Well no, they don't. Especially when we remove enemy artillery from the battlespace first thing the way we do. I don't think before ISIS the US faced serious artillery since Kosovo, and that was before Shadow. The mission of Shadow is not to fly KM in to look at targets like artillery. That mission belongs to larger craft that do not rely on line of sight communications. I think there was some artillery in Afghanistan but it did not last long, and all the artillery in both Iraq wars was eliminated or abandoned before our guys got close enough to use a Shadow. Predators and now Reapers are filling the need you're above talking about, and I'm not suggesting these bigger birds be retired. They're state of the art. Shadow is certainly not.ladajo wrote:Everybody has and uses artillery.
I agree, but that is something that will fit in a foamy, as is millimeter radar, etc.Targeting quality Geo-location in battlefield environments is not something you do with a transmitting GoPro, period.
Yes well, that is why I predicated my point on the question of whether you really need to fly so fast. Obviously you can't fly at 40 knots with 30 knot winds and expect much control. There are benefits to flying faster. Still, even give a need to fly so much faster, today's modern manufacturing techniques make Shadow obsolete. We should not be flying a 25 year old design when the field has so radically changed. There are better tools for the Shadow's job and they do not weigh the same as a chevy big block, nor require trucks to launch or an airstrip.Winds alone dictate bigger heavier and more powerful airframes that what you are discussing.
Yes. My first time in the pilots seat was in a Piper Apache in 1976. My first time in command of my father's Cessna 172 was in 1986. My first time in command of his Cessna 182 was in 1996. My first time flying an RV craft was a Twinjet in 2002. From 2002 to 2005 I flew more than a dozen craft almost half of which I designed myself, from the screaming fast Wattage Turbo Vector to the Predator clone RC kits.Have you ever spent any real time flying real vehicles in real environments?
And one does not need this sort of expertise to know that a 25+ year old design using what is now ancient technology and that costs 100 times what it should, does not best serve our men in uniform.