[email protected], I'm actually overseas flying the K-MAX right now and think you’re a little off on your statements. Not trying to start an argument here but our capabilities to move things continuously under the cover of night with very minimal crew have quite a good purpose. Even if we pull one convoy off the road by supplying a FOB or COB with supplies they needed. There's more than just one truck carrying cargo, for that truck to get the cargo there's many support trucks that roll along with it. Also the maintenance man hour to flight hour is totally incomparable to even that of one 53. Albeit a 53 can carry a substantially larger load, the average load over here suits our mission quite well.
Instead of sending a 53 into a zone while requiring two gunships to escort, we have one robot this is quite a few less lives and machines to shoot at. You are correct it's not the fastest machine in the world but it is the first of its kind, most crawl before they walk. On the speed note, have you seen the download and upload times spent in these little LZ's. They are def faster on their ingress but they stay running on the deck for a good while.
I'm sure there are better ways to skin the cat but I think we're doing a pretty good job of getting the ball rolling. We've proven the concept and now are moving forward with far more knowledge in bettering the system and implementing greater uses for the Marines needs.
Now for UAV's to take over, I don't think we'll see it in our life time. I feel fairly confident that there will always be a need for a manned pilot at the controls in most cases.
Last edited by vrtcld; 23rd Oct 2012 at 10:59.