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First All-Drone USAF Air Wing
bfwebster writes "Strategy Page reports that the United States Air Force has announced its first air wing that will consist entirely of unmanned craft. The 174th Fighter Wing has flown its last manned combat sorties; its F-16s will be entirely replaced by MQ-9 Reapers. Reasons cited include costs (maintenance and fuel) and the drone's ability to stay in the air up to 14 hours, waiting for a target to show itself."
Inthis area the Air National Guard is also moving to UAV's. The 119th (Happy Hooligans) based in Fargo retired their F16s a while ago, and now flies Predators. The refueling wing based in Grand Forks also flies UAV's now.
The pressure of flying and fighting half way across the globe whilst sitting in an air conditioned trailer somewhere in the USA can be a bit of a strain but don't worry the shrinks are on the job. http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/flying-drones-f.html
The ANG have been getting better kit over the years so they can be more useful in wartime. The idea is that they mirror the Active force instead of working with leftovers.
Smart ANG folks want the newer systems because they will have a long service life and protect their bases from closure, and it makes sense to give them such systems because ANG careers can be much longer than Active careers and airman experience levels quite high. (The Air Guard and Reserve are desirable jobs, which is why there usually aren't many vacancies.)
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remote control, cameras + gps provide situational info.
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You're both wrong. This drone, like all drones of this type, are large and fairly rugged aircraft.
They are larger than an F-16, and can take a greater beating.
They are not the size of a model airplane. There are drones like that, but they certainly don't carry weapons or stay in the air for a long time like this does.
You are right that dogfighting is a stupid thing to worry about with these aircraft. We have fighters that can sit around waiting to be called if there's a need for an interception. Over the long run, it's much cheaper to permit the very rare possibility that a fighter plane is going to shoot down a drone.
A drone is a male bee. Male bees do no work. Nor can they fight. They are stingless -- the female bee's sting is modified ovipositor (egg laying organ).
So an "unmanned drone" is a truly purposeless thing. Of course, they're heading there anyhow: their penises get ripped off during sexual intercourse, after which they die.
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And you think that the MQ-9 a faster more agile high G aircraft.
Fine in the future I can see that the fighter roll could be taked over by a drone but not the MQ-9
Which was my point
The Air Force has finally come out of denial on that point, and is creating a "UAV operator" career path that does not require rated pilots. Among other things, it will open the field up to a lot of people who have the technical chops but can't pass a pilot physical.
rj
Yeah, but the cost of these "disposable" drones has been rocketing up. I think they're better also, up to the point where we're spending 100M on them each. Then it's officially crazy.
*sigh*
$100 million each? Not quite. More like $8 million.
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The Army is getting its own Predator variant, the Sky Warrior (ERMP): http://www.defense-update.com/products/e/ermpUAV.htm