Controlling UAVs

[CenTexFlyer]

Wow! It's not just the civilians who are fighting over UA's these days....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/78317cc4-4e93-11dc-85e7-0000779fd2ac.html

[Unterhausen]

I hate to say it, but the Air Force is fighting to stay relevant. The army and Marines have been looking at UAV's as a way of getting some close air support and decent recon not involving helicopters.

If the Air Force got involved, you could kiss the sub $1 million UAV goodbye.

[macboffin]

I hate to say it, but the Air Force is fighting to stay relevant. The army and Marines have been looking at UAV's as a way of getting some close air support and decent recon not involving helicopters.

If the Air Force got involved, you could kiss the sub $1 million UAV goodbye. Thats for sure! Not only that, bet that any time assets were requested by the Brown Jobs or Jarheads, if the Air Force couldn't take over the mission, it wouldn't happen! Result, some more names on The Wall!
Also, it would stifle a great deal of valuable R&D.Problem is the "Silk Scarf" brigade, more interested in turf wars than serious conflicts!
(Been in the UAV field since Pontius was a pilot!)

[Unterhausen]

Thats for sure! Not only that, bet that any time assets were requested by the Brown Jobs or Jarheads, if the Air Force couldn't take over the mission, it wouldn't happen! Result, some more names on The Wall!
Also, it would stifle a great deal of valuable R&D.Problem is the "Silk Scarf" brigade, more interested in turf wars than serious conflicts!
(Been in the UAV field since Pontius was a pilot!)

I thought about mentioning this, but I still have some loyalty after being in the Air Force for a decade.

One of the problems I see with them is that they want the smaller companies to team up with a big company. For some issues that is probably a great idea, but for small UAV's, I don't think it probably is. And that's for research, not for fielded systems. Once the configuration control, safety, logistics, and every other specialist gets done with one of these programs, it's big money.
OTOH, I know the Air Force labs have some ~10k UAV's.

[CenTexFlyer]

Yeah....I'm ex-USAF too, so I know first hand what the difference is between the Air Force and the Boy Scouts......

The Boy Scouts have ADULT leaders! :)

[Unterhausen]

I was in acquisition for 4 years and then went over to logistics engineering for another 6 years, so this discussion brings up some unpleasant memories.

[macboffin]

Personal experience ; won a fly off, won the theoretical, won the wind tunnel stuff; directed to team with a major company who would do all the sensory electronics. They became bogged down in trying to keep all the prospective (lobbying) end users happy as to equipment, compatibility with existing systems etc, and fell down on the job.Cost them a bunch of bucks, ( probably written off against tax as R&D money). Then directed to team with another major company for electronics. Finally resulted in operating hard and software, Army evaluation at Fort this and Fort that, meanwhile clock ticking and users suddenly in extreme need NOW. So an available off-the shelf system from abroad utilised instead. Interesting learning experience, technical-wise and business-wise, load of reaaly good stuff consigned to a dusty warehouse somewhere ; birds, GCS stuff, custom built vehicles etc.
Left a bad taste in the mouth.

[Unterhausen]

COTS is the only way to go on these things. Of course, it helps if another customer
has used them and has worked out the bugs.