US Army to fly 'kamikaze' drones

scooter · 10-18-2011, 18:36

I doubt these will be used in lieu of 556/762. All this does is give end users the ability to engage something discovered during ISR reconnaisance, where as of now a raven UAV just gives situational awareness, i.e. "Hey, a guy with a mortar!"

Being able to smoke mortar guy when discovered, outside of small arms range, behind cover, or screened/concealed is value added.

bubba · 10-18-2011, 18:55

I agree with the over the horizon capability, but we already have that with arty, pred, CAS, H-CAS, etc, etc. I am all about the newest / bestest "fun button" stuff, but I also know that the basics work really well. I think this is more a solution in search of a problem.

scooter · 10-18-2011, 20:37

New useful capabilities or uses for equipment aren't always solutions to problems. History is full of equipment or new uses for it that were developed despite a lackluster response from the forces they were developed for. Few people in the 90's were saying they needed large remote controlled airplanes with cameras and missiles on them allocated down to the Brigade Level. Napoleon refused to use steam power because sailing vessels worked just fine...why change?

I'll reserve judgement until I have some experience with it.

Dozer523 · 10-19-2011, 07:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by scooter

. . . . All this does is give end users the ability to engage something discovered during ISR reconnaisance, . . . .

Nah . . . what it does is give "Recliner Maverick" a way to clock out early.

"Sure honey, I'll be home . . . you bet. . . what? you're wearing that? ohhhh . . . yeah! Hang on . . .
yeah, yeah, yes, yes! YES!!! that looks like one!
Sure it does! F@ I'm GOING IN!!! AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQN1C...feature=fvwrel

kgoerz · 10-19-2011, 08:16

Don't we have these already, Cruise Missiles. Somebody will make a lot of money off of another Govt contract. All this money to kill a threat that doesn't exist.

Dozer523 · 10-19-2011, 08:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by kgoerz

Don't we have these already, Cruise Missiles. Somebody will make a lot of money off of another Govt contract. All this money to kill a threat that doesn't exist.

NO! these are different. They only cost TENs of millions of dollars.

kgoerz · 10-19-2011, 12:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dozer523

NO! these are different. They only cost TENs of millions of dollars.

OH! I stand corrected

This type of spending drives me nuts. Give