Posted on 11/05/2009 12:07:46 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The U.S. Air Force has a morale problem with its combat pilots. The issue is lack of action for the pilots. That, plus the increased use of unmanned aircraft, and the very real prospect that the age of the manned combat aircraft may be coming to an end. This is made worse with hundreds of fighter pilots being assigned to operating Predator and Reaper UAVs. This was not popular duty, even though the pilots still draw flight pay. It is tedious work, although the UAV operators often saw more combat action than they did when piloting F-16s or F-15s. The air force tried to deal with the morale problem by training non-pilots to be UAV operators, and making UAV operation a career field. Some fighter pilots saw that as an opportunity, and considered switching permanently, rather than just doing three years with UAVs and then going back to manned aircraft. But most pilots would rather fly in an aircraft. A recent air force decision to transfer 100 pilots a year from flight school (where they just graduated) to UAV duty was very unpopular. The air force had asked flight school graduates to volunteer for this, but none did so.
The air force is also considering changing the term UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) to RPV (remotely piloted vehicles), to stress the fact that there was still a pilot involved. But that decision, if carried through, is in danger of being overtaken by events. UAVs are increasingly equipped with flight control software that operates all by itself. Many UAVs already use such software for takeoffs and landings.
(Excerpt) Read more at strategypage.com ...
real life video arcades ... kids will excel.
“Just wait till robots are doing everything for us. Then you will see REAL unemployment.”
First to develop gets the leg up and controls manufacturing. Let’s hope it is us. There will be robot mechanic jobs to begin with... until mechanic robots are created to fix their brethren.
You are right.
Word on the street is those kids, who were ridiculed by the drills at basic for spending thier lives playing video games, are actually now instructors at the Army UAV school.
The controls for these UAVs, I am told, are patterned after video game controls. The thinking is that the video game companies have spent millions developing ergonomic, functional controls, so why reinvent the wheel? The kids are familiar with them, so it cuts down on some of the training.
I just saw a UAV story today on Fox. It had me wondering about this. I would think space travel faces the same issues.
The article fails to cover a significant “unintended consequence” of what will happen to the watch industry when there are less pilots buying their big “pilot watch” models....LOL!
A young, invincible brand new sailor ... a naive farm boy who didn’t know the meaning of the word fear (didn’t know the meaning of many other words either) found himself in Pensacola in Navy Flight School. Oh my .... what a bargaiin ..
The Navy said “we are going to train you to fly jets” AND can you believe this .. they PAID us (sort of) to do so!!
Instant reflexes, mind/hand/body/aircraft one totally automatic organism, plane and “boy” .. the aircraft just an extension of him.
It is a different world ... but the same reflexes, almost automaton, man/machine extension. The mission is the same, the down side ... I see .. a removal of self from the reality of what your purpose is.
We have become “remote” fighters .. our politicians and I believe our citizenry could NEVER stomach WW 11 or previous war. We must Sanitize it. Bomb it form 30,000 feet ...it eases the politician’s mind. But god help you if you are off target 5 feet and hit a traffic light .... Now, everything is surgical, and must avoid at all cost .. Damn I hate that euphemism .. collateral damage.
That is where we are .. the rest of the world hasn’t taken that approach yet. Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran ... collateral is not an issue for them .. we tie our young men and women’s hands behid their back in the name of “clear conscience” and get them killed in the process.
sorry ..... I’ll turn the rant off ...
“Remote” driven warfare? It eases the conscience ... and will destroy us eventually.
Sure, we are currently fighting a terrorist enemy who has absolutely no air forces (I don't mean the Air Force as a service branch, but as a weapon) at all, and we have complete air superiority, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, and points in between.
But what happens when we go up against China? Or Russia, or God knows who else? With a modern air force I could sweep your UAVs from the sky. With a manned air fighter, armed with modern radar and sensors, it would take a matter of hours. Then, assuming air superiority, I take out your launch bases and facilities. Later I can threaten your supply lines and depots, troops in the field, and even your civilian homelands.
And while we could develop antiair UAV’s, do note that we've actually had these arrayed against us for decades; they're called SAMs. And yet manned aircraft has competed against these very well also. Ask the Israelis if you doubt me.
This may be a bit of envy mixed in (I was two weeks from commissioning when the AF took my pilot slot away) but my 14 year old son would probably be a better UAV operator, not need to wear a green bag, and would do it without “flight” pay.
Flight pay!? Give me a break.
Dudes, learn to love it or get RIFed, it’s happened before...
I don’t know, remote warfare can be effective in the right setting.
We’ve taken out so many Taliban in Waziristan using UAVs that the survivors are terrified just by the sound of UAVs buzzing overhead.
As for unemployed fighter pilots, that’s nothing new. Met several former F-4 drivers after we exited Vietnam. I was still flying helicopters.
BTW, why can’t these Top Gun pilots transition to transport or rotary wing aircraft?
Not technology. The Moon Program of the ‘60’s was a representation of the male spirit and it was nothing BUT technology.
No, what is crushing the male spirit is FEAR of that individuality and aggression of purpose associated with it.
Many--if not most--do. But the article would get far less attention if they didn't highlight all the controversy and complaining.
>>> A recent air force decision to transfer 100 pilots a year from flight school (where they just graduated) to UAV duty was very unpopular. The air force had asked flight school graduates to volunteer for this, but none did so.
These Lieutenants were not thinking strategically. I can sympathize with a Lieutenant’s desire to fly the big planes, but there is a lot to be said for getting in on the ground floor of what anyone can see will be a big part of the future Air Force.
In a sense you are right, but...
In 1775: “Bloody rebels are shooting behing us from trees? They won’t fight like gentlemen!”
In 1915: “TANKS!
In 1945: “War as we know it is over, now that we have the bomb!”
Weapons change, always have. Someone worries that new weapons will somehow alter the mentality of warfare.
Back to your complaint, fighter jocks aren’t engaged in aerial combat, they are circling far above the battlefield waiting to drop a bomb on a laser sighted target. They are not seeing who they are dropping the bomb on.
Want to close in on the enemy? Join the Army or Marines as an infantryman.
Oh crap!!! One of the things that made me feel safe flying airliners is that the pilots were the first to the scene of an accident and that alone encouraged performance in the cockpit.
UAV airliners would change the formula with drastic consequences.
IIRC, the Army Air Corps did have enlisted pilots in WWII era. I don’t know when transition happened, but I’d bet it was after split of Army & AF.
What the Army will do now is probably eventually make it a warrant position.
Just a guess.
Without a doubt technology has moved warfare in dierctions no one ever expected. I dealt with SAM’s in SE Asia. Chaff was my friend. Altitude was my best friend. The defense against modern stealth is NEW radar technology and stealth is only as good as getting to the mission ... once doors open, all stealth is gone.
My main point is that destruction has become abstract, we don’t witness the pavebuster and the damage it inflicts. Congress critters can talk about surgical strikes, with no collateral damage... it eases their conscience. Hand to Hand is overated ... bayonets I have no desire to be part of, snipers and tactical clean up scares the hell out of me.
But we want our military to fight without doing extraneous damage .... ROE is ridiculous these days, the poor slug out on the battle field doesn’t know if he is going to be killed or if he is going to court martial for killing.
The UAV’s are gret technology .... the defense of them ... lends a whole new ball game. Think about a “sent” virus to the controlling processor or reciever ... taking away control from the operator that is 100 miles away. Knock out that microwave link between communication of the UAV and the on grond pilot ...scramble tha signal with EMP ... that is scary in its own right. A runaway UAV, or hijacked or “jammed” UAV?? lots of potential damage.
New weaps and new defense mecahnismsm, go hand in hand.
The Taliban and Al Qaieda .... they wreak havoc the old fashioned way .... blowing people up. Tous tha is unconscionable .. to them it is warfare. Something we are going to finally have to come to grips with.
Human capacity for enduring high-g acceleration has increasingly been a limiting factor in aircraft performance improvement. With the pilot removed from the vehicle, this limiting factor is also removed, so I would suspect that future air engagements could put pilot-occupied craft at a distinct disadvantage to the RPV’s, provided that the remote control system for the RPV is sufficiently responsive to pilot direction, and coordination of the action of multiple RPV’s does not lead to excessive confusion and “unfortunate encounters” with each other.
At that point, the next performance barrier would be the response time of the human pilot’s neural system, which is what would lead to removal of the “human element” entirely, as fictionalized in the “Skynet” of the Terminator series, or as popularized in speculative fiction and futurist speculaton in the notion of the “singularity”, promoted by Vinge and Kurzweiler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity
Lost on today's "rocket scientists" is the fact that we made it to the moon and back on not much more than slide rules. The story of our space program in the 60s, the guts and brains of everyone who played a role, is an awe inspiring story.
American exceptionalism at its best.
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