UCAV I.

This is coolbert:

UCAV.

Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.

NOT merely a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle [UAV] designed strictly with surveillance in mind, and having weaponry such as the Hellfire missile added as an afterthought.

NO, that is not what we are speaking about. UCAV designed from the get-go, from the start as a COMBAT AIRCRAFT, UNMANNED, NO PILOT ABOARD!

UCAV performing the traditional role of air superiority and and ground support aerial warfare and combat.

As has been the subject of a blog entry from way back when, the Military Thoughts blog!

Please carefully read that entry and the pertinent comments by Roger. Roger seems to be a person in-the-know?

Comments most germane, the gist of which are:

* Autonomous operation during air superiority missions the UCAV is "good to go"!

* An autonomous UCAV in the ground attack mode the is "not good to go"!

* Various design advantages to having a "pilot less" UCAV.

* Still cheaper to build a brand-new UCAV than convert and F-16 or F-15 to a UCAV.

* Jamming and other aspects of electronic combat are worrisome if the enemy is sophisticated.

* Enemy capture and able to exploit UCAV avionics.

In a nutshell, the UCAV as it is NOW, is suitable for air-to-air combat, air superiority missions! Shoot the other guy down with missiles or guns, avoid being shot down at the same time. And do so autonomously, without human control! Perhaps YES, perhaps NO! I am just not sure.

UCAV, autonomous, as it is NOW, not suitable for ground support, bombing missions, close-air-support [CAS]! NOT having the "brains" to differentiate between friend and foe, target or non-target to the degree desired.

In an environment where there is a strong enemy electronic warfare [EW] presence, the possibility of jamming, spoofing, intrusion cannot be eliminated. A data link used to remotely control a UCAV is susceptible to EW, for all that will mean.

The worst case scenario the enemy might actually be able to take control of the UCAV and use it against you!

I would have to think too that captured avionics is not so much a threat as would be the embedded software? Software on board will have to be encrypted with some sort of one-time-pad? This can be done?

UCAV are not pie-in-the-sky? ARE NOW or shortly will be the future of aerial combat. Autonomous or remotely controlled seems to be the question of the day?

More than anything else, COST has to be a definite major factor with the UCAV! What is it, A F-22 Raptor is $100 million a copy, compared to less than $10 million or so for a high performance UCAV! Such figures catch the attention of the higher ups right away.

coolbert.