Persuasive Essay On Drones

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Artificially intelligent drones are becoming more common as decades pass by and will eventually be tested for tactical fighters, but drones are nowhere near to having the human cognition; therefore, a fighter pilot is more dependable than an autonomous drone being in control of destructive weapons. A drone is an autonomous unmanned machine that can operate by itself without human control. Researchers are currently working on replacing human fighter pilots in the military with drones that can operate on their own. Although this idea of replacement may sound fantastic, there are many problems with drones and factors that make a human operating a fighter jet more reliable than a drone operating a fighter jet. A few of these problems with drones …show more content…

Drones should not replace fighter pilots because drones have a lack of situational awareness. Almost all fighter pilots that get selected to fly have good situational awareness. Drones would not have the same situational awareness as a pilot would because drones cannot sense the environment as humans can “Any creature vastly outperforms any machine today... Not in logical thought, but in sensing the environment, smelling, seeing, moving about” (Watson and Brains). An unmanned combat aerial vehicle would not be as effective as a human fighter pilot in air to air combat because of the drone’s lack of situational awareness. On the other hand, most critics would argue that drones can multitask better than humans, and drones do not become overloaded with information as humans can; however, if an enemy aircraft without his radar active snuck up behind a drone, the drone would have no clue that there is an enemy behind it. The reason why the drone would not be able to detect the enemy is because it relies heavily on just technology, but a human fighter pilot has both technology and senses that allow him to see the enemy aircraft with his own eyes. A fighter aircraft out in the middle of a battlefield with no situational awareness is like a seagull in the middle of an ocean not knowing that a predator lurks right underneath him. Since a drone has poor situational awareness, a drone’s overall performance is inferior to a fighter pilot’s overall

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