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Part of the design brief for the F-35 is to be a battlefield C&C for drones in the future. So the pilot would be the controlling authority in the battle space f

Part of the design brief for the F-35 is to be a battlefield C&C for drones in the future. So the pilot would be the controlling authority in the battle space for allowing weapons free, etc. No idea if that will come true, but it was absolutely one capability briefed. I'm not a project participant, but I was peripheral both during development and early operational stages .

dylan604 3y ago
Why? We already have AWACS that essentially serves as C&C for fighter squadrons. Although, I could see how it might proceed as you suggest. Allow AWACS to direct squadrons into areas of interest and keep the bigger picture in mind while allowing the squadron level pilots to C&C the drones and focus on the details of which targets to engage. All from a nicely air conditioned "cockpit" from Sunnyvale
- nradov 3y ago
  The UCAVs produced under the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (aka "loyal wingman") program will eventually be controllable from a variety of manned platforms including E-2/E-3/E-7 AWACS aircraft. But in a potential conflict with China they will be forced to hang back out of easy data link range due to the escalating AAM threat. https://www.twz.com/massive-pl-17-air-to-air-missile-seen-on-chinese-j-16-fighters https://www.twz.com/massive-pl-17-air-to-air-missile-seen-on... Remote piloting generally isn't a viable approach for near-peer conflicts. The communication links are too vulnerable, and even when they're working the latency is too high.