Will Drones Replace Manned Warplanes?
Will drones replace manned warplanes? Admiral Mike Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), Matthew Yglesias and Robert Farley – not the least – think so:
I guess I’m with Mullen; there are currently jobs that manned warplanes can do that drones can’t perform (human pilots are more visually capable than even the best drones, for example), but a) drones are getting better, b) drones are so much cheaper, and c)taking the pilot out means that you can do a lot of funky, interesting things with an advanced airframe. This isn’t to say that the F-35 (or even the F-22) have no role; they’ll continue to be useful frames for the jobs they’re intended to do for a substantial period of time. But I don’t think there’s a next “next generation” of fighter aircraft. And in any case, it appears that the A-10 will remain the platform of choice for fighting the giant robots that undoubtedly will afflict us in the future…
In other words: quite possibly so, yes.
On the other hand, drones have their weaknesses as well. Real soldiers, the flesh-and-blood ones, are still and may always be better than drones. Although costs are important, I believe it to be wrong for any military to settle for lesser quality weapons just because they are cheap. An army has to work with the best material (be they human beings, robots, tanks, etc.) possible.
The wars of the future will be won by the army (/country) with the best weapons, using the most advanced technology. Quality will beat quantity, just as it does today – remember, if it was about quantity, China, not the United States, would be the world’s supreme superpower.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
New Al-Qaeda Book Betrays Panic Over Predator Strikes, Covert Operations
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD243809
So, yes drones do play a vitale role, but in other missions I still feel that the human factor still have an edge.
UAV ( Unmanned Air Vehicle) will take the place of today’s most developed air fighters at the next step. Now, there are much more than 130 types of UAV and some of them are able to carry air to ground missiles. Countries are using these for exploration the enemy territory. They are capable of listening enemy radio signal and solving them. It is logical to use them because, there is no risk to lose a pilot and it is harder to detect them at radar scope and also hard to intercept it with a jet.
Functions of a UAV are : Remote sensing,Transport,Scientific research,Precision strikes,Search and rescue
These are the classification of UAV’s :
* Handheld 2,000 ft (600 m) altitude, about 2 km range
* Close 5,000 ft (1,500 m) altitude, up to 10 km range
* NATO type 10,000 ft (3,000 m) altitude, up to 50 km range
* Tactical 18,000 ft (5,500 m) altitude, about 160 km range
* MALE (medium altitude, long endurance) up to 30,000 ft (9,000 m) and range over 200 km
* HALE (high altitude, long endurance) over 30,000 ft and indefinite range
* HYPERSONIC high-speed, supersonic (Mach 1-5) or hypersonic (Mach 5+) 50,000 ft (15,200 m) or suborbital altitude, range over 200km
* ORBITAL low earth orbit (Mach 25+)
* CIS Lunar Earth-Moon transfer
AT the end of the day, what is NOT on the UAV capabilities list matters a great deal — specifically, the ability to make decisions on the spot based on ambiguous information and with inclusion of moral and ethical factors.