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Will there even be pilots in dogfights in 20 years? Won’t it be mostly autonomous by then? It stands to reason removing the human component would be a far bett
by iamleppert 7y ago
Will there even be pilots in dogfights in 20 years? Won’t it be mostly autonomous by then?
It stands to reason removing the human component would be a far better engineering choice than this monstrosity.
I’m reminded of the quote, “A flying car is equally bad at being a car and an aircraft.”
- 0xffff2 7y agoI think you're badly overestimating the speed of development in defense tech. The F-35, a comparatively conventional aircraft, started development 20 years ago and look where it's at. We'd be incredibly lucky to have an even slightly functional one-off prototype of an unmanned fighter 20 years from now.
- alkonaut 7y agoAll the “sixth gen” or “next gen” programs recently started claim to be optionally manned. E.g the British/Swedish Tempest (introduction planned 2035) and the Dassault/Airbus NGF (also 2035-2040). It’s not inconceivable that one or both of those programs will have an optionally manned fighter in active service in 20 years (2039).
- 0xffff2 7y agoIt's equally conceivable that the "optionally" will be dropped as problems develop and they need to try to control costs.
- alkonaut 7y agoI’m not very familiar with the details of what’s needed tecnically for ”optionally manned”. Maybe it’s extremely complex and expensive. My guess would be that it’s not extremely complex or expensive. UAVs have been in active duty for years so the remote piloting/link tech is already mature. Converting a current fighter to unmanned is done routinely at under $1M per hull, to create target drones. And those fighters were never designed initially to be unmanned, that’s just a hack.