China aims to pair J-20 stealth fighter with 'loyal wingman' battle drone China may be aiming to match US efforts to operate pilotless aircraft alongside crewed fighter jets, by creating a so-called "loyal wingman" drone to fly with the nation's J-20 supersonic stealth fighter. According to reports in The South China Morning Post, Beijing is developing a cutting-edge combat drone called the FH-97A …
It stands to reason that the country with the less capable manned fighters would be first to go with swarms of unmanned fighters, and the country with the most capable manned fighters and most entrenched bureaucracy of ex fighter jocks in command roles would hold onto manned fighters and marginalize unmanned aircraft into a support role as long as possible.
I think it is quite possible China will have a more capable Air Force than the US in a decade because they will be far quicker to adopt unmanned aircraft swarms in a primary role rather than being subservient to manned fighters. China will be investing the bulk of their resources into unmanned fighters while the US is spending billions and eventually trillions developing successors to the F22 and F35, which by the time they fly in any numbers will be as obsolete as cavalry in WW II.
They did not sink the Bismarck.
They brought the torpedoes that crippled the Bismarck's steering.
With the Bismarck going around in circles, the allied forces closed in and sunk her with cannon fire, the traditional way.
But of course, if the Swordfish hadn't crippled her, the allied forces would likely have had a much harder time of it.
Obsolescent.
If it were obsolete, there would not have been successful cavalry charges in World War Two (US on the Philippines, and Italians against the Soviets). They were very rare, but they occurred.
(And even the famous 'Polish cavalry charging Panzers' was actually a successful Polish cavalry charge against a German Infantry battalion, that was then 're-written' by the Germans, focusing on the Polish retreat when some German armoured cars turned up)
It's also worth remembering the the German military was very "unmechanised" in the main. They deliberately went about making sure newsreels etc only ever showed mechanized equipment while much of the infantry and supplies actually travelled on foot or in horse-drawn carts.
I dunno how long it'll take to develop viable useful/sacrificial drone jet companion craft, but they probably will not use true AI, because (a) true AI is a very, very long-term project (it's been in development for the last 60 years), and (b) the hardware needed to run it will currently-and-into-the-"foreseeable"-future not fit into a jet fighter.
I guess that you have never worked on a project that ended up being scrapped because it was:-
- going down a box canyon
OR
- other developments elsewhere made the current plan redundant
or other reasons?
It takes a brave manager to admit that their baby was a POS given other factors and call a halt. Most managers would carry on regardless and look for an exit (aka another job) before the blatant waste of £££ came to light leaving the poor sods dong the work to carry the can.
Good point - The issue with the 'loyal wingman' drone concept is that it seems a good idea at first but in practice, less so. First if you're talking accompanying 6th gen fighters then they need to be as stealthy as the mother-craft or it gives away the manned ship. There's an issue with autonomy and who is responsible for compliance (and legal responsibility) with the rules of engagement (pilot? s/w manufacturer? integrator? etc) - China is probably less bothered about this than Western forces.
If you're looking at ISTAR, why not just use a drone optimised for that? If you want to get red forces to light up their tracking maybe that's a use. As a decoy, its useless as its bloody expensive with with limited evasion abilities and SAM's usually have more than one missile ready. If you look at how the F35 should work, loiter with stealth detecting away and then launching BLOS missiles its not clear how the loyal wingman fits in...
“ China is probably less bothered about this than Western forces.”
And that’s probably why China would win in any such confrontation. China would fill the skies with drones set to explode when they come into contact with anything in their path while the west would be carrying out their risk assessment.
Hovering minefields, now there’s an idea worth patenting!
The Royal Air Force announcement that Mosquito had been squashed saw the Royal Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) state it had made "substantial progress" in understanding and harnessing a range of future uncrewed capabilities, and that it would "aggressively pursue" the RAF's commitment to integrate advanced uncrewed capabilities "with more immediate beneficial value" into the force mix.
Isn't this just a long winded way of saying they're going down to the pub to make paper airplanes?
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