They will just modify future carrier design's, and we'll always have manned aircraft just not as many. Things like CAS and interdiction / air superiority are things that require manned pilots while surgical strikes and surveillance lend themselves very well to unmanned remotely operated vehicles. The #1 biggest problem with remotely piloting something is network latency, satellite systems have latency times measured in the hundreds of milliseconds while radio requires line of sight or multiple relays, while a pilot in the cockpit has zero network latency. "Split second" real time decisions simply aren't possible with such high latency remote connections. The only way around that would be to utilize artificial intelligence and give the drone the capacity to initiate it's own target and kill order, think long and hard about that one.ltgbrown wrote:I wonder when the last aircraft carrier will be bought? Imagine a strike group with an E-2D system in an aerostat overhead (24/7 by the way) and a fleet of drones (that could have substantially different takeoff and landing requirements, thus smaller and denser flight decks). Would we still need Nimitz/Ford class size aircraft carriers?
CDR Glenn "Woodgie" Brown
US Naval Aviator
3500 flight hours
750 arrested landings
Former Mini Boss
I can completely see a small fleet of localized drones that stay within a certain range of a carrier and act as a shield against potential threats while a few are sent out on long range strikes or surveillance. That would leave human pilots to be long range interceptors or to provide CAS during a ground firefight.