Puny human sailors still needed... until drone machine learning tech catches up

Drones won’t replace proper sailors anytime soon because, believe it or not, they need more manpower to operate, a Royal Navy admiral has insisted. Naval drones are “not about reducing the requirement for people”, Rear Admiral Paul Bennett told a press briefing attended by El Reg on Friday. Instead, they are for putting people …

[Alister]

Looking at the photo of HMS Forth, I don't know about "Manned" but it's definitely masculine...

[wyatt]

Looks like it has no balls though, bit like the RN current capabilities..

[Anonymous Coward]

RN balls...

I recall a recruitment booklet for the RN some years ago that had a Frigate on the cover, make way into large waves... complete with anchor ball showing.

I guess more than a few balls removed after that ...

[imanidiot]

?

For those of us not versed in the sayings and traditions of the RN, what exactly is the problem with the "anchorball showing"?

[Alfred]

Re: ?

It communicates to other mariners that you are at anchor. It's law of the sea via the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Regulations_for_Preventing_Collisions_at_Sea

[imanidiot]

Re: ?

Ahh, so someone photoshopped an anchored ship to make it look like it was underway. Got it. Thanks

[Aladdin Sane]

Insert seamen joke here.

[PhilipN]

Happy to oblige

"She was only an Admiral's daughter but her room was full of discharged seamen."

Well, you had to ask.

[Anonymous Coward]

a prototype one-man-for-many-drones control system

So basically a tech support guy ?

Replace "drone" with "user", and it fits amazingly well. The major difference would be that a drone can't be put on hold indefintely.

[FredBloggs61]

Got to end up where we are sending drone ships and planes against a drone enemy.

At the point of the next conflict, I suggest they all piss off down the pub and settle it over a game of darts instead of all this money being spent on weapons to destroy weapons.

[DNTP]

That works until the delegations from Lethe and Cydonia start throwing the darts at each other, then escalating back to guided missiles.

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

"The challenge for today’s drone control system designers is to hone their systems into being able to make autonomous decisions at a certain level."

Hmm. Why am I thinking of Isaac Asimov's The Machine That Won The War all of a sudden?

EDIT: looks like there is a dead link on the linked page (the one to the story itself), so here's another one that has a synopsis.