Glad nobody got hurt but there goes another $175M of taxpayers cash.
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Navy drone crashes in Maryland.

(C. Lawrence, CNN, 6/11/12) A U.S. Navy drone crashed Monday in a marsh near Salisbury, Maryland.The RQ-4A Global Hawk drone crashed during a routine training flight from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, according to Jamie Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for the Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons Program at the base.There were no injuries to civilians and no property damage, said the Navy, which said it is investigating the cause.Video from CNN affiliate WBOC showed smoke rising from brush fires in the unpopulated area.The drone crashed into a tributary of the Nanticoke River, a U.S. Coast Guard official said. The crash site has been blocked to recreational boat traffic while the agency investigates, the Coast Guard official said.As soon as Navy personnel lost contact with the unmanned vehicle, a piloted aircraft was dispatched to Maryland's Eastern Shore, where it came upon the wreckage and determined that it was unlikely anyone on the ground had been hurt, Navy officials told CNN. The crash occurred at about 12:11 p.m., near Bloodworth Island in Dorchester County, the Navy said.The aircraft is one of five aircraft acquired from the Air Force Global Hawk program. The BAMS-D program has been developing tactics and doctrine for the employment of high-altitude unmanned patrol aircraft since November 2006.

 

I have found that 175 million just doesn't buy much these days.

Best to look at the used market. Unless there isn't one.

 

On the other hand, being able to dump it in a lake, river, or ocean with no loss of life is a pretty nice feature...while not foolproof, you can design in things like where it will go if systems malfunction.

 

Unless that system itself has a malfunction.

 

True, but we could say the same about airliners in general. Now with complete fly by wire, what happens if that system has a malfunction? No servo tabs left to control, but you can make it pretty darn unlikely, and that's where I see the potential. As we go into the future, these layers will be designed in (like multiple computers/programs) and there will no doubt be some tough issues, but I'm sure they'll be dealt with.

 

Yeah, like making a nice soft landing in Iran.

 

Just let Sully and Skiles fly em, problem solved.

 

But how can this be true Skyhigh says they are the future and they are much safer than people flying these flying things.

 

The interrogation is easier to. Just insert the memory stick instead of the sodium pentothal needle.

 

That UAS was larger than a citation! I'm relieved nobody was hurt.