REPORTING FOR DUTY
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Jul
25
“The F-35…Will Be The Last Manned Fighter Aircraft.”
July 25, 2009 | 1 Comment
We were reading this piece from CNN discussing the effectiveness of remotely operated unmanned aerial vehicles. Let the last sentence of the first paragraph below sink in.
Now U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants more UAVs. Already he has said that the next generation of fighter planes — the F-35 that took decades to develop at a cost of more than half-a-billion dollars each — will be the last manned fighter aircraft.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula, USAF, explains that the next phase will enable a single drone to provide as many as 60 simultaneous live video feeds direct to combat troops. Some new drones will be as small as flies, others walk — all appear destined to work with decreasing human input.
Anyone need any more reason as to why Secretary of Defense Gates has no love for the F-22 Raptor? How about another snippet regarding Hellfire missile accuracy?
He says that of more than 600 Hellfires fired by Predators, over 95 percent exactly hit their targets. Those that failed did so generally through mechanical fault, loss of guidance or a target moving at the last instant, Deptula says.
Amazing. Our friends at Fox have also chimed in with a list of Al Qaeda terrorist operatives killed over the past year via drone attacks.
Comments
1 Comment so far
All the current drones are air to ground. The F22 and F35 have air to air capability. It seems the air force has a reluctance to arm drones for an air to air role. Cancelling these projects without an unmanned version would seem to leave a hole in our ability to have air superiority. In an situation with a tier one opponent, what guarantee will there be that our remote pilots will be able to maintain constant communication with the drones?