Neptunus Lex

Austin Bay sees the past and the future of airborne reconnaissance share airspace in the Middle East:

The past, a black U-2 spy plane, took off and shot skyward with a characteristic steep climb, an altitude grabber. The future, a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk unmanned aircraft, landed and glided to a stop.

Will unmanned air vehicles unman tactical aviation? Most planners see room for a mix:

The Air Force’s smart guys talk about a ‚Äúmix‚Äù of piloted high-performance aircraft, like the F-22, in a strike or operational ‚Äúpackage‚Äù with UAVs. Commercial aircraft use autopilots to fly from point to point, but do passengers want to completely remove pilots from commercial cockpits? Commercial flying isn’t combat, but immediate human presence and judgment ‚Äî while significantly augmentable ‚Äî are not quite fully replaceable.

Putting aside for now such theoretical notions as smart Air Force guys, I think that’s about right. As I’ve said before - especially in close air support, with troops engaged on the ground inside the fire support coordination line - you’re always going to want to be able to mind lock in 3-D space with those you’re about lay heavy ordnance alongside.

That is to say, that if I was one of those guys down there on the dirt asking for help, I’d want to be absolutely sure that the pilot I was talking to had the same view of the world as I myself did, in meatspace.