Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force

www.bbc.co.uk...

From the Article.

Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones.

It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week.


So two pilots remotely piloted these aircraft and they are going to do live fire tests in the future...
I guess pilots will soon be a thing of the past in air warfare.

However a dude from Campaign to Stop Killer Robots (Iam signing up to that just because of the name )
said "I'm very concerned these could be used to target people on the ground," I think this will happen.

So my question is...Is it best to use fighter jets with no pilot? saving the risk for that pilot? or should we wage wars with humans controlling the jets because then the cost of war is more than just $$$?

reply to post by boymonkey74


There was a thread on this a month ago. I think ZAP did it and the purpose of them will be for live fire exercises. They are target drones to be shot down. Not the other kind of drone. They are getting old and outdated that's all.

reply to post by Grimpachi


Darn it I thought I got a scoop ahead of him lol.

Delete mods If you wish.

We know remote control jets have been doable for some time, but theres something extra nasty sounding about a drone fighter than a drone.... drone.....

im not sure what it is!

So my question is...Is it best to use fighter jets with no pilot? saving the risk for that pilot? or should we wage wars with humans controlling the jets

Humans will always control the jets. The distinction is whether they are inside or outside the cockpit. With that said, military spending takes up a large slice of the money pie allocated to government spending. However other countries are starting to pick up more drones too (see snapshot below) so it makes sense to invest more in the technology if it will be a new platform for recon-related operations or just battlefield operations.



NATO wants more Drones?

The are out of F-4s to convert to QF-4s. Nothing nefarious here. You can see the QF-4 on google earth at the Mojave airport when they do/did the conversions.

I think it was about 10 or 15 years ago NASA was experimenting with a fighter type drone.( no cockpit) It would have had an advantage over maned fighters in both size and manuveralbility but I think it was scraped. As it is the planes can manuver beyond the limitations of man due to G forces so I can see why they would want an interceptor type of drone but the current world theater doesn't really call for one. They may also be worried about jamming or hacking capabilitys of other advanced nations wich would render them useless as fighters.

reply to post by boymonkey74


seems to me remotely activating fire control electronics and then launching a rocket is pretty minor enhancement to the f4 or f16.... as i recall the air to air infrared missile when activated and has target acquisition growls to the headphone of the pilot. pretty simple to relay to ground.

reply to post by boymonkey74


If we're gonna police the world we might as well do it from a Lazy-boy...

reply to post by boymonkey74


I don't think they would convert our fighters into drones to use in combat, because they are too costly to maintain and operate. Seems like the drones being made these days are smaller and more affordable to operate, with no soul on board. Although there will always be a need to manned fighters, such as the joint strike fighter and yf22.

reply to post by boymonkey74


Yep...it's a target drone. The (not-so-subtle) hint in the article is the mention that the F-16 in question "sat mothballed at a base in Arizona". Davis-Monthan AFB has a lot of early block F-16s in storage.

As for using drones as actual fighters, it might happen someday. Strike that...it will happen someday, and not necessarily because of cost, or even concern for the pilot's life, but for pure performance reasons. Not having to carry around a cockpit, life support system, and pilot means that a drone aircraft of identical performance can be smaller, lighter, and not bound by the G load limits of a human body. Those are pretty considerable advantages.

On the down-side, we don't have the technology (yet) for truly autonomous drones, and the time lag involved in remote operations can be a deal-breaker in the split-second environment of air to air combat. (All current and former WoW / EQ players, let's hear it for raid lag!!! ). There's also the problem of securing your data link with the drone...having the enemy hack your fighter cover is a 50 DKP minus!

gariac
The are out of F-4s to convert to QF-4s. Nothing nefarious here. You can see the QF-4 on google earth at the Mojave airport when they do/did the conversions.

And there are (maybe now were) a whole squadron at Holloman AFB when I was stationed there. Nothing new here really except to use an aging air-frame as QF-16s in my opinion for fighter pilots to engage in training.

ownbestenemy

gariac
The are out of F-4s to convert to QF-4s. Nothing nefarious here. You can see the QF-4 on google earth at the Mojave airport when they do/did the conversions.

And there are (maybe now were) a whole squadron at Holloman AFB when I was stationed there. Nothing new here really except to use an aging air-frame as QF-16s in my opinion for fighter pilots to engage in training.

Weren't the Holloman F-4 from Germany, or were there German F-4s and QF-4s. They had to terminate a QF-4 flight this year off the coast of Ca. Well I think. But when I search on Google, all I find is the Tyndal QF-4 crash.

google will be driving everything soon folks!!

dont worry, they drive real good!

reply to post by boymonkey74


You got to get up pretty early in the morning (I mean that literally too) to beat me to something aviation related.

reply to post by Zaphod58


One day Zap one day
Hope you are super cool
BMxx

reply to post by boymonkey74


Maybe one day I'll ignore a story and let you scoop me. I doubt it though.

Hope you're good too.

You have a message.

target drones..

I have two F4s to hike into for engine parts this winter. the turbine blades scrap for $5 a pound and are inconal 718.

I would love to find a F16 target drone crash site as the CMSX-4 metal used in the turbine blades contain Rhenium
and Platinum in the Jet engine fuel nozzles.

Rhenium US$4,250/kg

gariac
Weren't the Holloman F-4 from Germany, or were there German F-4s and QF-4s. They had to terminate a QF-4 flight this year off the coast of Ca. Well I think. But when I search on Google, all I find is the Tyndal QF-4 crash.

They were utilized for the German wing that was station there, but not sure if they were theirs exclusively. It could have been. We had a couple of incidents with the QF-4s right there on Holloman that led to nothing in terms of investigations on the USAF side; so it could be that they were theirs.

Main point of course was that a full air-frame being controlled from the ground was nothing new and actually quite old news. As you pointed out. Still, the F-16 frame and eventually the F-22 frame without a human in the seat can and will do things that will push the limits of that aircraft.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Won't see it happen for a long time. Right now there is as much as a one second delay between the input, and the reaction by the airframe with UCAVs. That's deadly in air combat. The control system for these are fairly short ranged so they don't have the lag.