Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
A manned fighter doesn't need a command and control center. you can take out airfields, and take out the pentagon, and take out communications, or power and the planes can still take to the air, and fly.
In todays battlefield where they focus on taking out communications, and where the attacking of battle links almost takes priority a remote commanded vehicle run from one or even multiple centers is going to get priority attention especially if you can take out air cover in massive numbers.
While your right, a drone is smaller and lighter and more maneuverable then a human piloted counter part.
In a fight to gain missile lock in a turning fight the human pilot is going to gain the advantage because there's no possible lag on a manned plane.
You also run into the problem with communication jamming. A remote piloted vehicle could have trouble with this. A human pilot can continue to fight without a radio.
Until you develop a certain amount of autonomy in drone technology where it has the ability to fight without human intervention, I don't buy that its a relevant or good replacement for current technology.
|
More questions:
How useful are planes if the facility they take off from and land at is destroyed? Until the pilot runs out of fuel or falls asleep? I guess you could land on a road, but could you take off again after that? I brought up the Pentagon as an example of a high value target because it's important and obvious. Yet, I don't think the Americans are worried about having it bombed (or shelled by artillery). The idea is that the forces protect it, so you simply can't get there.
Missile lock? According to the Northrup-Gruman video I posted earlier, the F-35 doesn't need to be pointed at its target, so I don't know why a drone would need to be either.
Communication jamming is a good point, but at least with remote piloted planes if the plane does get hit your economic damage is minimized. And you could probably have the plane preserve itself by automatically deploying countermeasures, although you'd lose your offensive capacity as my understanding is that a person has to be responsible for all attacks under the Geneva conventions.