Re: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Thread
One of the strengths of the F-35 is the ability to carry your own weapons for partner nations, so IOC will likely be achieved using off the shelf weaponry, with the ability to simply and quickly???? upgrade your aircraft to integrate your own munitions into your aircraft... How well this works in practice we shall see, but the F-35 does have a "modular" "fire control", one of the reasons the F-35 is more vulnerable to hacking in my opinion. As for UCAV/UCAS, I doubt there is a significantly lower price for each of these aircraft, than for a manned platform, as they build more, the price will no doubt come down, but that technology remains very expensive, and not nearly as capable as a manned platform.
While I certainly understand the philosophy of mitigating risk to the pilot, and I realize that many see him/her as the weak link in the chain, my own perspective is that the pilot brings a lot more capability to the game than UCAVers want to admit. UCAV technology at this stage, while certainly capable and impressive in the ability to operate the X-47B off the deck, in my personal opinion unmanned aircraft are currently problematic in two areas, they lack the ability to "discriminate" friend from foe?? ( the Obama administration has a very high rate of "collateral damage", and the ability to safely and effectively operate the aircraft?? (UCAV/RPVs seem to have a very high accident rate).
No one can deny that in this BHO economy the military is currently suffering, and the civilian leadership loves the idea of "drones" doing the "dirty work", as if the equipment itself becomes the "guilty party" if mistakes continue to be made?? all of the "caveats" are real, but non more real than the reality that money put into this technology, will "rob" manned programs like the F-35 of real cash and engineering expertise, IMHO we simply must not sacrifice the manned capability that aircraft like the F-35 bring to a real world conflict, the ability to have a decision maker in the cockpit, and "on scene" cannot be underestimated, even by those of us who are into the "gee-whiz" stuff?
The reality is that UCAVs cost nearly as much as manned aircraft, as you expect them to do more and more, and pursue "autonomy", their price will increase "exponentially", "mark my word", if it becomes apparent that I'm wrong, I will issue and apology, but my gut says you don't get something for nothing, which this "pie in the sky" crowd is touting???? I'm going to put my money, engineering skill into proven technology, and a pilot in the cockpit to make those decisions that a "heartless" machine will continue to get wrong.
One of the strengths of the F-35 is the ability to carry your own weapons for partner nations, so IOC will likely be achieved using off the shelf weaponry, with the ability to simply and quickly???? upgrade your aircraft to integrate your own munitions into your aircraft... How well this works in practice we shall see, but the F-35 does have a "modular" "fire control", one of the reasons the F-35 is more vulnerable to hacking in my opinion. As for UCAV/UCAS, I doubt there is a significantly lower price for each of these aircraft, than for a manned platform, as they build more, the price will no doubt come down, but that technology remains very expensive, and not nearly as capable as a manned platform.
While I certainly understand the philosophy of mitigating risk to the pilot, and I realize that many see him/her as the weak link in the chain, my own perspective is that the pilot brings a lot more capability to the game than UCAVers want to admit. UCAV technology at this stage, while certainly capable and impressive in the ability to operate the X-47B off the deck, in my personal opinion unmanned aircraft are currently problematic in two areas, they lack the ability to "discriminate" friend from foe?? ( the Obama administration has a very high rate of "collateral damage", and the ability to safely and effectively operate the aircraft?? (UCAV/RPVs seem to have a very high accident rate).
No one can deny that in this BHO economy the military is currently suffering, and the civilian leadership loves the idea of "drones" doing the "dirty work", as if the equipment itself becomes the "guilty party" if mistakes continue to be made?? all of the "caveats" are real, but non more real than the reality that money put into this technology, will "rob" manned programs like the F-35 of real cash and engineering expertise, IMHO we simply must not sacrifice the manned capability that aircraft like the F-35 bring to a real world conflict, the ability to have a decision maker in the cockpit, and "on scene" cannot be underestimated, even by those of us who are into the "gee-whiz" stuff?
The reality is that UCAVs cost nearly as much as manned aircraft, as you expect them to do more and more, and pursue "autonomy", their price will increase "exponentially", "mark my word", if it becomes apparent that I'm wrong, I will issue and apology, but my gut says you don't get something for nothing, which this "pie in the sky" crowd is touting???? I'm going to put my money, engineering skill into proven technology, and a pilot in the cockpit to make those decisions that a "heartless" machine will continue to get wrong.
