"John R Weiss" wrote in message
news2G6c.42116$SR1.48965@attbi_s04...
"John Keeney" wrote...

The bandwidth issue is still a real concern. That's a lot of data to
transmit via long-range RF signal, and there's already lots of
competition
for the spectrum. What's possible to do by wire or fiber inside the
aircraft may not be practical via radio to a remote operator.

TCDL provides 200Kbps downlink/10Mbps uplink service. That's adequate
for
this kind of situatuational awareness. More downlink would allow more
raw

For how many nodes/UCAVs at once?

Another good point! What would the nominal/maximum number of simultaneous
UCAV
missions be in a single theater? If there are ongoing UAV recce missions
as
well, will there be enough infrastructure support for simultaneous control
of
all the UAV/UCAVs?

You are on to why atonomuous vehicles are necessary, Weiss.

Traditional CAS was seldom done with a single airplane. More often,
flights of
2 airplanes would orbit an IP and alternate attacks under the control of a
single FAC. That provided a larger total ordnance loadout and reduced
time
between individual attacks. It also provided backup in case one aircraft
broke.

The idea today is to develop a robotic wingman, where the wingman becomes a
loiterer, after the lead feeds it the buddy pack.

Similarly, CAS with UCAVs would likely require more than a single vehicle
per
mission. With the proposed capability (DAS + TCDL, etc), the
infrastructure for
UAV operator stations would be expensive as well as space-consuming. That
type
of infrastructure would not likely accompany front-line units, but would
be held
by separate, dedicated units.

That does not seem to be the case.

Finally, while semi-autonomous recce UAVs could be controlled via
satellite
links, time delays in control links would likely make high-altitude
satellites
and/or multiple relays unsuitable for real-time control such as that
needed in
CAS. One article I read on TCDL mentioned line-of-sight ranges of 100-160
KM,
which were very dependent on UAV altitude. Some CAS and target ID is very
difficult with high-altitude run-ins...

Better to lose a robot taking a look than a pilot containing vehicle.