Stealth Satellites

**~~David Crocket~~** · 24 Jul 11,, 11:11

Originally Posted by Jimmy

No, it's because when a human shoots down an airliner someone gets punished. When a computer does it, people blame the government/leadership for allowing computers the authority to do so. Humans are generally trusted more than computers when it comes to life-or-death decisions...and they can be held accountable if they choose incorrectly.

Counter Point:
Captain Will Rogers choose "incorrectly", was not punished and instead Ronald Reagan pinned a medal on his chest.

Point:
If we want a human in the loop then have the man on the ground not in the plane. You do not need to be in the plane to make "life or death decisions" and be held accountable.
BBC ON THIS DAY | 3 | 1988: US warship shoots down Iranian airliner

**Jimmy** · 24 Jul 11,, 14:46

Counter-counter point: Rogers was told the aircraft had been ID'd as an F-14 on a surface attack profile and was squawking a military-only IFF code. If you feed a person OR a computer incorrect information it will impact the result.

Counter point: Datalinks don't work how you think they work. Your suggestion isn't technologically feasible right now. Eventually I suspect that's the direction we'll go.

**GGTharos** · 24 Jul 11,, 17:10

BVR and BFM differ only in the distances involved. Both require quite a bit of 'procesisng'. I don't know how you can say 'it's not necessarily simpler' and then 'would seem to require significantly more variable processing' which is a pretty meaningless statement anyway.

In fact BVR can be quite a bit more confusing - hint - a lot of radars still sport manual operation modes.

Originally Posted by ace16807

It's not necessarily simpler but I'm of the opinion that it would be possible to create a UAV capable of BVR engagements. BFM would seem to require significantly more variable processing than a remotely piloted drone could handle at a practical level. .

**~~David Crocket~~** · 24 Jul 11,, 21:51

That's his story and pure bunk you think that our RADAR back then could not tell the difference between a F-14 and an airliner? Reagan pinned a medal on his chest and no one was punished.

It is technologically feasible. If the NRO can get real time satellite video using CDMA, we can build a remotely piloted fighter. The Global Hawk which is supposed to be the radar for the F-22 is able to be piloted remotely. In fact from what I understand we have had the technology since the 1970's to build a RC Fighter Plane.

Originally Posted by Jimmy

Counter-counter point: Rogers was told the aircraft had been ID'd as an F-14 on a surface attack profile and was squawking a military-only IFF code. If you feed a person OR a computer incorrect information it will impact the result.

Counter point: Datalinks don't work how you think they work. Your suggestion isn't technologically feasible right now. Eventually I suspect that's the direction we'll go.

**ace16807** · 24 Jul 11,, 22:51

Originally Posted by GGTharos

BVR and BFM differ only in the distances involved. Both require quite a bit of 'procesisng'. I don't know how you can say 'it's not necessarily simpler' and then 'would seem to require significantly more variable processing' which is a pretty meaningless statement anyway.

In fact BVR can be quite a bit more confusing - hint - a lot of radars still sport manual operation modes.

All you've said so far is that "it can't be done." That's fine, considering I don't know much about this field. But explain to be why it is technically impossible to field a UAV that has BVR capability. Nowhere did I say it would be as good or better than a piloted aircraft. All I said that it is within current technological capabilities. We both agree that a UAV accomplishing a BFM kill is nigh impossible, but you are convinced that a UAV cannot, under any circumstances, field BVR capability within reason. So in all seriousness, can you or someone else explain to me why you can't stick an AN/APG-65GY radar and any other necessary avionics into a currently existing UAV such that it can field an AAM with BVR capability? I legitimately don't know much about the topic, but right now, you aren't explaining why it isn't possible.

**Jimmy** · 25 Jul 11,, 01:46

Originally Posted by David Crocket

That's his story and pure bunk you think that our RADAR back then could not tell the difference between a F-14 and an airliner? Reagan pinned a medal on his chest and no one was punished.

It is technologically feasible. If the NRO can get real time satellite video using CDMA, we can build a remotely piloted fighter. The Global Hawk which is supposed to be the radar for the F-22 is able to be piloted remotely. In fact from what I understand we have had the technology since the 1970's to build a RC Fighter Plane.

Tell me more about radar and datalinks.

Radar: The radar doesn't know a damn thing. The computer breaks out the raw data into something usable. Unless the SPY-1 is hooked up to an UPA style scope the data is preprocessed and you can't just look at a dot and tell RCS.

Datalinks: The kind of turnaround time is insufficient in air combat where being delayed a second or two means the difference between victory and defeat.

Both these points are pretty much at their most basic that I can present.