Have the US military not backed away from the UCAV concept?
I refer to the shelfing of Phantom Ray. I believe the reasoning behind this was that the level of spatial awareness and processing power required was unattainable; when compared to a human pilot sat in the cockpit under such high workload situations as a dogfight.
Good job really - I don't want computers that can 'think' to a human level... VCRs used to outwit me...
Hasn't the USAF funding for Global Hawk been reduced too?
I think that the rationale behind this decision was the requirment for more personnel and increased cost in comparison to a manned platform. Kind of shoots a few of the main reasons behind having UAVs out of the water, somewhat.
I stand to be corrected, if I'm not up to date.
I do believe there is a place for UAVs. That is over war zones and well away from 'regulated' civilian airspace. Anywhere, that longer loiter times are required. Perfect for a counter insurgency operation like Afghanistan. Other than that I struggle to see any real wider usage, despite what UAV manufacturers and futurists would have you believe.
One more point to consider... the unmanned version of PPrune would be awfully dull!