Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
Just been reading in the Telegraph that Ben Wallace reckons by 2040, the RAF will be 90% unmanned. He seems to base the bulk of this expectation on the Tempest project. I don't know if they're currently building a prototype, but even if they are, just inside 20 years for such a major proposition to be near full operational deployment, given the typical gestation period of such endeavours in recent times, seems a tad ambitious? Then again, there is always the likelihood that his and Cummings ears have been bent toward the Naval claim that Aircraft Carriers are all you need. Therefore, what we're about to see in the 2020 Foreign, Security and Defence review is a Charles Manson 'Helter Skelter' style bloodbath of current and pipeline RAF assets. ie, more F-35s, As or Bs.
FB
1. It's unpersonned. Didn't you get the memo from CAS?
2. I suspect you'll find that the expectation is coming from within the RAF - just as in NCHQ unpersonned systems are the future for MCMV and eventually most other things. Both services are playing catch up with the Army and their Capita programme.
3. Even as far back as FOAS, unpersonned was always an assumed option.
None of which is to suggest that it's either feasible or desirable - or will come to pass.
It's briefing silly season - and it's not like the Telly has a real defence correspondent anymore.