surely the need for CAS (ala Harriers) for them is even more vital
Isn't that one of the roles of the in-theatre GR4s ....?
they are useful against an enemy that has no air defence system
I thought one of the main arguments
FOR the UAV/UCAV/Drones concept(whatever they are called this week) was that they were ideal against an enemy
with an air defence system (both ground and air based) as there is no risk to the man/woman in the cockpit. Along with stealth they would be great from Day 1 through to end-op I would have thought. Want to do some sneaky look around say Iran or North Korea (both with potentially good AD setups) prior to a pre-emptive strike. Total cloud cover at say 45K thus negating space based systems. What do you send - manned aircraft or UAV (the later of which probably has the better ISTAR suite)?