Attack of the Drones
 

Worth a read:
The Death of the F-22 Fighter Plane | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

An interesting article. Thanks for the link.
The most interesting point for me is not about planes without pilots - but the deliberate choice of a 'truckie' as Chief of Air Staff.

“We have just won a war with a lot of heroes flying around in planes. The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all. It certainly will be fought with planes so far superior to those we have now that there will be no basis for comparison. Take everything you’ve learned about aviation in war, throw it out of the window, and let’s go to work on tomorrow’s aviation. It will be different from anything the world has ever seen.”

Gen Hap Arnold, USAAF, VJ Day, 1945 - clearly ahead of his time...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-9999G-013.jpg

I return your Hap Arnold with Duncan Sandys in 1957......:)

And bearing in mind that a cruise missile is what, exactly? :hmm:

Toys for the Boys?
 

Letting pilots choose what aircraft to buy is always asking for trouble :rolleyes:. If there are no wars to be fought, of course they are going to want a supersonic whizzbang jet to fly around the mountains of Nevada or 200ft above the Welsh valleys. When it comes to a bomb truck for loitering over a warzone the requirement and flying is far more mundane.

The main limitation of the combat UAVs in service is being able to provide the rapid response to troops on the ground of 'fast air', although the next generation or two of UAVs should do this.

Having said that, I would like to hear how enthusiastic General Schwartz is about unmanned transport aircraft. There is the CQ-10 Snow Goose of course, but no mention yet of a UAV C17 replacement...

Regarding the quotation of General 'Hap' Arnold', I can think of at least two WW2 aircraft (C47 & A26 Invader) that fought in America's next two wars. Are there any others?

As for the article stating that UAVs were first used in Yugoslavia in the 90s, they seem to have forgotten the reconaissance versions of the Ryan Firebee used in Vietnam.

I have to say I reckon Duncan Sandys was an enemy of anthing on ' our side ' that flew ( though I know it's not popular to say, I think the TSR2 was a no-brainer, as poven by the Tornado ) - must have been a chum of ' Dr.' Beechng - who destroyed much of rhe U.K.train network with the same sort of thinking.

Hitler / Stalin would have been proud of them - and it doesn't matter which particular colour they ( politicians ) were wearing...

As for UCAV's, to state the obvious, " Hell Sir the screen just went blank ! " Seems a lot better than sending a vulnerable rescue team in...