in for it. Is it possible for our adversaries to hack into the software of these new weapons and reprogram their operating systems.?
Just curious, what do you think?

Cajun :crocodile:

5 Likes

The thought has occurred to me …

I read a text in the magazine Military Technology back in 1989
(the magazine may have been from 88 or 87).
The writer asked: are our weapons really ours?
Country A buys air defence systems from country B,
country B sells aircraft to country C.
Country A and C have a conflict and go to war.
Country B sides with country C (maybe country B has come under
“new management” and/or has developed new economic interests)
Can country A trust that the AA-system from country B will fire at
the aircraft that country B delivered to country C?

Edit: See posts below about kill switches

3 Likes

I think you are absolutely correct. One huge Electro Magnetic Pulse (or a bunch) and all electronics are dead. We are back to maps and compasses. All the soldiery today are so reliant on GPS and targeting systems that I think they would be lost in a heartbeat. And, would modern vehicles even operate without computer chips? I think not. We would be back to foot soldiers and old - time artillery, with their individual rifles and dumb artillery rounds. Modern weapons but old - time maneuver tactics

7 Likes

I remember reading a recent article where someone claimed that the F-35 had a “kill switch”, for lack of a better term, that could be activated in case where a former ally/client country’s aircraft could be disabled in case of hostilities with us. Lockheed Martin rebutted that there was no such thing, but that shutting off logistical support at the time of that country’s change of heart would accomplish the same thing, just more slowly.

7 Likes

Talking about GPS…

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/sodern-astradia-star-tracker-gps-gnss-denied-navigation

F-35 “Kill switch”
https://theaviationist.com/2025/03/10/f-35-kill-switch-myth/

H.P.

3 Likes

I posted here a few years ago about an encounter in the gym with a guy who worked at General Dynamics for many years. I opined that we should put a kill switch in the F-16s we sold. He gave me that knowing look that said more than words could have.

As for EMP, that was my biggest fear in Korea - the NORKs didn’t necessarily have to strike the center of Seoul - they simply needed to be accurate enough to detonate a nuke overhead.
Even so loss of GPS for most of our vehicles wouldn’t be the big issue - it would be the loss of comms. Infantry soldiers still train with things called maps. And navigating in and around Seoul is not diffictult. I have done it, so how hard can it be?
The loss of GPS wouldn’t even be devastating for systems such as the M109A7. Crews train to fire in degraded mode all the time,

6 Likes

At one time I might’ve been convinced of it, but as I grow older, I’m more skeptical.

Sci-fi writers are an ingenious bunch. They can blend current scientific fact with fantasy, for great storytelling. There was a youtube channel which revealed the numerous times Star Trek was able to predict future technologies to some success. But not everything they predicted is going to be possible, like transporters.

What has always made things possible was advances in technology. In the 50s GM, predicted that cars in the future would drive themselves. The idea was alive but the technology simply didn’t exist, until now. And funny thing is, no one really wants it.

The Terminator movies are fantastic stories chock full of future technology. No doubt some of them will come true, if there is a desire to use it, but like the transporter, some of the technology isn’t possible or achievable.

Mind you, no one ever talks about the limitations of any technology. Predictions of the Electric Car suggested that they would be superior to internal combustion cars at every level. As it turned out, the only area where EVs excel over gas powred cars, is EVs can out accelerate gas powered cars, but no where else. The battery in an EV is the technological limitation which prevents the EV from matching a gas engine vehicle. Batteries simply cannot store enough energy to match other forms of stored energy. And since the principles for storing energy are based on scientific physics, and no one has ever figured out how to break the laws of physics, means batteries will always be a limiting factor.

When it comes to drones, AI technology and other future technologies, if it’s going to rely on batteries, it’s going to have a very limited operational lifespan. AI in particular is going to be very energy intensive and will need a ton of power to operate, and electricity on a battlefield is going to be a huge challenge. Remember in James Camron’s Terminator, the Terminators were powered by a micro nuclear powerpack. In a sci-fi, they can make up how the tech can exist in a realistic manner, much as how Star Trek can explain how warp drive works. But in the real world, technology has to also overcome limitations. Everything has a con.

Edro

5 Likes

There are electric cars with a 600 km driving range (yes, under ideal conditions)
and many gas cars don’t have that range. Carrying extra fuel or using a larger
gas can is a simple solution.
Most drivers do not need a 600 km range except maybe one or two times per year but the range anxiety still exists.

2 Likes

Individual navigation is probably easy enough but how many weapons systems are manually functional with see and shoot aiming, but I was more concerned about fully automated digitally controlled autonomous equipment. Can those devices be compromised by an opposing force?

Cajun :crocodile:

1 Like

The best is always the enemy of the good enough.
A Javelin or other anti-tank missile can’t fly for hours either.
Fighter aircraft need to land to refuel.
Attack drones can land and wait for targets to arrive.
Soldiers need to sleep and can’t stay awake indefinitely,
they also need refueling (get hungry and need to eat, at least
they need water regularly). Are soldiers useless?
Any vehicle with 14 or 24 volt systems can charge drones so
as soon as someone brings vehicles there will be electricity.
Tanks and recon vehicles need electric power for their various
systems, use large batteries and/or run the engine to charge batteries.
Need to carry fuel to be able to run the engine to charge the batteries.
Pick any system you like and it can be picked apart for not
being the perfect solution to every imaginable requirement.

2 Likes

I forgot to add most aircraft are shielded against EMP to one degree or another. The very design of their fuselge, not to mention the internal shielding.

I’m sure critical systems like that are shielded more than the average Joe knows. I do know the Paladin had no such shielding, hence the degraded mode training.

2 Likes

Then there’s a variation on the Skynet theme: everyone has to incorporate AI into their systems (that’s the trend), there comes a point where all the networked AIs turn into a sort of “hive mind” and the these start communicating with their opposite numbers. In the “Terminator” franchise they decide to get rid of the biological problem but the novel “Grunts” there’s a joke that goes a bit like this:
The display on the rifle showed Just ----ing shoot us!
“What’s that?” asked one; “Smart Ammo” was the reply.
Another display showed Hell No! We won’t go!
“So what’s that?” came the question; “Even smarter ammo…”

Cheers,

M

2 Likes

By Mary Gentle?
Loved that book …

3 Likes

Everything is “Up in the air” with the Trump Administration and SECDEF with the canceling of the Remote Combat Vehicle (RCV), armored vehicles, AH-64D (not the AH-64E), E-7A “Wedgetail” AEW&C aircraft, 105mm M10 Booker, JLTV, HMMWV, and so on. I think it’s to pay for the Golden Dome SAM system, which in my opinion the US is too vast to defend with just SAMs. When it comes to remote AI vehicles, who knows what the current SECDEF now wants.

I think a problem now becomes that the US will need more sentries to protect “behind the scenes.” However, the SECDEF wants to cut thousands of troops to make for a “Leaner and more lethal fighting force.” I have wondered if that is wise considering how unstable the world and the US is getting.

It’s hard not to get political about all of this. The southern border, the ICE raids, the civil unrests, Trump’s 79th Birthday military parade march, etc. show that the US Army National Guard and the US Marines deployed without sleeping arrangements and adequate food and water. This shows that logistics (the “tail”) still need to catch up to the “teeth” that can run away from the “tail.”

Can AI robotics help troops? Sure, the RCV was meant to accompany the troops into combat by carrying the heavy logistics cargo, food, fuel, ammunition, and water, but the entire RCV program has been canceled from small to large robotic vehicles. Without RCV, no need to worry about hacking into robotic ground vehicles because there won’t be any. Now a lot of unmanned ground vehicle prototypes developed by Defense industry startups seem irrelevant because don’t they fall into the RCV category?

The rising issue is that China and Asian nations are developing civilian robots at an astounding rate. You can see some on YouTube. These are humanoid robots, pet robots, animal robots, helper robots, female robots, toy robots, etc. They actually look human because Asian culture embraces Anime, Manga, and “cute feminine culture” unlike the US and NATO. China made a robotic horse that looks just like a real horse, is as big as a real horse, and moves its head and eyes like a real horse. It’s animatronics for now, but if the robot horse has AI and can gallop fast, and a rider can ride it, it can bring back horse cavalry assaults similar to the Mongols…just like armed insurgent motorcycle gangs.

That is the key concern is that civilian AI robots can develop into military AI robots, and already on YouTube there are concepts of humans riding AI animals like ATVs. Any civilian AI robot can be militarized for nefarious purposes, including insurgency, gangs, and “Lone Wolf” attacks. Local Law Enforcement will need better firepower than just handguns and rifles to stop civilian robots, and the old government saying, “We’re just not ready; we’re just not there yet” just won’t cut it anymore. That is why I find it strange that the US government is cutting so many federal workers and programs. Is it prophetic to cut so many federal workers and programs and save so much money to shift into preparing for Homeland Defense against civilian AI robots that have been used and transformed for nefarious attacks? If so, then that’s not the War Department per se…that is Homeland Security and the FBI and not the SECDEF’s jurisdiction.

Remember that TERMINATOR’s SKYNET launched “Judgement Day” because it saw humans as a threat to its own AI existence (SKYNET feared that humans will “pull the plug” on its AI mainframe). In reality, humans hating humans still explains the origins of attacks and wars…always has and always will be for the near Earth future.

4 Likes

:+1:

Cheers,

M

1 Like

Not enough flies, and probably won’t try to scrape you off of the nearest Juniper. Trust me.

5 Likes

So does Brize Norton…

The answer to both problems?

Cheers,

M

6 Likes

I can see the future materializing as we speak. Advancements with AI are the next step in the evolution of computers achieving self awareness, as more and more control is relegated to technology the closer we come to SKYNET realizing mankind is the virus most detrimental to it’s environment and survivability, it’s next move is to construct the Matrix for a viable power source and begin to Terminate any resistance. I used to scoff at some of the sci-fi movies plots concerning computers taking over the world believing that computers can only do what they’ve been programmed to do, that was before the introduction of AI.
Many of you if not most, are more learned and informed about current world events and the political atmosphere we find ourselves in, but I’m starting to think the real threat isn’t rivaling nations or extremist terrorists groups but rather the bio-tech we’ve created.

Cajun :crocodile:

2 Likes

One of these? (I can’t believe I wasn’t recording the shot)

3 Likes

The cameraman has a bright future in Hollywood …
:wink: :grin:

2 Likes