Skywatcher
Captain
How are they going to pay for multiple CUTs though?
Skywatcher
Captain
Edit: Meant CVGs, darn autocorrect.
political will and cost are indeed quite major hurdles. one can't say that country XYZ easily has the "capability" to build ABC only on the basis of the technology and industry they have, without also looking at cost and political will.
SamuraiBlue
Captain
A drone Carrier Battle Group carries neither the political nor the budgetary burden of a full fledged CVBG.
Skywatcher
Captain
Wait, so how will stealth combat drones cost less than their manned equivalents ( and even if they did, the ones right carry less payload)? And even unpiloted, drones are still pretty manpower intensive.
Edit: and why not just fly the drones off a land base if they're operating in tandem with land launched manned aircraft?
Well, that's debatable considering we have no idea how much a useful drone carrier and drone airwing may yet look like, whether it's for Japan or for the US or for China etc. I don't think anyone has the technology to develop a viable and useful drone carrier in the near future yet, let alone having a suitable concept of operations.
In any case, I was talking about your "full fledged carrier" as you described before.
D
Deleted member 13312
Guest
Political baggage is a rather shifting notion, seeing as more and more nations are acquiring armed drones and that their capabilities are increasing as the years goes by drones are no longer been seen as a trivial military capability, and they are getting political attention fast. The time has long gone when drones are just blasting terrorists in isolated villages in the Afgan-Pakistan mountain ranges.
As for budgetary burden that is even more controversial, while drones can do away with the costs of pilots and life support systems, that money is still needed in the software building and communication links between drone and controller which has proven to be just as finicky and costly. If even human-hardware systems like the ALIS is running an all time over budget, I highly doubt that a fully autonomous system will cost any less.
SamuraiBlue
Captain
They do not require flight training like manned operated counterparts. One of the most costly part of operating a CVBG.
With less usage of the air frame they require less maintenance again one of the costly portion of operating a CVBG.
SamuraiBlue
Captain
Software is initial cost not running cost which is written in the books separately. As for fully autonomous, don't think that will happen for a while, but swarm concept has come a great deal of ways to be considered for actual usage.
Basically a pre-programmed maneuver following the lead plane. The lead will be piloted by a person in a remote location and the lead plane can switch from one drone to the next and another watching the swarm can coordinate the attack by calling out which programs the swarm will use. In other words only semi autonomous.
SamuraiBlue
Captain
It's not much of a leap to develop a drone carrier when you have the ability to construct a full fledged carrier.
I don't think Japan will pursue a full fledged carrier in the first place but don't think JMSDF will be satisfied with a light carrier with limited capabilities either.
I believe the best route for Japan is to develop a drone carrier that can work with the US CVBG or coordinate with the JASDF when closer to sovereign territory.