Posted on 09/20/2004 1:23:10 PM PDT by GOP Jedi
Otherwise, the beam will have to be held on target, and that will be non-trivial.A closed-loop optical-sighting system involving the use of the laser itself is out of the realm of possibilities?
Couple a 'laser' to a micromachined "DMD device" (active steerable reflector) controlled in real-time and you're dang near there ...
Okay... assume it's dead.
What, pray tell, are the Marines and Air Force going to do for close-air support? I'm not trusting UCAVs to do it.
Maybe it's time to re-start the A-10 and AV-8B+ production lines...
Cancelling the Comanche WAS a huge mistake.
The Kiowas and Cobras weren't getting any younger - and I think Comanche would have been an excellent replacement for the Marine Cobras (AH-1Z is nice... but the Comanche raises the bar).
Folks, UAVs and UCAVs won't be able to replace manned aircraft. They can supplement them, but they cannot completely replace them.
There was a far bigger mistake: trying to make a system that operates low-and-slow into a low-observable platform.
Spending a gazillion bucks to make it almost invisible to radar does no good against an optically-aimed ZU-23 or RPG-7.
A member of AUSA, touting the Comanche, asked an Army Kiowa pilot, "Just think what would've happened if we'd had the Comanche in Mogadishu!"
The Kiowa driver's comment: "More expensive wreckage."
No, it was not.
You could down a Comanche with a well placed rock throw.
You see hutch, the Military has grown to love all these cool, new computers and technologies allowing aircraft of all kinds to do things that they could not do before, but they keep leaving out the thing that counts most: SURVIVABILITY.
The first thing an aircraft needs is toughness. Without that, it doesn't matter what capabilities you put in it. This is the problem with the Harrier, and the F-18 to a smaller degree. Toughness means weight, and weight means less range, agility and speed. You can put big-ass engines in some aircraft to compensate, but then you end up with your front-line fighters being as big as a house, like the F-14 and F-15.
The era of the attack helicopter is OVER, as the Apache and Cobra represent the top of the capable/survivable pyramid. The carbon-fibre used to build the Comanche to be such a light, agile airframe, cannot stop rounds from your average AK-47. What good its it to put millions of dollars into an airframe that can be dropped by a 90cent bullet? We have good-enough stand-off weapons shooting Hellfire and other weapons at tanks and personnel.
As for UAVs, you are correct.
the big problem is, though, how does one provide close-air support until the day finally comes when the infantry has become completely obsolete? We're already at the point where one cannot win on the battlefield unless they have control of the air.
If you want to win a war, you have to be able to, at the very least, stop my planes from bombing logistical targets (be they supply routes or supply dumps) AND your front-line troops. If you can't - you're going to lose.
Don't look at CAS as a specific platform; don't even look at it as a specific function.
Instead, it's a subset of supporting fires.
Providing CAS does not have to mean A-10s or Apaches hovering over troops on the ground like we see in the movies. CAS can mean zooming out ahead of a troop advancement to blast a convoy of tanks hours before your guys arrive. If it was a troop column, turn them to cheese with CBUs before our guys show up. The kind of CAS you see in movies should be called screw-up CAS. Our men don't belong anywhere where they need to call in air strikes to save their asses. They should be able to handle threats on their own unless ambushed. If our troops are ambushed, then we failed already.
If you want to win a war, you have to be able to, at the very least, stop my planes from bombing logistical targets (be they supply routes or supply dumps) AND your front-line troops. If you can't - you're going to lose.
Tell me who anywhere, that can stop us from bombing them? Anyone? There is no target anywhere in the world that we cant touch with something explosive. The ramifications may not be worth the effort (losses), but no one has air defenses capable of preventing or repelling an attack by our forces if we are committed.
No country has a port or sea lane that the U.S. cannot blockade. No ship we cant sink, no border we cannot seal. It is only a matter of will. There will never be another full scale conflict, because the world has no stomach for the kind of destruction we can inflict on an enemy in anger. So, don't worry.
Pukin Dog wrote:
"Tell me who anywhere, that can stop us from bombing them? Anyone? There is no target anywhere in the world that we cant touch with something explosive. The ramifications may not be worth the effort (losses), but no one has air defenses capable of preventing or repelling an attack by our forces if we are committed.
No country has a port or sea lane that the U.S. cannot blockade. No ship we cant sink, no border we cannot seal. It is only a matter of will. There will never be another full scale conflict, because the world has no stomach for the kind of destruction we can inflict on an enemy in anger. So, don't worry."
Preach it, Dog. It's nice to hear something like this after listening to the MSM moan and groan about how bad things are going.
How would we respond to your scenario?
If China invaded Taiwan, within 3 days they would not have a single ship still floating large enough to carry oil, supplies or troops. Our subs are anywhere and everywhere. If North Korea invades the south, their people would be starving within 30 days. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Israel will turn Iran into glass before allowing them to have a nuke program. None of these nations risks shooting a nuke at us or one of our allies, as we would make them glow for years.
We are not 'stretched'. How do you stretch a SeaWolf? In a full scale conflict, we don't have to be concerned about nation-building. That is where we are stretched if anywhere. If we have to go full scale on one of the nations you mentioned, we wont be dropping care packages on their charred bodies after-wards.
Excellent thread BUMP
mc
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