The Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration Program: A New Dawn for Naval Aviation?

On Jul 15, 12:15 pm, "John Carrier" wrote:

Not really. The sensor suite and latency in control doesn't make these
things ideal for turning and burning. Higher fuel fraction leads to greater
persistency, elimination of crew makes stealth easier to achieve and the
asset better for high threat environments. A cheaper, smaller and more
readily disposable interdiction tool. The price is you've eliminated the
decision maker in the cockpit, something you can't always and wouldn't
always want to do.

R / John

With respect to your years of experience John I've heard that
argument and agree there will always be situations that back it. But
I've also seen counter examples.
Harlan Reep used to fly as a contractor here for decades. He was a
combat vet and normally flew the drones in the live A/A tests.
Occasionaly he would fly other targets in non-shooting tests and flew
for us several times when I was working in flight test (89-91.)
I remember near the end of his career he flew a QF-86 against a
couple Hornets. It was the last Sabre drone in our inventory so there
was a lot of attention/nostalgia on the test. It was planned that the
Sabre would be shot down even if it survived the test so both Hornets
went up with the test missiles and rounds for the cannon.
In a nutshell the Sabre survived the test, and then they allowed
players to go into the shootdown with Harlan being allowed to 'do his
best' to evade. He did, and although there was some hits, the Hornets
landed with empty magazines and racks. IIRC Harlan crashed the drone
because they didn't want to take the chance that thee was damage to
the drone that would cause a crash on landing. They featured a story
on the encounter in the Base paper so it wasn't just O'club stories
that I remember this from. Of course, I _do_ remember some of the
O'club excuses being offered that week (ie. he didn't have to
worry about g-block, he could 'fly the wings off... etc.)

All in all it made a great day for all the nostalgiac people who had
been involved with the Sabre's during their years of use as targets
here at the Lake.

BB

I guess everybody has some mountain to climb.
It's just fate whether you live in Kansas or Tibet...