Good knee-jerk reaction, Stevie, and you called it right. We had an article mid-week that showed a contractor on the flight deck taxiing the UAV around. He had an arm-mounted controller attached to a cable. I don’t know if the cable was attached to the aircraft, or a controlling system somewhere on the carrier...
I believe puting the aircraft on a leash for subsequent trials (for now) would be good for crew safety...
Who knows, it might be a good thing for speed, communications on the flight deck, control...Your Plane Captains (Sr.Petty Officers) could theoretically take the A/C from engine start up to the Cat by themselves...
Cat team hooks it up and let it fly...
Might be very efficient, cost savings for the need for multiple crew to work the A/C on the flight deck...
Just thinking outside the box...
I only worked on an CV (64) for a few weeks to do some TDY for another rating (OS1, old friend of mine, I heard he was sick and volunteered to take his place for a while during that deployment) who had to have some surgery (Appendicitis, very near P.I.) in mid-deployment years ago...
Got to meet some of the crews flying off that stamp...Good folks!!!
Those damn things never rest...I loved getting back to the relative quiet of the DDG when I was in the fleet...