Originally Posted by
arf23
a controlling plane would use radio/satellite to communicate with the drones (giving away all their positions if radio) whilst the portacabin 10,000km away is satellite only. Radio can be jammed just as well as satellites, if not more so by decent EW., If the opposition can disable satellites they can certainly jam radio/spoof GPS over the ground targets. The difference is satellites can have multiple redundancies (starlink, there's a a lot to knock down....). This loyal wingman concept still strikes me as old Air Force trying to keep manned planes for the sake of it
There's a distinct radiated power Vs distance advantage to an airborne platform 50 miles behind a UCAV, plus the tight beam advantage mentioned by someone above. Don't get me wrong, a portacabin has it's place, but an EW heavy environment I'd say isn't one. As for GPS, pretty sure no one is building any UCAVs that are going to be dependent on it, the vulnerability there is pretty obvious!