UAV vs HUMAN

[F-14blaze]

they say that UAVs are the way of the future, but i can guarantee that any HUMAN pilot that is actually IN the cockpit and not in a van 20 000 miles away will survive, UAVs gotta be programed, and if they are remote controled, there is a time delay, the speed of light if fast, but fast enough that a pilot can avoid a missile, by the time he gets the alarm, reacts, and the signal is sent to his robot, well, its kinda already toast.

the human element is what makes fighters so damn cool, sure technology helps, but when you get down to it, if you're winchester, and there are still a few bandits, it comes down to PILOT skill, the computer may help to move the plane, but its the pilot's decisions that really matter. no computer controled plane will EVER be able to match a human ace.

any opinions?

the poll is HUMAN vs UAV, specify which u vote for in your post (1 on 1, 2UAV on 1 Human, etc)

[Stealthflanker]

In one on one combat ,Human Pilot would win

[SepheronX]

I can guarantee you technology will not always win. I think it was during the Yugoslavian war, 3 or 4 F15/16 jets were chasing down a Mig-25. And they tried to use all of their guidance system to shoot at him, but nothing hit him. Then they had to go into passive mode in order to shoot him down.

Human error is obviously easy to adjust, over computer error.

[pseudolife]

well the only things i can think of that have the payload to take down a manned fighter are the predator and the reaper. and since neither of those is really built for an air to air engagement. I would have to say the Human would win.

now jump 50 years into the future and the outcome might not be the same.

[gabi765]

Originally Posted by SepheronX

I think it was during the Yugoslavian war, 3 or 4 F15/16 jets were chasing down a Mig-25. And they tried to use all of their guidance system to shoot at him, but nothing hit him. Then they had to go into passive mode in order to shoot him down.

I think you should recheck some history here. MiG-25's in Yugoslavia? The only fighters the serbs were flyin those days were MiG-29's and J-22 Orao. MiG-25 had nothing to do with Yugoslavia. Probably you heard something about USAF vs. IraqAF engagement in 2003 when F-15C's had some difficulty locking 2 MiG-25 (see Dogfights episode "Dogfights of Desert Storm")

[SepheronX]

Originally Posted by gabi765

I think you should recheck some history here. MiG-25's in Yugoslavia? The only fighters the serbs were flyin those days were MiG-29's and J-22 Orao. MiG-25 had nothing to do with Yugoslavia. Probably you heard something about USAF vs. IraqAF engagement in 2003 when F-15C's had some difficulty locking 2 MiG-25 (see Dogfights episode "Dogfights of Desert Storm")

I am guessing it was Iraq. Sorry.

[sicsok]

The MiG-25 in the Balkan-conflict...there were so many interesting stories you could not shake a stick at! No MiG-25 though. But if one looked each day of the war, he could see the same red tractor hauling people when the reporter talked about refugee-statistics, another day about F-16 and F-18 bombing civilians, another time these were Serbian refugees after they had been Albanians going to Macedonia-field trip another time we were told that these tractor(s) /in the verbal world multiples of the same vehicle that was shown forever/.... and only after the war the counting was done a bit more objectively. Surprise, surprise! The US planes killed about 3 times number of the tanks that Yugoslavia (incl. Serbia) ever had. How is that for success?

[szeg]

The US Navy performed an interesting experiment. They equipped an RQM-34 Firebee jet powered target drone with remote control capabilities and a TV camera.
The RC Firebee easily got behind the human piloted F-4s with high G maneuvers in dogfight.

It was in 1971.

Computers have evolved a lot since then, planes also, but humans can't bear much more Gs than that time.
With clever enough UAV, its controllers will just have to give high level orders, like which waypoint to approach, which weapon to use on which target, so they can even be on the Moon, time delay will not matter.
I think if any major developer comes out with an autonomous fighter UAV, it will be a killer machine.

Sure it will be in dogfight. If one of those robot fighters stalks close and force you into a dogfight, makes a turn with 20-25 Gs and pops up in your six, it's game over.
I think this will be the most easily automatized part, and this is where UAVs will have absolute advantage by their solid structure, fast response time, panoramic or full spheric view.

In ranged combat we may come out to even if the sensors and missiles have nearly the same limits on both sides. We may use tricks and bluffs but the UAV's ground crew can also do the same.
The difference is that, the pilot can make only one mistake while the UAV's human "advisors" in that far away van can survive any.

[SukhoiLover]

The future is UAV or UCAV to be more precise, they take more G´s than a human can take so they can maneuver faster than a human, you can have more payload and sensors in the plane since you don´t need to to load the craft with ejection seats, and everything a human would need to control the aircraft, and theres also another thing, computer tech is so evolved that you don´t need a human on the ground controlling the craft, it can fly itself alone plus the information is processed much faster in a computer than in a human brain, UCAV´s are the future, no doubt.

Now the real question is if this famous sentence is true:

"The last fighter pilot may already be born"

Is this true??

COURSE NOT

Although computer tech is extremely evolved it still has to take some more steps, not only that, these UCAV´s will be expensive, this means that only a bunch of rich countries will get them to actually replace the whole human part of the air force, fighter pilots will be among us for at least 50 or 60 more years if not more, no country can replace an entire air force with UCAV´s, theres still a place for humans for many more years, period.