Punch or Think? One Missile, One Drone, and Two Ways to F*** with Space

5 min readJun 7, 2025

INTRO: THIS AIN’T JUST ABOUT MACHINES

Think it’s a tech comparison? No. This is about how two machines view the world — or whether they view it at all. One charges forward with blind confidence and a gospel of pre-approved coordinates. The other listens, feels, doubts, adjusts. One is a sledgehammer from the sky. The other’s a street-smart scout that makes the map as it moves.

Let’s dive into their workflows and then unravel what those differences really mean.

1. SCALP / AASM: THE CHURCH OF THE PREDETERMINED BOOM

Meet the obedient little missile that does exactly what it’s told — and nothing more. The SCALP/AASM system is built on the holy trinity of Planning, Launching, and Smashing.

+---------------------+
|  Mission: Preloaded |
|  (Target Locked)    |
+----------+----------+
           |
           v
+---------------------+
| INS/GPS Boot-Up     |
| (Praise Be to Signal)|
+----------+----------+
           |
           v
+----------------------+
|  Launched by Aircraft|
+----------+-----------+
           |
           v
+---------------------------+
|  INS + GPS + TERPROM      |
|  (Because Flat Maps Rule) |
+------------+--------------+
             |
             v
+---------------------------+
|  Course Correction via    |
|  Topographic Guesstimates |
+-------------+-------------+
              |
              v
+---------------------------+
|  Final Phase:             |
|  - IR Seeker (SCALP)      |
|  - Laser Ride (AASM)      |
+-------------+-------------+
              |
              v
+---------------------------+
|          KABOOM           |
+---------------------------+

Translation: It doesn’t “navigate.” It executes. It assumes the world hasn’t changed since breakfast. No updates. No questions. No feedback. Its map is printed in stone, and the mission doesn’t adapt — it proceeds like an ancient prophecy.

2. BYU DRONE: THE LITTLE ROBOT THAT COULD (AND DOES)

Now here’s a machine that doesn’t get off on blind faith. The BYU GPS-denied drone isn’t a projectile — it’s a participant. No GPS? No problem. It’s got eyes, it’s got ears, and it’s got friends.

+----------------------------+
| Sensors Fire Up           |
| (Eyes, Ears, Gut Feelings)|
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Local Exploration Begins    |
| - Visual Guessing           |
| - Terrain Sniffing          |
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Position Estimate (Kinda)   |
| - No GPS, Some Drift        |
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Talk to Other Drones        |
| - “Hey, where are *you*?”   |
| - “Let’s figure this out”   |
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Collective Recalibration    |
| - “We good?”                |
| - “Yep, let’s move”         |
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Dynamic Replanning          |
| - Map While Moving          |
| - Decide While Flying       |
+-------------+--------------+
              |
              v
+-----------------------------+
| Contextual Mission Time     |
| - Patrol? Deliver?          |
| - Survive? Sure.            |
+-----------------------------+

Translation: This drone doesn’t “follow directions.” It has a conversation with the terrain. It asks the environment where it is, what’s changed, and whether its plan is still smart. It doesn’t travel through a map — it builds the map, piece by piece, breath by breath.

INTERPRETATION: TWO BRAINS, TWO BEHAVIORS

The missile treats the world like it’s frozen in amber. Its autonomy is a façade — it’s just the mechanical finger of someone else’s decision. The environment is a backdrop, not a factor. Its mission is simple: go boom, be done.

The drone, on the other hand, thinks. Its autonomy is lived, not dictated. There’s no omniscient eye handing down wisdom from orbit. It’s all local: messy, relative, and responsive. It has no perfect map, but it has perception, collaboration, and feedback loops.

Where the missile flies alone in silence, the drone lives in a chorus of real-time adjustments. It’s not just moving through space — it’s embedded in it, reacting to it, surviving with it.

WRAP-UP: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

The SCALP/AASM is a technological crusader: one mission, one path, no deviations. A weaponized spreadsheet. A dictator with wings. It knows nothing, but it’s confident.

The BYU drone is a nervous system in the sky. It doubts, it stumbles, it asks for help — and that’s what makes it smarter. It adapts not because it’s perfect, but because it knows it isn’t.

So ask yourself: when the world breaks script — do you want to be the machine that still thinks it’s following the plan? Or the one that stops, listens, and finds a new way forward?

One machine crashes through the world.
The other one learns how to fly with it.

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