Warplanes: Fighters Threatened by Cheap Robots

Strategy Page ^ | Feb 20, 2007

[Kevmo]

fascinating. bump for later reading.

[David Isaac]

Whole new meaning for "death from above". Gotta love it.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

When will SkyNet become self-aware?

[Fraxinus]

Sounds great untill you are up against a technically advanced opponent. Equip the ECM on a fighter with a jammer capable of significantly downgrading the remote signal and the drone is/will be destroyed. Then where is the air force?

[M203M4]

http://www.ga-asi.com/products/predator_b.php

[Recon Dad]

You can see a squad of these flying in ahead of F-22's over Taharan. "Shock & Awe".

[John Jorsett]

Sounds great untill you are up against a technically advanced opponent. Equip the ECM on a fighter with a jammer capable of significantly downgrading the remote signal and the drone is/will be destroyed. Then where is the air force?

If it were my design, it would be using spread spectrum and directed-beam techniques to defeat jamming attempts. I have to assume that the actual designers did something like that.

[GBA]

"When will SkyNet become self-aware?"

This is the first thought I have every time I read or hear one of these stories. The new Battlestar Galactica is a very dark program as well. Sooner or later it's going to happen and the "I, Robot" rules aren't going to apply to the brave new world we are going to create.

[ARE SOLE]

Boeing X45.

Regards.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

I keep telling anyone that will listen...

You want to make an invincible armed force? Put any robotic plane, combat machine, ship, tank, vehicle etc. in the hands of Xbox Live users that have mastered the training and competition on the equivilent video game.

Our couch warriors would be the most brutal, ruthless and skilled army of all time.

[Fraxinus]

it would be using spread spectrum and directed-beam techniques to defeat jamming attempts.

These will make building an effective jammer more difficult (larger? and more expensive), but not impossible. They are currently beyond the capabilities of those our military is most likely to be fighting. China would be another story, however, war with China is several years off, if that ever happens (hope and pray no war).

[arthurus]

I suspect the Islamic War is the proving ground for systems that will be employed, probably sooner rather than later, in the wider World War that will involve Russia and China.Chinese and Russian systems will get their tests when the direct clash with Iran comes.

[WorkingClassFilth]

It's coming: http://deoxy.org/meme/RobotArmy

[John Jorsett]

These will make building an effective jammer more difficult (larger? and more expensive), but not impossible.

I worked on a program that used spread spectrum. We calculated that an effective jammer would require multi-megawatts of power to overwhelm our system. And if somebody had managed to come up with such a jammer, we'd have widened our band so that they'd have needed hundreds of megawatts. And that's assuming they could have detected us in the first place. Good SS signals hide among the noise. I'm not claiming that a capable adversary couldn't jam a UAV's signals, but I suspect it would be more reliable and cost-effective to send a fighter or missile up to destroy it.

[denydenydeny]

I'm waiting for the Dominators to come on line. I can't wait to fill the skies over a city with hundreds or even thousands of cheap, disposable hunter-killers.

[Fraxinus]

I was thinking more along the lines of ECM pod that would help to make the UAV a much easier target for manned aircraft. A ground based system would only render the craft unmanouverable while it was within it's zone of influence, once outside of the zone of influence if it can re-synch with control station, it can then return home unimpaired. I do know that the simplest autopilot systems can easily fly straight and level, in calm air.

[Flavius]

and will be easily corrupted if ruskies introduce them to a live woman

[Starwolf]

Unfortunately the X-45A (pictured) and its successor (J-UCAS) have been scrapped by the USAF to provide funds for F-22 and other pet rocks.

The USAF is yet to reconcile itself to large UAVs

[FreeAtlanta]

Reaper.... that is a good name for such a angel of death. Happy hunting USA Reapers! I hope you speed many a bad guy on his quest of his dreamed of paradise.