Technology and Society, War Commentary The New Army Air Corps January 9, 2009 Rand Simberg 2 Comments Joe Katzman writes about new developments in UAVs.
Good. The Air Force has been trying to get itself out of the air-support mission since the Sixties; it’s time to give them their wish and permanently take that mission (and it’s budget) away from them.
If the UCAR program had been allowed to go forward in 2004, the Army would be well on its way to having its own force of highly capable UAV helicopters fully capable and designed to perform the CAS mission, with very high levels of autonomy. See, for example, http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/ver06114.xml and http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/09064top.xml for a flavor of what UCAR would have done.
Good.
The Air Force has been trying to get itself out of the air-support mission since the Sixties; it’s time to give them their wish and permanently take that mission (and it’s budget) away from them.
If the UCAR program had been allowed to go forward in 2004, the Army would be well on its way to having its own force of highly capable UAV helicopters fully capable and designed to perform the CAS mission, with very high levels of autonomy. See, for example, http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/ver06114.xml and http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=awst&id=news/09064top.xml for a flavor of what UCAR would have done.