Originally Posted by
arf23
how does loyal wingman with a pilot in a lead aircraft (F18/F35) controlling a drone swarm differ from a pilot in a portacabin at Creech controlling a drone swarm? I don't really see the advantage, in fact having somebody fly a plane and be cognizant of threats to their aircraft at the same time as executing a battle plan over the horizon seems a lot of work for not a lot of advantage. And all this relies on good comms links, are they assured against a decent opponent with EW/satellite shoot down capability? And comms bandwidth and versatility on a fighter aircraft (or even a widebody AWACS) is never going equal the comms available to a portacabin..
For starters all the F-18 in the RAAF have a second crewman so that crewman would be available to control them. Also its a strong rumor that the E-7's are more getting consoles from which these can be controlled. Also rumored the tankers will be getting a station as well. At least intitially I think these aircraft primary role will be a escort of larger assets (awac/tankers) or CAP over ground facilites like forward airfields freeing up manned fighters. later if/when the technology matures maybe they will be escorts for other fighters like the F-35 / NGAD