WSJ: July tests of US Army SI and autonomous systems in the Mojave Desert revealed overheating servers, drained batteries and lost control of drones
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Published in SI: . Updated: .
Military SI runs into heat, power and communications, not just algorithms — that is what the WSJ writes about the test results.
According to The Wall Street Journal, as relayed by Lenta.ru and other Russian outlets, US Army tests in the Mojave Desert in July, at temperatures up to 43 °C, showed that military SI systems and autonomous equipment worked unreliably: servers overheated, batteries ran down and could not be recharged. Soldiers, according to the newspaper, wrapped failing antennas in wet T-shirts. Because of strong wind, operators lost control of drones, and they had to fly for only half of the maximum flight time to save batteries and equipment. Drones from Theiss UAV Solutions and Anduril Industries took part in the tests. The newspaper concludes that turning the army into an organization that successfully absorbs innovation has not yet worked. The WSJ original is paywalled; details are given from retellings.