Cyber, drone operators now eligible for 'Distinguished Warfare' medal

[pontius pilot]

there's not a big enough for this one....

Cyber, drone operators now eligible for 'Distinguished Warfare' medal

The first new medal out of the Defense Department since the 1944 creation of the Bronze Star recognizes the growing importance of cyberwarfare and drone strikes.
by Charles Cooper
February 13, 2013 1:13 PM PST

The Global Hawk, built by Northrop Grumman, features a bulging forehead. What you can't see is all the high-tech gear it's packing.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
The Pentagon is expected to announce today the creation of a medal that can be awarded to drone operators as well as to individuals fighting in the cyberwar trenches.
The Distinguished Warfare Medal.
(Credit: DOD)
This would be a first. The Distinguished Warfare Medal, a nearly two-inch-tall brass pendant below a ribbon with blue, red and white stripes, will be handed out to people judged to have racked up "extraordinary achievement" directly tied to a combat operation but at a far remove from the actual battlefield, according to the Associated Press, which first reported the news. This is said to be the first new combat-related award since the 1944 creation of the Bronze Star.
In taking this step, the Pentagon is explicitly recognizing the increasing importance of cyberwar and drone activities to the nation's defense complex. Indeed, the U.S. Air Force is on record predicting that by 2023 one-third of its attack and fighter planes will be drones.
Update 1:36 p.m. PT: The Defense Department has just announced theDistinguished Warfare Medal. In a statement, it gave two examples of the kinds of exceptional achievements that might merit the new medal:

"The most immediate example is the work of an unmanned aerial vehicle operator who could be operating a system over Afghanistan while based at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The unmanned aerial vehicle would directly affect operations on the ground. Another example is that of a soldier at Fort Meade, Md., who detects and thwarts a cyberattack on a DOD computer system."

LINK: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...warfare-medal/

[Obi Drunkenobe]

Doesn't seem right.

[pontius pilot]

Our grandfather's generation:



our children's generation:


unfortunately, this is the future of war.

[stripes]

nerds need medals also, they're the rambos of the future

[pontius pilot]

nerds need medals also, they're the rambos of the future

[stripes]

i loved this episode

[Spazzmatazz]

Our grandfather's generation:



our children's generation:


unfortunately, this is the future of war.

It won't be long. But maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it come to the point we just shoot others' drones and robots with ours!
Boston Dynamics' Big Dog ( I love when they try to push it down.)


Their Cheetah


Petman

[Spazzmatazz]

Doesn't seem right.

Sure it does.
For centuries wars were won by the best equipped military forces. Well, at least until political correctness reared its' dumbass head...

[SouthernListen]

The drive to work is the most dangerous part of their job.

[Nurse Remulak]

[pontius pilot]

But maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it come to the point we just shoot others' drones and robots with ours!

i wish i shared your optimism. following wwi, many 'experts' assured the public that strategic bombings of 'military targets' would revolutionize the way in which western man waged war by greatly limiting civilian casualties.

unfortunately, they were only half right.

london, 1941:


dresden, 1945:


i just worry that, much like the introduction of the guillotine in revolutionary france, those technical innovations that are sold to the public as more 'humane' or 'efficient' produce the exact opposite effects by making mass-killing easier and less personal.

[ohmicah]

[Spazzmatazz]

i wish i shared your optimism. following wwi, many 'experts' assured the public that strategic bombings of 'military targets' would revolutionize the way in which western man waged war by greatly limiting civilian casualties.

unfortunately, they were only half right.

london, 1941:


dresden, 1945:

i just worry that, much like the introduction of the guillotine in revolutionary france, those technical innovations that are sold to the public as more 'humane' or 'efficient' produce the exact opposite effects by making mass-killing easier and less personal.

That's why each sentence in my post said "maybe". We humans loooove to think up ways to kill people!

[Snotty]

Just one more spin round the shitter of oblivion..................

[stripes]

i wish i shared your optimism. following wwi, many 'experts' assured the public that strategic bombings of 'military targets' would revolutionize the way in which western man waged war by greatly limiting civilian casualties.

unfortunately, they were only half right.

london, 1941:


dresden, 1945:


i just worry that, much like the introduction of the guillotine in revolutionary france, those technical innovations that are sold to the public as more 'humane' or 'efficient' produce the exact opposite effects by making mass-killing easier and less personal.

& funner, you forgot funner

[cbeefyt]

These medals look to be an excellent recruiting tool. It almost sounds like a video game. Having to have "racked up" "extraordinary achievement". Competition for the highest score. "The Last Star Fighter" on a global scale

[FlaFlaFlunkie]

Can't they just give them X-Box achievement points instead? You can get lots of cool stuff with those points...or so I hear.