Originally Posted by
Jwscud
You mention the Military - the US Military has lately made clear (last week's Flight) that they will not expect as a matter of principle and policy soldiers being transported into combat zones on crewless vehicles.
Thank you for the heads up. Here is the link
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...ess-he-420306/
Very interesting article, and it makes very clear the reasons for the policy.
The way you have presented the tone of the article might be considered perhaps a little disingenuous?
It has nothing to do with capability, and everything to do with the trust between flight crew and troops. This is a very reasonable policy in the short term.
Interesting that the article also states that
"The army’s new chief of staff Gen Mark Milley last week expressed strong interest in convoys of autonomous ground vehicle for cargo resupply, delivering “water, beans and bullets” to troops.
He says pilotless helicopters are less technologically challenging because of the complex terrain those ground vehicles must navigate, but the bigger challenge for rotorcraft is perhaps institutional."
This reiterates exactly what I said earlier. The challenge is not technological.
Incidentally, the challenge of a military rotorcraft is for obvious reasons far greater than for an airliner.