The Unmanned Air Force

coondoggie writes "How important have unmanned aircraft become to the US military? Well how's this: the Air Force says next year it will acquire more unmanned aircraft than manned. Air Force Lt. Gen. Norman Seip this week said the service is 'all in' when it comes to developing unmanned systems and aircraft. 'Next year, the Air Force will procure more unmanned aircraft than manned aircraft,' the general said. 'I think that makes a very pointed statement about our commitment to the future of [unmanned aircraft] and what it brings to the fight in meeting the requirements of combatant commanders.'"

War No 81-Q

[Nursie]

So have we got to the stage yet where we can just have our unmanned vehicles fight their unmanned vehicles over an empty patch of ocean and declare a winner?

No, thought not, but I'm sure that's where we're headed. /mark elf... //I hope someone gets the references

Re:Not surprising

[turkeydance]

"i'm sorry Dave..."

So winning a war...

[Anonymous Coward]

So winning a war will be about programming skills and not economic power.

I for one welcome our new communist overlords.

Among insiders this is a well-known phenomenon.

[EWAdams]

However, there is still an old guard of macho "Top Gun" guys in the upper ranks who will have to die off before the Air Force becomes completely comfortable with the idea.

An un-manned plane can out-accelerate and out-turn any plane with a human in it, so before long a manned plane will be at a distinct disadvantage. Give it 10 years or so and manned fighters will be gone. We'll still use pilots for AWACS and the like, though.

Re:Not surprising

[pushing-robot]

One hell of a jamming technology to block the laser to satellite communication of a high-altitude plane.

Yes, the level of technology required would be ridiculous. [wikipedia.org]

Re:Not surprising

[Kingrames]

A communications disruption can mean only one thing.

affirmative action

[arbitraryaardvark]

'Next year, the Air Force will procure more unmanned aircraft than manned aircraft,'

Nice to see the air force finally getting behind affirmative action.

Re:Sad to hear it

[trolltalk.com]

I'm sure you are grief-stricken, but that topic is one article that way. (down)

No no - it's appropriate. Somewhere in a village, a midget is looking at a military UAV and going "da plane! Boss, da plane!"

And beside him, someone else is looking at that same UAV and saying "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee. For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee."

And miles away, some pasty-faced joystick jock is sitting in his fine corinthian-leather chair humming "Volare" and saying "Can we change the channel on this thing. All I'm getting is really bad remakes!"

Re:Not surprising

[dilvish_the_damned]

Call the round trip 600ms since you have to make the distance four times to do it.

Still, its lower latency than Clint Eastwood thinking in Russian.

Hacked

[ezwip]

In other news little Johnny is being deported to the United States to face further charges. He is accused of hacking a flight of F17s to blow up his fathers house. Johnny's defense attorney states that this was all due to the video game Top Gun that little Johnny's pasture father took away from him.