Hardly a week doesn't go by when I haven't read or heard of one of the U.S. armed services developing and/or deploying some sort of autonomous unmanned vehicle for future armed conflicts.
As much as I like reading about all the technological developments that the U.S. and/or other militaries are developing for UAV/UCAV's, I am starting to get fed up with all this "unmanned" crap. Yes, I understand militaries want to keep pilots and soldiers out of harm's way and reduce casualties, but the mission of any military IS to go into harm's way. And sometimes, the only way to do that IS with the human element.
Are UAV’s and UCAV’s everything they claim to be? Are we putting too much faith in them? Will pilots and piloted aircraft be a thing of the past? Will there ever still be a need for a “human element” in a cockpit? Have we now reduced military conflict to the point where operators are now sitting in front of a video monitor with a joystick in their hands, and putting combat pilots on the unemployment line? If so, maybe we should just get rid of all our soldiers and have video game players conduct future battles instead.
While it is true that UAV/UCAV’S can do some missions better than a piloted craft can, they are still limited by various factors like speed, range, altitude, payload, command & control, etc. Today’s “UAV/UCAV air forces” are still in their infancy in the early 21st Century. It will be quite some time before we see “fleets” of UAV/UCAV’s doing aerial battles in the skies.
I kinda fear what the U.S. military might become in the future. Seems to me we're just copying/repeating what was seen in the Terminator movie franchise: Putting all the decision making, warfighting, etc. into the hands of computers. Yes, I know it's just science fiction, but there's an old phrase that comes to mind: "Science fiction has a tendency of becoming science FACT.".
Have we not learned anything from history? Especially the Vietnam conflict? US Air Force and US Navy kill ratios were horrible during that conflict until we finally had to go "back to the basics" so to speak and start learning air combat maneuvering (ACM) all over again with the advent of the Top Gun and Red Flag schools/exercises. People who forget history are often doomed to repeat it. And that's what it seems like the U.S. military is doing.
Perhaps the quote below best sums up my feelings on piloted vs. unmanned craft. Only a human has that intuition, drive, resourcefulness, determination, instinct, and other factors that UAV/UCAV’s lack in order to succeed in whatever mission may be called for.
“Only the spirit of attack borne of a brave heart will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.” - Luftwaffe ace Adolph Galland
What are other people's thoughts on this issue?
As much as I like reading about all the technological developments that the U.S. and/or other militaries are developing for UAV/UCAV's, I am starting to get fed up with all this "unmanned" crap. Yes, I understand militaries want to keep pilots and soldiers out of harm's way and reduce casualties, but the mission of any military IS to go into harm's way. And sometimes, the only way to do that IS with the human element.
Are UAV’s and UCAV’s everything they claim to be? Are we putting too much faith in them? Will pilots and piloted aircraft be a thing of the past? Will there ever still be a need for a “human element” in a cockpit? Have we now reduced military conflict to the point where operators are now sitting in front of a video monitor with a joystick in their hands, and putting combat pilots on the unemployment line? If so, maybe we should just get rid of all our soldiers and have video game players conduct future battles instead.
While it is true that UAV/UCAV’S can do some missions better than a piloted craft can, they are still limited by various factors like speed, range, altitude, payload, command & control, etc. Today’s “UAV/UCAV air forces” are still in their infancy in the early 21st Century. It will be quite some time before we see “fleets” of UAV/UCAV’s doing aerial battles in the skies. I kinda fear what the U.S. military might become in the future. Seems to me we're just copying/repeating what was seen in the Terminator movie franchise: Putting all the decision making, warfighting, etc. into the hands of computers. Yes, I know it's just science fiction, but there's an old phrase that comes to mind: "Science fiction has a tendency of becoming science FACT.".
Have we not learned anything from history? Especially the Vietnam conflict? US Air Force and US Navy kill ratios were horrible during that conflict until we finally had to go "back to the basics" so to speak and start learning air combat maneuvering (ACM) all over again with the advent of the Top Gun and Red Flag schools/exercises. People who forget history are often doomed to repeat it. And that's what it seems like the U.S. military is doing.
Perhaps the quote below best sums up my feelings on piloted vs. unmanned craft. Only a human has that intuition, drive, resourcefulness, determination, instinct, and other factors that UAV/UCAV’s lack in order to succeed in whatever mission may be called for.
“Only the spirit of attack borne of a brave heart will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.” - Luftwaffe ace Adolph Galland
What are other people's thoughts on this issue?
