[hchutch]

This is HOW many drones shot down?

---

Memorandum

To: SECDEF Rumsfeld
From: hchutch
Subject: UAV losses

1. Note another drone has been shot down.

2. Shall we talk with Lockheed and Northrop about recon variants of the F-117, F-22, and B-2?

3. Recommend we re-think this whole UCAV notion. I'm NOT sold on this plan. The loss rates of recon UCAVs would cripple manned squadrons.

r/s
hchutch

[Mudboy Slim]

"Here Was A Man!!"
(To be spoken--Johnny Cash-like--over a lonely keyboard version of "Joy to the World")

"Here was a man...a man who was born in a small village, the son of a peasant woman. He grew up in another small village. Until He reached the age of thirty, He worked as a carpenter; then, for three years, He was a travelling minister. But He never travelled more than two hundred miles from where He was born, and where He did go, He usually walked. He never held political office, He never wrote a book, He never bought a home, He never had a family, He never went to college, and He never set foot inside a big city, yet...here was a man.

Here was a man...though He never did one of those things that you usually associate with greatness, He had no credentials but Himself. He had nothing to do with this World, except through the Divine Purpose that brought Him to this World.

While He was still a young man, the Tide of Popular Opinion turned against Him. Most of His FRiends ran away...one of them denied Him, one of them betrayed Him and turned Him over to his Enemies. Then, He went through the mockery of a Trial and was nailed to a Roman Cross between two thieves. And even while He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had in this World, and that was His robe, His Purple Robe. When He was dead, He was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave, provided by a compassionate FRiend.

More than Nineteen Centuries have come and gone, and today He's the Centerpiece of the Human Race, Our Leader, and the Column to Human Destiny. And I think I'm well within the mark when I say that All of the Armies that Ever Marched, All of the Navies that Ever Sailed, All of the Legislative Bodies that Ever Sat, and All of the Kings that Ever Reigned...All of Them Put Together have not affected the Life of Man on this Earth so Powerfully as that One Solitary Life...

Here was a man!!"

My six-year-old daughter and I were driving along yesterday, listening to our new Christmas CD we had just picked up from Staples Office Supply, when this "song" came on and we both stopped chatting and listened intently. I explained--halfway through--that Mr. Cash was talking about Jesus. Then, after the song was over, JessieLee looked up at me and said, "Daddy, why didn't Jesus have a family?" Temporarily shocked by her natural incisiveness, I mumbled a silly answer about not meeting the right mommy, but the question has been on my mind ever since. So, Jessica, here's the answer Daddy meant to say, "Jesus never had a family because All of Us are His Family, All of Us are His Brothers and Sisters, All of Us are His Children!!"

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan or not...Happy Holidays to Each and Every One of You Wonderful FReepers...You have become MY extended family!!

Cheerfully Humble FReegards...MUD

[spoiler2]

"The loss rates of recon UCAVs would cripple manned squadrons."

Who cares how many drones have been shot down? These are Radio-Control planes, designed to work in locations at altitudes that would mean certain death for the pilot of any manned aircraft.

This is a new program in the military, and we must expect an initial higher level of losses, until control systems become more sophisticated. Hopefully, they have a destruct button, that instantly renders any failing aircraft into thousands of fragments.

[Poohbah]

Memorandum

To: hchutch
From: SECDEF Rumsfeld
Subj: UAV losses

1. Yup, another drone has been shot down. This is the second one, IIRC. We lost a couple of Global Hawks before we got the landing software fixed.

2. Recon variants of the F-117, F-22, and B-2 would be many times as expensive as the drones, would take 10-15 years to deliver, and would be used a lot less because of the risk to aircrews.

3. The reason that UCAV losses on the scale we've had would "cripple" combat squadrons is that losing the plane usually equals losing the aircrew. Birds are replaceable, particularly when they don't have to be man-rated. Pilots are expensive to train, expensive to retain, very expensive to replace, and you also have to massage their egos every five minutes or they get depressed on you.

4. Right now, UCAV concepts are at about the same level of maturity as combat aircraft were in 1915--but the technology curve is moving much faster. We'll be at Gulf War standards before we know it.

r/s,

Rummy

[El Gato]

Recommend we re-think this whole UCAV notion. I'm NOT sold on this plan. The loss rates of recon UCAVs would cripple manned squadrons

1> Drones are cheaper than manned aircraft.
2> I rather lose twice the value of drones, which would be a bunch of drones, rather than a single pilot or crew. Replacing drones is easy, replacing pilots is hard, impossible if they happend to be one of your loved ones.
3>Might not hurt to add an auto jink mode to the control systems.