Night Stalker Little Bird Pilots Obselete?

[SASless]

It would appear this UAV business is getting out of hand....where we going to find our heroes from it is just a bunch of Little Birds zooming around doing the same missions the Night Stalker guys are doing?

So much for bragging about <30 second Time on Target precision....landing on roof tops and the like....if the Little Bird can do it all by its lonesome without a human pilot being involved.

Now if they come up with robotic Engineers and bowser operators....Human Resource types are going to become very scarce as well.


http://defensetech.org/2011/11/21/video-unmanned-little-bird-lands-on-a-moving-truck/

[Shawn Coyle]

Not sure if it got much publicity, but Kaman has an autonomous K-Max on it's way to Afghanistan. Not remotely piloted - autonomous...

[TwinHueyMan]

Watch a 6Pax pilot do a landing on a rooftop ledge and you'll probably agree the autopilot needs to think about hurrying the **** up. +/- 30 seconds doesn't matter if it takes 30 additional seconds for the system to confidently put the thing down.

Lets start automating tankers before SOA assault helicopters.

Mike

[topendtorque]

Don't know why they haven't done it Sasless, but it's easy to see a whole heap of military trained pilots who could fly the backside of those gadgets and use their profound past experience to really confuse the bad guys? Just a 'differences only' piece of paper, surely?

People already skilled in ordinance delivery, just an hour or two a day doing your bit for "O" and country, to get your stress levels down before you pop the top off that stubbie?

Did you see the comfy chair those hard done by remote drives sit in, plenty of space to park your slippers, etc?.

cheers tet

[SASless]

Awoke on a beautiful Thanksgiving Day....anticipating the annual Turkey Feast and Family Fuss that seems required. I ran across an article that mentioned a helicopter pilot. It reminded me both of why we can be so thankful of our fellows who serve in Harm's Way. It also reminded me of this thread and why I started it....warfare is changing and helicopter warfare is really changing.

An excerpt of the speech that grabbed me......

Welsh segued to a battle during Operation Desert Storm on Feb. 27, 1991. An F-16 Fighting Falcon had been shot down, and the pilot, then Capt. Bill Andrews, had landed in the path of a retreating Iraqi Republican Guard armored division.

Welsh, then a lieutenant colonel, was flying in his own F-16 over Iraq at the time. A strike controller relayed Andrews' location to other pilots and asked if anyone could conduct a search-and-rescue. A Chinook pilot answered the call.

"I'm thinking, that's the size of a double-decker bus, it's got no guns, and you're going to fly that thing into the middle of a retreating Iraqi armored division to pick up one pilot? First time in my life I ever said 'Hooah.' I was impressed," he said.

After he returned to the United States, Welsh said he went to look for her. After he confirmed her identity, he set out to meet her.

"I wanted to tell her thank you, because she was inspirational at a time when people needed it," he said. "It took me a little while to find her, but I did."

A photo of Rossi's tombstone appeared on the screen behind the general. Two days later, on March 1, Rossi's helicopter had hit an unlit radio tower near Iraq's border with Saudi Arabia while returning from an aeromedical evacuation mission.

"I kept my promise," he said. "I went and met her. And I stood in front of that rock and thanked her for her courage, for her dedication, for the inspiration she gave so many of us that day, for her sacrifice and the sacrifice of her husband and young daughter.

"You'd better be willing to make decisions, because you're going to need to," he continued, returning his focus to the cadets. "You're going to need to make them without all the information you'd like, and you're going to need to make them when people's lives are at stake. And you're not always going to have time to ask somebody else to help you."


USAFE commander to cadets: Get ready (http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123279459)


Therese Rossi-Clayton Major US Army(KIA) Desert Storm


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3f/Marie_T._Ross_Cayton.jpg

[hillberg]

UAV? Look up GyroDyne QH 50 First to land ship board-First armed "UAV" The NAVY DASH program

[Shell Management]

UAVs are clearly the way to go for the military.