View Full Version : UK RAF to raise UAV squadron
Lyneham Lad
5th Dec 2006, 14:47
Well done Duncan Sandys, just how prescient were you? :E
Article in Flight International (http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2006/12/01/210872/UK+RAF+to+raise+UAV+squadron.html)
Huh?:rolleyes:
'Almost fifty years ago, Britain's then defence minister, Duncan Sandys, famously predicted the end of the manned fighter aircraft.
maybe not the end but there must be numerous applications that could be well served by this concept .....
soddim
5th Dec 2006, 16:03
Maybe it is time to re-equip No 1 (balloon) Squadron - after all, it is the beginning of a new era.
Aeronut
5th Dec 2006, 17:22
Its not the flying pay I object to....its the offficer pay!
TacEval Inject
5th Dec 2006, 22:24
Life in the Womens' Auxiliary Balloon Corps suddenly seems more attractive!
(But I suppose that is compared to that of the SH/AT world)
Calling Melchett01 to sign off the application...........
GreenKnight121
6th Dec 2006, 10:17
And just which such unmanned aircraft would the RAF have been using these last 50 years if the wonderful and prescient Duncan Sandys had gotten his way back then?
Any imaginative goof can think up an idea that eventually becomes reality... just look at Leonardo Da Vinci (helicopters, tanks, etc.) Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, any science fiction writer... it takes an intelligent man to realize when the time (and technology, political climate, public opinion) is right to put that idea into real existence.
Tourist
6th Dec 2006, 12:01
Greenknight.
"Any imaginative goof can think up an idea that eventually becomes reality... just look at Leonardo Da Vinci (helicopters, tanks, etc.) Jules Verne, H.G. Wells"
Imaginative Goof is an interesting term to use for the luminaries that you mention.
Leonardo would come in most peoples list of famous intelligent people I would think, and the other two are no thickys. Didn't H G Wells invent, in some detail, the necessary theory behind geostationary satelites and space elevators a long long time ago?
BossEyed
6th Dec 2006, 12:07
Didn't H G Wells invent, in some detail, the necessary theory behind geostationary satelites and space elevators a long long time ago?
No.
But Arthur C Clarke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C_Clarke) did. :}
Dan Winterland
6th Dec 2006, 14:05
Which is why a geostationary orbit is also known as a Clarke orbit.
WorkingHard
6th Dec 2006, 15:30
That should end the squabbles over flying pay!
In Tor Wot
6th Dec 2006, 15:36
Duncan Sandy's comments in the defence white paper that came to bear his name was focussed on the removal of the need for "expensive" manned aircraft as missile defences would render them obsolete, therefore we should put all our money into missiles rather than aircraft.
The article states that the aircraft will be delivered direct to Iraq with one ground station - is it because:
a. UK hasn't got its particulars in one sock regarding UAV operations in UK airspace,
or
b. because we can't afford to pay the VAT?
A. Both :ugh:
I just like the concept of a UAV hanging around for hour after hour in Iraq, Afghanistan etc ...... keeping an eye out ..... spotting the bad guys ..... sending them a pressie ..... :\
and then the Controllers go home for their tea at 5.00 oclock (from Northwood or wherever) ......
seems so civilized to me ..... :p
If the bad guys shoot you down, while sitting in your little hut in Creech, I guess it is simply a point for the debrief, and then you go to the bar.
As long as the Womens Auxilliary Balloon Corpse gets flying pay, then who cares what you call the job.
BTW, Is the name of the squadron going to be....lets guess...
H Peacock
7th Dec 2006, 08:17
BTW, Is the name of the squadron going to be....lets guess...
Well, the RAF's premier recce Sqn disbanded at the end of July, so I guess their nameplate must be top of the list of available names/numbers!
H Peacock
spectre150
7th Dec 2006, 09:23
II(AC) Sqn disbanded at the end of July? I don't think so. :E
Grimweasel
7th Dec 2006, 16:21
More from the BBC..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6218060.stm
Sospan
7th Dec 2006, 16:28
II(AC) Sqn disbanded at the end of July? I don't think so. :E
If they keep plopping their jets in the drink they might as well disband !!!! :p
Jobza Guddun
7th Dec 2006, 16:32
If they keep plopping their jets in the drink they might as well disband !!!! :p
Got to have some serviceable first....:O
RETDPI
7th Dec 2006, 17:32
Many years ago I was at an RPV ( as then was) symposium in the West of England.
The statement was made from industry that we were now close to the stage of technology of being able to remove one man from the entire two man attack aircraft mission profile set (then Bucc/Phantom).
The question then was -which one?
The smirks on the faces of the Pilots were soon removed when it was then revealed that they , in fact, were the more easily replicable component in electronic capability/Artificial Intelligence terms.
The Navs in turn rapidly broke out into triumphal grins:
which then very slowly faded as the implications settled in.
H Peacock
7th Dec 2006, 18:51
II(AC) Sqn disbanded at the end of July? I don't think so. :E
Surely 'recce' = 'cameras' , or am I missing something?
H Peacock :confused:
MQ-9 Hunter Killer - or so the USAF calls 'em. Will we get a hold of some hunter killers, or will we just get hunters, and wait around for someone else to do the killing?
Melchett01
7th Dec 2006, 20:44
Life in the Womens' Auxiliary Balloon Corps suddenly seems more attractive!
(But I suppose that is compared to that of the SH/AT world)
Calling Melchett01 to sign off the application...........
Trust you to try and slink off to a cushy option I always suspected there was a bit too much trench-dodging going on around the place, rather than people wanting to jump over the top and say 'yah boo sucks to you!'
Application approved ...... and I hope their all gwaas!
Spotting Bad Guys
8th Dec 2006, 07:05
Not on the Predator - the USAF rules are that the aircraft must be piloted by a miltary pilot with an IRT, although there are also a few WSOs with civilian pilots' quals plus IRT in the programme.
Before anybody weighs in with the 'why does it need a pilot when WK uses gunners' argument - this is as much down to the way the system was designed and the degree of man-in-the-loop direct control - it's quite different from other UAVs in that respect.
SBG
Flyboy,
You are partially right, there are some 'non aircrew' trained to perform sensor operator duties, but each aircraft has a Pilot in command.
BluntedAtBirth
8th Dec 2006, 08:37
MQ-9 Hunter Killer - or so the USAF calls 'em. Will we get a hold of some hunter killers, or will we just get hunters, and wait around for someone else to do the killing?
Interesting name but I can't see a Hunter Killer GR Mk1 in the inventory; General Atomics Force for Good GR1 more likely. We could just call it Hunter to go along with our new Lightnings, all be it at some risk of heart attack to those who flew the original.
As to sqn number plate, I know what you know L J R but you know you aren't supposed to tell := ;)
Aaaahhhhh!
I have a vision...
deep into the future of our Great British Defence force....
I see...
I see...
An guargantuan robotic sentient Being, bristling with Bean-cans and Golf-balls, Disco Lights and Chutes, and Barrels that spit Fire and Brimstone! With a Brain the size of a Planet,
...being returned to a shelter due to a missed Take-Off as the Flight Controller couldn't get through the Security Gate without taking his shoes off, tasting from his Can of 7-Up or having to surrender his Contact Lens Solution.
At last! A sign of intelligent and comprehensive defence forces!