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Japan Plans To Build Unmanned Fighter Jets (reuters.com)
Slashdot reader It's the tripnaut! quotes an article from Reuters:
Japan aims to develop a prototype drone fighter jet in two decades with private sector help in a technology strategy that focuses on weapons communications and lasers, according to a document seen by Reuters... The military technology plan calls for first developing an unmanned surveillance aircraft in the next decade and then an unmanned fighter jet 10 years later, the document showed...
The ministry will also allocate budget funds to acquire an upgraded version of the F-35 stealth fighter, made by U.S. company Lockheed Martin Corp...as tension rises in the East China Sea and North Korea steps up its missile threat, government officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The ministry will also allocate budget funds to acquire an upgraded version of the F-35 stealth fighter, made by U.S. company Lockheed Martin Corp...as tension rises in the East China Sea and North Korea steps up its missile threat, government officials with direct knowledge of the matter said.
An expensive plane with a "meat-sack" does not only have to be built strong, it has to be built to last. This results in larger development times and costs. One big advantage to an autonomous fighters that is rarely mentioned is that it does not have to last long. The aircraft can be designed to last 100 flights, not 10,000. This is because the planes would sit silent until needed. With piloted fighters, the pilots need regular training and practice using the same planes with which they will be fighting. With autonomous fighters the planes would almost never fly. Regular duties such as patrol could be taken over by simpler planes with lower maintenance costs where the full capabilities of a modern fighter are not required.
The most powerful nation in the world has been defeated in Vietnam, sent home packing in Somalia, defeated in Afghanistan, bled dry in Iraq... Shall I continue? And should Russia or China retaliate for drone strikes by using conventional bombs against a legitimate military target such as your capital, would you escalate to nuclear warfare knowing this would mean the death of a lot of your population and the destruction of the US as an industrial nation? I don't think so. Don't bite more than you can chew.
The problem with stealth aircraft isn't finding a missile that can hit them. It's getting a reliable, targetable lock on them. You can detect stealth aircraft with low frequency radar, but you get a very poor quality return. Low frequency doesn't just make stealth aircraft more visible, it makes *everything* in the atmosphere more visible, including water vapour.
A good example of what it takes to shoot down a stealth aircraft with a low frequency radar can be seen in the one time it was accomplished, by the Serbs during the Kosovo conflict. The airplane flew right over their position almost every day. Even with it right overhead, they still couldn't target it most of the time. The time that they finally got it, it was right overhead and had its bomb bay doors open, significantly increasing its visibility.
And this was with an old generation of stealth aircraft.
No country in the world wants to have this much difficulty hitting their adversaries targets. Is the problem solveable? Probably eventually. Is it solved now? Very doubtful. As good evidence to that effect, look at how much money Russia has been throwing into their antiaircraft systems - first modernizing the S-300, then introducing the S-400, and now developing the S-500. Much of Russia's military struggles for funding (look at the sad state of their only aircraft carrier, for example, or their struggle to bring tanks like the Armata or planes like the MiG-35 into full production), but air defense gets tons of money. If they had actually solved the stealth problem and felt that they could reliably shoot down US stealth aircraft, they wouldn't be focusing so heavily on it.
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
Could you remind me again, which nation is building military bases on internationally disputed islands that they lost the judgement for, and which nation recently annexed a part of one of its' neighbors and is waging a constant low-level war in a large chunk of said country's east while propping up one of the most brutal dictators in the middle east by white phosphorus and cluster bombing its cities?
Not that I'm a huge fan of the US either, but come on now....
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."