Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
1. Who salutes on the cat shot?
2. LSO de-briefs will never be the same.
2. Ready rooms will be kind of empty
3. Wardroom lines will be shorter
4. Focsle follies will be kind of dull
5. Fewer cases of bailing out on the flt sked when the weather goes dicey.
6. In the not too distant future will be a CAG with a totally un-manned airwing. That will stop all the bitchin’ and moaning!
A bitching robot is a happy robot.
Yeah, yeah, got all that … but … IT’S GOT S-3 TIRES!
All the airplanes that were sacrificed on the altar of the Super Hornet…………..
“I for one, welcome our new robot overlords”
Planes without pilots? Where’s the fun in that? An Airwing without JO’s raising hell? Not a world I want to be a part of, thank you very much
The JO’s will still be in the ready room, they’ll just be playing on their X-boxes between shifts as drone controllers. They’ll probably even issue them flight suits like the AF does… ;P
Doesn’t have the same ring to it as “F-8′s Forever.”
Still had some of those tattoos around on the arms of Maintenance Control Chiefs in my day.
Are these new “Robot Overlords” same same “Bad Cat Robot?”
(I mean, we can play the pun one of several ways-”Tomcat parts “badcat,” “bad” cat-shots–you name it, the possibilities are endless…)
So manned Naval Aviation is going the way of the Horse Cavalry, the Coast Artillery and mass/divisional size air drops and beach assaults… to name just a few …and comes to resemble nothing more than a water logged version of the much maligned (around here anyway) Air Force…with arguably better looking uniforms…and the point is ?…is there a problem with that?…whats not to like?…couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch… upside all around… OK… OK I’ll stop…but the concept does have merit and it does indeed work for me. Best
PS, And don’t fret, Gentle Reader( thats Lex speak) about the organ donor situation…there’s still plenty of knuckle-dragging, motorcycle riding, gomers out there (you know who you are) to meet the demand.
Snake/
That’s ok, just wait until the GPS/INS on one of the self-directed numbers goes on the fritz and stumbles on over your way and accidentally drops a 2000 pounder “shack” on your “shack” during a live fire exercise, then give us a call to tell us if it still “works for me.”
Sweet Jesus…You are indeed a knave…I speak up in defense the flippen Chair Farce and you get all misty eyed about blowing up houses… mine in particular…alas… no good deed goes unpunished. Best
No Stoof R1830s?
Snake/
I’ll cop to the fact that the Navy has better looking uniforms than the “Chair Farce”–be the LAST person to say otherwise–but you know how love-hate relationships go….just HAD to jerk your chain.
And yes, alas, you are also right about the “no good deed” bit–tis the general unfortunate historical condition of mankind–but knave tho I am, I am a happy knave–even if of fossilized, knuckle-dragging cro-magnon mien. So… Live Long and Prosper! (See, I once was a snake myself–of 78th TFS “Bushmasters” fame–so I’ve a herpetological affinity for guys like you. 
)
Don’t worry, guys. Wait until we introduce the Really New Technology.
It’s a way to save enormous amounts of time coding software and planning missions. That costs hundreds of millions of dollars and decades to write and debug the software. This alternative can be implemented far more quickly, and at lower cost.
Manned UAVs.
Interviewer: HAL, you have an enormous responsibility on this mission, in many ways perhaps the greatest responsibility of any single mission element. You’re the brain, and central nervous system of the ship, and your responsibilities include watching over the men in hibernation. Does this ever cause you any lack of confidence?
HAL: Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.
“…Open the bomb-bay doors HAL…”
- SJS
SJS/
And just think, HAL was manufactured just 50 miles up the road from my home-town at the Univ. of Ill. at Champaign-Urbana. Ain’t I proud!? And I’m sure Flatlander is too–he’s from the same neck of the woods…
The really great advance will be in the X-47B’s fly by wire system. Think of the weight savings. Eliminate all the wires, short everything to ground and leave it to the software guys to sort it out.
Hey, it’s just a timing problem? Right?