The Unmanned Air Force 352
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the fly-the-robotic-skies dept.
from the fly-the-robotic-skies dept.
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.'"
Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not surprising (Score:1, Informative)
lets see
1 $400 million dollar F-22
10 $40 million dollar F-35
or
100 $4 million dollar UAV's
yea the math speaks volumes. UAV's can target and back up ground troops but no UAV has done air to air combat. No UAV is capable of fighting a mannned air craft and winning. If not for local ECM(jammers in other aircraft) screwing up the flight controls, then the simple fact that the manned aircraft can turn their head and see the planes over their shoulder let alone behind them.
Not just the US (Score:2, Informative)
I read recently that China is also committing to unmanned aircraft, with a 1 billion yuan investment (US$150 mil)
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/6564823.html [peopledaily.com.cn]
Jamming the communication system (Score:3, Informative)
It is probably a spread spectrum [wikipedia.org] solution that is difficult to jam. If you do manage to transmit powerfully enough to jam it, you advertise your location and something else (artillery or manned bomber) will pay you a short visit.
Re:Remote or AI? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not surprising (Score:5, Informative)
lets see
1 $400 million dollar F-22
10 $40 million dollar F-35
or
100 $4 million dollar UAV's
yea the math speaks volumes. UAV's can target and back up ground troops but no UAV has done air to air combat. No UAV is capable of fighting a mannned air craft and winning. If not for local ECM(jammers in other aircraft) screwing up the flight controls, then the simple fact that the manned aircraft can turn their head and see the planes over their shoulder let alone behind them.
From someone who used to fly them... There is something called a UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle).
As a matter of *FACT*, the X45A shot down the top pilots over and over from the Airforce's topgun school in games of lasertag. The UCAV can pull a 12G turn in a dogfight. Most humans can't stay conscious in 8Gs and the human limit before passing out is 10G.
A UCAV vs a manned F22 is like shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_Combat_Air_Vehicle
UAV's vs. Manned Fighters (Score:5, Informative)
No UAV is capable of fighting a mannned air craft and winning.
On a one to one basis, maybe no. But what about a ten to one basis? UAVs are a lot cheaper, and a lot more expendable.
If you can occupy the enemy's airforce with some UAVs, while others bombard the airstrips, you win.
Well, considering that computers can think and react faster than any human (if properly programmed), it's very feasible that one day, UAV's will have the software and AI to absolutely dominate manned fighters. Not only that, but UAV's don't have the same limitations as human pilots do... think of things like G-forces, and the requirement to carry life-support equipment. Without things like oxygen tanks and ejections seats and cockpits, you can free up a lot of space... for fuel, or to simply make the aircraft lighter and smaller. You also don't have to worry about things like blacking out in high-G turns. All equipment has limitations, but today, the major impediment to performance is the human factor. Our current planes, not to mention our future ones, are limited more by the limitations of their pilots than by their physical structures.
There was a cheesy movie in the early 80's called Deal of the Century [wikipedia.org], a remarkably silly diatribe against arms dealing... but considering that it was made 25 years ago, it was prescient in one of its features: a UAV called the Peacemaker [streetsedge.com] that could out-fight and out-fly any manned fighter, at one point literally flying circles around Gregory Hines in his state-of-the-art manned fighter. The Peacemaker is only defeated when Chevy Chase disables it by attacking its remote control pilot back at the airfield. The Peacemaker was smaller than manned fighters, and could be launched from the back of a trailer.
Considering the advance of lightweight materials, CPU's, and software, it's only a matter of time before we can build an unmanned fighter that, like the fictitious Peacemaker, can fly rings around F-22's.
Re:Jamming the communication system (Score:1, Informative)
We already control uav's from the continental US. Its called Nellis AFB out of Las Vegas (chosen for its surrounding terrain and climate that makes basically devoid of any cloud cover)
Re:Not surprising (Score:4, Informative)
That depends on the cloud. Warm, low-altitude clouds are almost transparent to infrared. Cold, high-altitude clouds—the kind you'd find between a plane and satellite—are extremely opaque to infrared. Even clouds that are nearly transparent to visible light can block infrared light.
On the other hand, I'm not convinced a laser system would even be necessary; militaries already rely on a great deal of battlefield radio communication; if it was easy to jam those signals, people would be doing it already. Jamming a spread-spectrum transmission from one directional antenna to another is very hard.
Re:Launching space tractors. (Score:3, Informative)
Except that Nazi Germany basically invented all the technologies used in modern warfare
1) Long endurance diesel electric submarines (type XXI, Elektroboote)
2) Long range ballistic missiles (A4/V2)
3) Jet propelled aircraft (both fighters, bombers and recon, notably ME-262)
4) Cruise missiles (V1/FGZ-76)
5) Smart bombs (Fritz-X and HS-293 glider bombs)
6) Inertial navigation (A4/V2)
Systems under development/not deployed
1) Nuclear bomb / nuclear power
2) Guided surface to air missiles (Wasserfall)
3) Guided Air to Air missiles (Ruhrstahl X-4)
All in all, only the digital computers (of which Nazi germany also made the first Turring complete one (Zuse Z3) have come later.
Yours Yazeran
Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer