The US Navy is planning to award a contract for its 6th Gen fighter this year. It's the "manned" component of Navy's next-gen air dominance, which is supposed to include large quantities of wingman drones. This should increase to combat power of each pilot though it will be interesting to see if the complement of manned aircraft in the s…
The US Navy is planning to award a contract for its 6th Gen fighter this year. It's the "manned" component of Navy's next-gen air dominance, which is supposed to include large quantities of wingman drones. This should increase to combat power of each pilot though it will be interesting to see if the complement of manned aircraft in the squadron drops accordingly. There's a sea change brewing around uncrewed platforms that is similar to the demise of the battleship back in the 1920's but prying the pilots out of the cockpit will not be easy. We need a 21st century Billy Mitchell to lead the way.
Doubtful..the Loyal wingman drones are smaller and less capable because.... Making a drone as capable as say an F/A-18 means it's costs essentially as much as an F/A-18 because the vast majority of the costs are the airframe, engine(s) and electronics. A pilot is maybe 10 cubic feet in size and is about 180-230lbs. Not exactly a gigantic amount of fuel or weapon gained by dropping him/her and you can't hack or jam a human brain like you can a network connected drone.
The US Navy is planning to award a contract for its 6th Gen fighter this year. It's the "manned" component of Navy's next-gen air dominance, which is supposed to include large quantities of wingman drones. This should increase to combat power of each pilot though it will be interesting to see if the complement of manned aircraft in the squadron drops accordingly. There's a sea change brewing around uncrewed platforms that is similar to the demise of the battleship back in the 1920's but prying the pilots out of the cockpit will not be easy. We need a 21st century Billy Mitchell to lead the way.
Doubtful..the Loyal wingman drones are smaller and less capable because.... Making a drone as capable as say an F/A-18 means it's costs essentially as much as an F/A-18 because the vast majority of the costs are the airframe, engine(s) and electronics. A pilot is maybe 10 cubic feet in size and is about 180-230lbs. Not exactly a gigantic amount of fuel or weapon gained by dropping him/her and you can't hack or jam a human brain like you can a network connected drone.