4 ms·

It cannot be ocean away because fighter jet range does not exceed 2000 miles. Also, there are usually some support ships nearby or other planes which can relay

• jasonwatkinspdx 6y ago
  Satcom is indeed still key. A ship may be nearby, but a ship's mast is only so tall. Assuming a typical cruising altitude of the aircraft at 10km, and a mast height of 100m (generous), the line of sight radio horizon is 30km. A friendly AWACS gives you about 400km. Even with satcom, jamming of these links remains a very real concern. GEO coms sats by their nature have a relatively low power signal. Clever modulation can do a lot, but it can't escape the fundamental physics.
• culturestate 6y ago
  > It cannot be ocean away because fighter jet range does not exceed 2000 miles. Leaving aside the fact that fighter jets can be refueled in flight, why would you build a fleet of remotely operated planes but still keep the pilots in theatre? Now instead of taking down 25 jets individually, your adversary only needs to blow up the room where their pilots are sitting. The key benefit of remote operation is that the operators can stay far away from the bullets.
  • lightgreen 6y ago
    If that “room” is inside an aircraft carrier (which is likely the case), it’s hard to blow. They are very well protected against all attacks except for probably ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
• Rebelgecko 6y ago
  I'd imagine that 2,000 mile number isn't taking aerial refueling into account? When Australia bought their fleet of F-18s, many of them were flown nonstop from the US to Australia. Autonomous refueling is relatively mature, and I'd imagine gets even more valuable when the receiving aircraft isn't limited by human endurance