Rise of the Machines
 

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/....ap/index.html

About time, IMO. The fools insist on using F-16s and the like for a persistant CAS/hunter killer platform.

PD

And so would I. Its a payload and multi-mission capability thing - nothing more. Global hawk for spotting, F-16 for terminating. And the occasional predator with a hellfire works when nothing else is in the immediate area.

-S

But that is NOT what CAS is about in Iraq. Think beat cop on the steet. A squadron each of F-16s and A-10s out of Balad don't cut it for this role. An MQ-9 with 14-15 hour endurance and two 500 pound PGMs does. Because the simple fact is a GBU-38 or GBU-12 will kill just as well being dropped by a human or a robot. And the two GBU-12s strapped to an MQ-9 that is over your head will always be worth more than the four equivalent munitions strapped to fast jets half an hour out, or even fifteen minutes out. Because by the time they are there the insurgents will be gone. Yes, the drone can only carry half the payload a -16 would be packing (typical F-16 loadout being 2 GBU-38s and 2 GBU-12s in Iraq IIRC). But the MQ-9 would be able to react much faster by virtue of its persistance, and then it would be able to hang around and watch where the insurgents go. Not to mention it would be loads cheaper.

A better air structure in Iraq would be several squadrons of MQ-9s, with F-16s/A-10s backing them up. Not the other way around. The tactical fighter is NOT the ideal platform for the missions we have been flying throughout the '90s and 00's.

PD

I gotta agree with PD on this one, it's about reaction times, if you see an insurgant and you have posident you've got to have the equipment on hand to do the job at that moment, not to hang around for half an hour while the fast movers haul ass to your location only to find that the insurgants have disappeared underground through a trapdoor in a house or something.
I'm not saying do away with the F-16s and A-10s, but to keep them as CAS to the UAV, for when it runs out of ammo or spots something that it can't kill the conventional way.

I have to agree on the combo thing. I do not believe a drone only environment is best though.

-S

Agreed. Mind you, I get a real laugh picturing a drone wearing a silk scarf and goggles...

Do the goggles go over the FLIR sensor?

PD