Cut the Osprey?

[noddy]

not just 2nd tear powers, even torn neighbours .

http://ardrone.parrot.com/parrot-ar-drone/usa/

[AzariLoveIran]

[Alexis]

[Alexis]

[Alexis]

[Alexis]

[cincinnatus]

Fast and acquisitions....hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahha. Talk to me when you're TRL is at least 6. Alexis, spot-on RE systems integration and coding. Don't forget risk tolerance (AKA acceptable failure rates).

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162- ... -difficult"

AKA congressional jobs bucket list/MIC central.

[Alexis]

[Demon of Undoing]

Thank you for the elucidation.

Soon, yes. But not now, and that twenty year gap will fill a lot of body bags.

Unless you think sanity will prevail and tasking will be reduced...

[Colonel Sun]

[Alexis]

[Tinker]

[Tinker]

[Tinker]

[Tinker]

[Ibrahim]

[AzariLoveIran]

[cincinnatus]

Please, for credibility, don't say dogfights. Say BVR, WVR, merge and post-merge.

As for fast vs. slow acq, fast is possible with less moving parts to integrate (it's why we have the JUON process that led to the MRAP). Once you get into the thousands of components to integrate, with over a million lines of code....delays happen. I'll be pleasantly surprised if a 3-D printer can be the fix to that. Sounds too much like a perpetual motion machine for my cynical side to believe.

[Tinker]

Ibrahim When you are talking about something like Libya, usually the first thing to do is destroy all of their airfields, hit the craft on the ground as much as possible. This can be done with Tomahawks. If they get the fighters in the air, then they get them in the air once.

[Ibrahim]

[Tinker]

[Azrael]

[Ibrahim]

[cincinnatus]

"Drones," or as the current acronym goes, RPAs, cannot only be counted in terms of unit cost. They don't work without the ground stations for control, DGS for exploitation of the sensors, and satellites for ever increasing bandwidth. Add all that up to get the true cost. Other stuff, like ammo and maintenance, ATC, fuel, are across the fleet costs regardless of manned or unmanned, and may go up or down, but not in major dollar terms.

Only thing you save in terms of avionics manned vs. unmanned is human engineering and survival mechanism costs. Most numbers I've seen for these systems is on the order of $1 million per system. Not inconsequential, but cheaper than the equipment, bandwidth and manning costs of the support network needed for RPAs. That, and you can still bomb Libya with RPAs while telling the American public and congress that you don't need to ask for permission 'cause you're just supporting others with ISR, tankers and SEAD, but "not sending manned bombers" into Libyan airspace.

Wasn't the argument in 2009 that we could cut the F-22 line because the F-35 would soon be online and provide enough capes to cover the gap?

[Ibrahim]