X-47B in underway carrier operations...

X-47B in underway carrier operations, including take-offs, touch-'n-gos, and arrested landings.  Carrier landings are particularly challenging, especially in high performance jets.  I recall reading, not so very long ago, a confident prediction by a Navy flier that there would never be a machine that could do it.  Now I'm reading that X-47B is demonstrably better than human pilots, getting the first wire most of the time.

As I watched this video, it occurred to me that there are many parallels between the robotic spacecraft and these new robotic combat machines.  Both are dramatically less expensive than their manned equivalents.  Both are more capable in important ways than their manned equivalents.  Both are far safer (for people, anyway) than their manned equivalents.  And, interestingly, both have detractors who prefer the manned equivalents for their beauty, their romance, and their glory.

The robots are going to win this battle, I'm sure.  It's just a question of when...