PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Air Combat Drones
View Single Post
Old 27th Feb 2014, 19:23
  #19 (permalink)  
awblain
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Pasadena
Posts: 633
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Those lasers are heavy and expensive, and will probably remain so.

They also need very fancy optics to ensure they concentrate on the target, and the lighter and less powerful they are, the more that's true.

To achieve 20g without stopping dead there has to be a lot of power, and that's expensive. Drones are relatively cheap because they cruise and loiter stealthily with light simple engines - if you want them to run like an unmanned F22 then the cost will go up.

Eyes also gather a lot of information, and it's going to be difficult to provide that remotely without a big and complex set of cameras that might cost more than the career training and salary of the person they're replacing (who still needs to be paid to be somewhere on the ground).
awblain is offline