a very expensive toy mind you 
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100712/ttc-142-5m-combat-aircraft-unveiled-e1d36ba.html
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100712/ttc-142-5m-combat-aircraft-unveiled-e1d36ba.html
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The Staff of SOH
UK armed forces might be getting a new toy!
- Thread starter stiz
- Start date
Railrunner130
Charter Member
Looks like the "Beast Of Kandahar" to me.
kilo delta
Charter Member 2015
While I'm all for the advancement of military aviation..I'm a little down hearted at the prospect of seeing yet another step towards a completely unmanned aircraft inventory (at least in front line combat roles). While I appreciate that pilot's lives are kept out of danger by using these new breed of UAV's, I often wonder if our children,or children's children will have poster's on their bedroom wall or build "Airfix" models of the latest and greatest UAV?
prolly not, but then again, not a lot of kids do nowadays either!
When one's air force goes all UAV, will enough young people still want to be pilots, even if it
means sitting at a console, pushing buttons? Where will the airlines, fire dept's, charters, etc. get most of thier new pilots? Civil flight training is just so expensive, so you don't see huges numbers of students.
deathfromafar
Charter Member
In my former Contract DOD/DARPA position, I remember literally hundreds of discussions about the development and use of UCAV systems. I've heard many different points of view on it but being that such things are not in my area of expertise, I like many who were made privy to parallel technologies have drawn our own educated conclusions about it. One of the old selling points was that taking the "man" out of the loop would bring about much reduced costs and make the aircraft, tank, or any other combat vehicle more capable. I can assure all of you on one thing, the costs of such UCV's(Unmanned Combat Vehicles) will actually end up rivaling manned systems and in fact, some are getting right on the heals of current manned weapons system costs. Costs aside, I have seen enough evidence from people who are truly in the know(I having been formerly on the inner sidelines) to suggest that there is no 100% guarantee Remotely Operated UCAV's critical datalinks can't be interfered with to the point that operational capability would be compromised. That risk even if remotely so bothers me greatly. I do not want to sound like I am anti- UCAV/UAV. In fact I like the idea of using them in limited roles which are proven but I and many other folks feel such weapons should be utilized in a support role and not a primary one replacing major manned systems. I still prefer a that a powerful combat jet have the best adaptive computer ever designed running it. The "human" brain of a well trained Pilot!
Wing_Z
Charter Member 2011
Actually if you think about it, it's a logical progression:
In the old days, you'd have to butcher the women and children by hand, which was a bit of a messy affair.
Aircraft sanitized that to a large degree, you could drop a spot of napalm and burn the inhabitants of an entire village, without getting your hands dirty.
UAV's simply allow you to do this in air-conditioned comfort, without the need to actually travel to the slaughter zone, and without the g forces...
In the old days, you'd have to butcher the women and children by hand, which was a bit of a messy affair.
Aircraft sanitized that to a large degree, you could drop a spot of napalm and burn the inhabitants of an entire village, without getting your hands dirty.
UAV's simply allow you to do this in air-conditioned comfort, without the need to actually travel to the slaughter zone, and without the g forces...
Toastmaker
Charter Member 2016
I think it's safe to assume from current evidence that there will be a growth in the use of UCAV/UAV as recon and weapons platforms. They have tremendous potential for very broad battlefield use that has already been proven.
However, I believe it will be a good long time before manned, armed aircraft will be phased out simply because the weak link in an all-UCAV/UAV fleet is the communications/control electronics. The challenge of completely sheilding these systems from disruptive focused EMP's, lasers, etc. is daunting and not all that advanced - today.
Depends on how far into the future you want to look, because I think it's also clear that someday, robots and remotely controled weapon systems will be doing our fighting for us, offensively or defensively.
However, I believe it will be a good long time before manned, armed aircraft will be phased out simply because the weak link in an all-UCAV/UAV fleet is the communications/control electronics. The challenge of completely sheilding these systems from disruptive focused EMP's, lasers, etc. is daunting and not all that advanced - today.
Depends on how far into the future you want to look, because I think it's also clear that someday, robots and remotely controled weapon systems will be doing our fighting for us, offensively or defensively.
