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Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
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Originally Posted by PeriscopeDepth
No. X-47B carries the same A2G payload of a VLO'd F-35. With more than double the radius. At approximately 1/4 of the purchase cost, and MUCH reduced operational upkeep costs (no burning jet fuel to train "the man in the loop" for basic flight competency, night flight competency, tactical competency etc.).
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Acutally, the X-47B currently carries nothing. It rolled out a few weeks ago, so there is a long way to go before we see it in action. Aside from the radius, the performance of the X-47 is inferior to any manned fighter or strike aircraft. Once again, we see that you cannot achieve air superiority with a drone at this time. Also, yes, it is expensive to train a human to fly, but there is currently no real replacement for having a brain in the cockpit. |
I am not an advocate of a completely drone carrier wing. I believe a mixed wing would be ideal, drones should be kept as stupid cowbombers and leave the A2A to manned fighters. But drones are clearly superior for bomb trucking to fixed targets and loiter/CAS missions. And while we're on the subject of air superiority, how many potential enemies do we really need to worry about this. Bombing barbarians is 99% of the mission set, no white knight air battles there. F-35 being completed in its entirety as a $300 billion "spectrum domination" program is a bad joke unless you own LockMart stock.
And how many bombs has F-35C dropped? At the current pace of the program, an X-47B will trap on a carrier before an F-35 does. Not to mention the B model. And these F-35s will come ~$80 million a piece and haul the same A2G payload as the drone.
PD