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Maybe we could think up a middle ground: let's have a manned "commander plane" surrounded by a swarm of drones. If the planes are closer to each other, maybe t
by loup-vaillant 12y ago
Maybe we could think up a middle ground: let's have a manned "commander plane" surrounded by a swarm of drones. If the planes are closer to each other, maybe the bandwidth would be less of an issue?
- balakk 12y agoI don't think so. For combat use, the drones would have to fly low and have a range of at least a few dozen miles to be a reasonable offensive weapon. If the "commander" plane is going to rely on satellite links, they might as well be sitting on the ground. The "commander" plane needs extensive defenses as well; pretty much similar to how AWACS aircraft are protected.
- VLM 12y agoYou've just reinvented the air launched cruise missile. A close cousin of the very popular fire -n- forget missile and the smart bomb. Something that must be considered is pilots that aren't risking their butts might be a little more ... aggressive with drones. And drones larger than RC planes aren't any lighter or cheaper than manned craft (so you yank out 400 pounds of life support and cockpit, and replace it with 350 pounds of radios, satellite downlinks and computers. "Eh") So this agressiveness could make mission costs somewhat higher.