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It's equally conceivable that the "optionally" will be dropped as problems develop and they need to try to control costs.
by 0xffff2 7y ago
It'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.