* Big changes for DOD intel?
* Pak links to Afghan violence
* Shoulder-fired missiles spread
* Darpa chief speaks
* Video: Korean robo-sentry
* General’s 1984 death still shadowy
* China loves Wikipedia
* New look at ASW
* Brit alleges dirty bomb plot
* Iraqis get Baghdad ‘hood
* Israel used cheaper, unsafe cluster bombs
* Olmert on crack
* Debunking space war hype
* Fingerprints for UK car rentals
* MySpace’s death row diaries
* Northrop’s back-of-the-envelope drone
* Dems = more F-22s?
* Tankers = flying cell towers?
Rapid Fire 11/14/06
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
F-35 is over budget and could easily be replaced with UCAVs.
We need that robo-sentry for the Chaos I mean Mexican border. An invasion is an invasion any way you look at it, armed or not.
> A: X-45C, which is supposed to be flying in 2008. But thats if it isn’t doomed by the cancellation of the J-UCAS program.
1. 2008 isn’t currently
2. the X-45 was cancelled
3. the X-45 can perform certain missions that the F-35 can’t, but to say it can replace all the functionality of the F-35 is absurd.
Boeing may try to resurrect it for the Navy competition but that’s far from a sure thing
> And less of a political risk if one is shot down.
absolutely agree, which is why there always be a place for them in the future
but sometimes there is also a political risk to a mission failing. ie if you launch the attack you better make damn sure it succeeds
> No not really. Even if a UCAV needs a pilot, it would be flown from the ground much like a Predator drone.
yes i’m aware they can/will be flown from the ground
but sometimes that isn’t feasible.
the signal may be jammed, any vehicle that is transmitting is not stealth and is more vulnerable to detection/interception, heck, the Chinese may fry the control satellite with a giant frickin laser. What then?
> Most people already believe f-35′s replacment will be unmanned
back in the 60′s or so Britain believed that manned aircraft were obsolete and redirected all resources to developing missiles. How’d that work out?
People have been predicting the death of manned aircraft for a long time, kind of like people have been predicting we’ll run out of oil in 10 years for the last 60 years. It may happen some day, but not yet.