Originally Posted by
Captain Radar....
Surely the pilot, or platform operator, doesn't have to be in the cockpit? Remote operating of airborne weapon systems is now routine. The human can still be in the loop, just not on board.
Remote operation is indeed routine, but only in the type of operating environments we’ve enjoyed over the past 20 years. It is already bandwidth-limited (a problem if you want remote video and/or large numbers of aircraft operating simultaneously) but the bigger problem in a full-scale war fighting scenario will be electronic warfare. A key advantage of air platforms over surface-based air defences is that they can move over hostile territory, and that means that they will be closer to the enemy’s jammers than to the friendly datalink transmitters. That’s a losing equation in terms of transmission power requirements unless you build a complex (and fragile/vulnerable/bandwidth-limited) network of air, surface and space relays: the so-called ‘combat cloud’. Short-range line-of-sight directional datalinks can probably avoid the worst of the effects, but combined with the increasing vulnerability of SATCOM to space-based interference, remote control is (IMHO) going to remain limited in its applicability.