Will development of good AI routines be beneficial for developing an UAV?

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Valtyr

Being that I am trained to pilot (Small)Suav's myself I can tell you it would have to be some smart AI to do all the piloting. Whem the UAV is in the air for a routine patrol for example, often times you spot people or points of interest all of a sudden, sometimes you fly over a spot on a hunch. A AI could not react to a hunch because well, it doesn't have that capabilty. However UAV's can use waypoints and such to fly on autopilot, loiter and hold altidude. Forgive the horrible spelling, i'm writing this on my phone.

hiya Valtyr,

why are those unmanned drones not used more extensively in afghanistan ?

when you look at documentaries like "ross kemp in afghanisthan" (a brittish reporter with a camera crew embedded with UK troops), you can see the infantry soldiers are in constant danger of ambush, and once they engage the enemy it is a very defensive procedure for them where they call in artillery support from their fire bases or need to call in fast air to drop laser guided munitions on a specific building or suspected taliban position (with a high risk of friendly fire)

on the rare occasion those brittish troops were able to get a helicopter to provide support, the whole tactical situation changed and the engaged taliban stopped fighting to try and not attract attention to their position and suffer the wrath of a well armed attack helicopter (and there seemed to be a significant lack of availability in helicopters to provide support for infantry foot patrols)

it would seem to me that a handfull of armed drones (both as small armed planes or helicopters) accompanying those foot patrols would immediately significantly change the situation on the ground for the infantry soldiers and make them more effective and reduce casualties, but i never heard of any mention of them for use in those situations. it cant only be an issue of high cost, these same infantry men often seem to fire multiple javelin shoulder held missiles on a patrol (at 50.000 $ per unit i believe). using these armed drones in much higher numbers would seem to me to be the next level in fighting tools that a modern army needs

any thoughts why they are not yet used in high numbers in day to day ground operations like that ?