quade 4 #26 July 19, 2006 QuoteQuoteIssue with the current UAVs are that as cool as they are, they'd make horrible dog-fighters for several reasons; some of which are the very reason they exist in the first place. A UAV as a long-term loiter weapons platform makes complete and total sense. You're not worried about speed and you have all the time in the world to look around with narrow field of view cameras to find your targets. A UAV as an interceptor / dog-fighter . . . not so much. Visibility and tele-presence sucks so target acquisition of another stealthy UAV would be difficult if not impossible. If you can detect the UAV in the first place, you'd just send up a surface to air missle and be done with it. Sending up another UAV isn't as cost effective. this statement is only true with the LAST generation of UAVs....there are far more methods of target aquistion than visual onboard sensors... If you're going to dog-fight, you have to have visual. Lose sight and lose the fight. If you're talking about radar or infra-red, for missle lock and fire then you're not really talking about the UAV doing dog-fighting. It's simply a long term loitering weapons platform. Dog-fighting, by definition, sort of -requires- a visual. One area where UAVs actually have it "better" than humans is their sight can be 360°x360°, however, it's really the telepresence issue of the operator back at home that is the issue. From what I can gather, none of the current crop of UAVs are suitable for -any- sort of dog-fight and it would require something entirely different than what we currently think of as UAV.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zenister 0 #27 July 20, 2006 the term "Dog Fight" has long passed being applied solely to "visual" based combat.. Engaging in "furball" is a way to a fast loss of material and air superiority. BLOS 'dog fights' are significantly more common in Modern Air Warfare than the WWII turn and burn combat most associate the term "dogfight" and even there, you are still mistaken on what the "next generation" of UAVs is/will be capable of...____________________________________ Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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