In message , Magnus Redin
writes
Hi!

"Paul F Austin" writes:
So you really do need to justify a gun's place on the airframe on more than
"it might be useful and you never know"..

A gun is probably the cheapest way of killing low-performace targets
like UAV:s, cheap targets that an enemy can produce in large numbers
forcing you to deplete your stock of expensive AA-misiles.

UAVs are going to be really tough gun targets: just look at the size of
them. Aircraft guns aren't a good option, if only because you're going
to need so many rounds per target.

It is of course possible to develop a fairly cheap and small low
performance AA-missile but it is hard to get it as cheap as a gun
system.

"a gun", or "a gun system"? Be careful about actually costing everything
you need for a gun system, including the total cost of the training
sorties needed for pilots to reliably hit Predator-size or smaller
targets.

This gun competitor might be developed if someone decides to
arm small UAV:s with AA-missiles for killing other UAV:s and
helicopters.

See the armed variant of Predator already for the air-to-ground
version...

--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk