Small remotely piloted planes are now used mainly to gather intelligence and fire missiles at insurgents. But over the next several decades, the Air Force envisions building larger ones that could do the work of bombers and cargo planes and even tiny ones that could spy inside a room.
In a report released Thursday laying out a "flight plan" for developing pilotless systems, the Air Force also said it could eventually field swarms of drones to attack enemy targets. And it will have to be ready to defend against the same threat, which could become another inexpensive way for insurgents to attack American forces.
Col. Eric Mathewson, who directs the Air Force task force on pilotless aerial systems, said in an interview that the service sketched its vision to encourage contractors and university researchers to help create the technologies...
More at The New York Times.
Comments
Drones to the rescue of the future, again. Have drones ever been used against an adversary who could conduct electronic warfare as effectively as we can? Has anybody ever wargamed using drones against an enemy as skilled in tron battle as we are? Have we ever conducted a "Red Flag" or "Green Flag" exercise using the drones we have against a red team that was completely unrestrained in the techniques they could use?
If somebody could say yes to these questions and show that the drones stilled worked as well as the true believers advertise, I wouldn't be so skeptical. We have seem to have developed a wild enthusiasm for these things because they work well against no opposition. What will happen when there is opposition?