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Every air force in the world wants these expensive beasts, it's the entire identity of the service - TOP GUN knights of old jousting for supremacy. The command
by yborg 12y ago
Every air force in the world wants these expensive beasts, it's the entire identity of the service - TOP GUN knights of old jousting for supremacy. The command structure of most air forces comes from the fighter pilots, it's a common complaint in USAF that transport, which is maybe the most useful day to day function, is a career dead-end.
Nobody in the military will take seriously a "warrior" that runs a joystick on a RPV, and when these things gain more autonomy it's going to eliminate the necessity for whole ranks of command. So the Air Force will fight to the bitter end for these things, long after they are will be effective solely as air show entertainment.
- bhouston 12y ago> Every air force in the world wants these expensive beasts, it's the entire identity of the service - TOP GUN knights of old jousting for supremacy. I agree that these are shiny new tools for the airforce and its pilots. Here in Canada it has been a public shitstorm of rapidly increasing procurement costs and quality issues. Canada has officially delayed purchasing F-35 for the foreseeable future: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/f-35-faces-further-delays-cost-increases-congressional-auditor http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/f-35-faces-further-de... It (the purchase of the F-35s) may still happen after the next election, but it isn't something the public wants.
- peeters 12y agoA large part of the criticism was around whether a single engine jet was really appropriate for patrolling the Canadian Arctic. I imagine that rhetoric is going to get ramped up as reports of that single engine being unreliable surface.