PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - US Army Aviation to be unmanned (mostly) by 2035
Old 19th Apr 2010, 17:20
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Two's in
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
 
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Army General or not, he has the makings of a top politician by planning for the future of Army Aviation based entirely on the last war he fought. Use of UAV's will undoubtedly become more widespread in the future, but not every bad guy will be living in the Hindu Kush. Any smart potential enemy out there has seen the dependency on UAV's grow and will no doubt be asking themselves, "so how do you counter the UAV threat?". The current insurgents may be a bit thin on viable air threats, but don't assume everyone is in that boat, and you don't just have to shoot them down to counter them effectively.

As for the line "The only two roles left primarily for manned aircraft will be -- curiously enough -- utility and medical evacuation." speaks volumes in itself. If you think getting soldiers in and out of the battle, injured or unharmed, is somehow just some "ash and trash" secondary duty for Aviation then you probably shouldn't be making decisions about the future of Army Aviation.

As Fareastdriver said, it's all been said and done before. Wait to see which UAV manufacturer he is working for next year. Utter Bolleaux.
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