UAV thread

Sure. Not the foreseeable future though.

They've already replaced fighter aircraft for loiter-patrolling sandniggistan.

>>31579826
>I hear about drones being used in Afghanistan

>Therefore they must be the only aircraft there

Completely? Not for a VERY long time, if ever.

>>31579867
why not ? aren't they able to dogfight ?

>>31579944
A UAV will never, ever be able to make split-second decisions with the same clarity and understanding as a human being.

>>31580029
but if they are under remote control by a human operator they can do any defensive or offensive maneuver, right ?

>>31580051
Yes, but remote operation introduces an element of latency. A command issued by a guy in an armchair inside a shipping container in Texas is always going to arrive at the aircraft after he issued it. Even if it's only a few milliseconds, that's largely unacceptable when multi-million dollar aircraft are involved in a combat situation.

>>31580075
oh yeah that's right! thank you anon

>>31580029
How meatbags can even compete?
http://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/alpha.html

>>31580075
Good answer.

Also the vunerability of virtual attacks in the future will be worse than AA Missles

>>31580302
Humans btfo

Skynet 1 - 0 psychotic monkeys

>>31579944
>aren't they able to dogfight ?

No UCAV yet built, in service, or even proposed is capable of anything close to what a 5th or 4th gen fighter can manage. Given no UCAV pilot in some office in middle America has demonstrated the split-second decision-making and spatial-awareness skills that fighters require, nor has any program sufficiently done so outside a simulation, you're not likely to see drone fighters anytime soon.

>>31580051
Looking at the wings on these things, I doubt they can even manage a barrel roll without falling apart. Their stated horsepower (if true) is also too low for any maneuvering.

They also don't have radars, the camera has been described to me by air force friends as "like looking through a straw" There is latency, the people piloting them are not the top tier of the air force, and the payload is too low for anything anti-air.

>>31583279
We're assuming a 5th gen fighter operated remotely, not a surveillance drone that's pressed in to dogfighting.

>>31579944
>Dogfight
Nigga, that doesn't happen anymore

>>31583430
Except for the part where there were plenty of 4th gen dogfights over the Balkans in the 90s. BVR and HOBS are certainly more prevalent now, but they gave the F-35 a gun for a reason.

>>31580075
>>31579944

>Implying someone with all the battlefield resources at their fingertips going zero mph doesn't have the ability to think clearer then a guy wrangling a 500mph jet.

>ok

>>31583579
That is what sensor fusion is for, data would be processed and handed in simplified format.

Most 'thinking' involved in Ops are for collateral damage reduction. In the air no one gives a fuck, because there is nothing else there.

>>31583579
>man push stick
>airplane do thing

as opposed to

>man push stick in a shack on an irrelevant airbase in a flyover shithole
>signal transmitted to satellite relay truck
>bounced up to satellite assuming there's one in the correct orbit
>bounced down to drone on the other side of the planet in trashcanistan
>airplane do thing
>airplane sends signal up to satellite confirming that yes, it has indeed done thing
>signal bounces back down to relay network in flyover shitheap
>man that has been spending the last twelve hours sat in an armchair that smells of dip and stale farts can see on the screen that the airplane did do thing several hundred milliseconds after he told it to do thing, and only learned of that fact another few hundred milliseconds later

If you don't think that's a big deal you're fucking dumb.

>>31583762

Drones are dog fighting, look at the X-47

I could see drones being used as missile trucks when it comes to a2a combat,by 2030 at the latest in my opinion.

>>31579944

>"lol sorry mate we gotta replace you with a robot. Kthnx 4 flyin bai"

>>31580075
>>31583762
>F16 Block 52 unit cost USD$34 million
>MQ-1C Gray Eagle is $6.66 million in FY 2016, while the MQ-9 Reaper costs $14.75 million.
>Have 5 MQ-1s with nearly a day of loiter time vs 1 F16
>UAVs like MQ-1 and MQ-9 incidentally have low RCS because composites

With 5th gen fighters and the emphasis away from maneuverability and instead put on BVR engagements it's just a matter of time until lower cost UAVs are made to fill the role and allow for more presence at less cost and risk. A several second SATCOM delay is not really even a factor for BVR engagements when you could probably field 3-5 times the amount of purpose built fighter/interceptor UAVs that you could a manned aircraft. If they were actually worried about latency they could use line of sight links for near instantaneous input lag in point defense scenarios. Imagine an interceptor that had rocket assisted takeoff and was ready to launch as fast as the crew can run to their control station and complete the last parts of their preflight checklist. It can cover the range well beyond a patriot's envelope and quicker than a fighter could.

What probably makes the most sense is having the high-low scheme with the F15 and F16 but the high is something like F35 and the low is something like a purpose built interceptor UAV.

UCAVs could only dogfight on a LOS signal, and that's assuming there is a stupid array of quad-linked transceivers on the airframe so that the link doesn't become degraded or lost while maneuvering. In short, it's impractical for the foreseeable future. The only real advantage a UCAV has is that it's expendable - suicidal maneuvers are not that big of a deal when the pilot is safe and sound in a box 100-3000 miles away.

>>31584033
You mean something that launched and landed on a carrier and didn't dogfight in the slightest

Forget remote-control drones - what about AI fighters making decisions on their own?

File: 15a-navy-drone-45p-bw-1024x682.jpg (193KB, 1024x682px) Image search: [Google]

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>>31579789
Best drone coming through.
Out of my way niggers

File: S-100-Copter.jpg (59KB, 960x639px) Image search: [Google]

59KB, 960x639px

>>31588509
Second best
Sup

>>31579789
One day, but not for quite a while.

>>31588504
That's so hilariously far in to the future that it's not really worth considering right now.

File: IMG_3072.png (157KB, 276x368px) Image search: [Google]

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>>31579789
Machines and droids feel no fear and compassion as a human can. They are capable of maneuvers and feats that humans can only dream of. They can survive at extremes that we can only look a thing in books. And as AI continues to advance, war will be for the machines. Just look at pic related. A brutal, efficient killing machine with only one goal in mind; Complete the mission at all costs.
Machines will become the perfect soldiers
>I'm not a robot

>>31583279
>horsepower
You silly anon, planes don't use horses!

>>31579839
No they didn't because loiter-patrolling was never the mission of fighter aircraft.

>>31590462
Meant for
>>31579826

>>31584033
I did. It doesn't and won't ever dogfight because that isn't what it's designed and built for

>>31589392
HA HA. I AGREE WITH YOU MY FELLOW MEATBA- ERR HUMAN.