June 20, 2011

How the Pentagon Will Rescue the Economy

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Looking for employment opportunities that can help our flagging economy? Look no further:

The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50 a decade ago….Already the Air Force is training more remote pilots, 350 this year alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined.

….The pressures on humans will only increase as the military moves from the limited “soda straw” views of today’s sensors to new “Gorgon Stare” technology that can capture live video of an entire city — but that requires 2,000 analysts to process the data feeds from a single drone, compared with 19 analysts per drone today.

There you go. Not only can we employ lots of people to build our new drone army, but we’ll have to employ even more people to keep a close eye on every dangerous patch of ground on the planet. And luckily for us, those dangerous patches seem to be multiplying rapidly. Let’s do a quick back-of the-envelope calculation:

  • We have 7,000 drones today. Seems to be a growth market, so figure 20,000 drones in a few years.
  • Let’s say half of them have this fabulous Gorgon Stare technology. That’s 10,000 drones.
  • At 2,000 analysts per drone, this amounts to 20 million jobs.

Now that’s what I call putting America back to work! Only a non-patriot could object.

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