Modern Drone Tactics
- Thread starter Da Nang
- Start date
I see what you mean.And what keeps a normal ground station crew from lasing a target and calling for a Hellfire from a nearby Apache?
That's no inherent advantage for putting the Apache in direct control of the UAV in my eyes.
Just as a thought exercise, what if the handover of control is only temporal i.e. UAS already orbiting overhead, just need to takeover for the next minute or so to lase or use onboard sensors to verify target. No control or change in UAS flight path necessary, just a temporary take-over of some of the subsystems. In this manner, the decision-making loop is shortened for the Apache crew, and they gain greater autonomy and control over how they intend to service their targets.
If thar is the case than the UAV crew has identified and assessed the target. If the UAV is able and meant to mark targets, than the operators are also trained FAC-As. So they are the ones making the decision to attack and with which kind of weapon by the available air support assets.
Not much different from how ground bound FACs handle things and how it works best. Handing the lasing over to the AH means that they have to identify and assess the target again just to lase it, making the whole process longer and more error prone.
Sending the target picture to the shooter is another matter as this helps in establishing if the AH crew is ok with engaging the target in the way the FAC requestet it.
Not much different from how ground bound FACs handle things and how it works best. Handing the lasing over to the AH means that they have to identify and assess the target again just to lase it, making the whole process longer and more error prone.
Sending the target picture to the shooter is another matter as this helps in establishing if the AH crew is ok with engaging the target in the way the FAC requestet it.
Got it, I think I understand. Basically it's hard to avoid duplication of effort.If thar is the case than the UAV crew has identified and assessed the target. If the UAV is able and meant to mark targets, than the operators are also trained FAC-As. So they are the ones making the decision to attack and with which kind of weapon by the available air support assets.
Not much different from how ground bound FACs handle things and how it works best. Handing the lasing over to the AH means that they have to identify and assess the target again just to lase it, making the whole process longer and more error prone.
Sending the target picture to the shooter is another matter as this helps in establishing if the AH crew is ok with engaging the target in the way the FAC requestet it.
Bringing a nearly dead topic back to life, even if it is brief. First and foremost, the Scouts were going out anyway, and weren't replaced via UAS capabilities.
So how busy is the front seater going to be? UAS are point and click flying anyway. Second, most of the operators aren't FAC qualified and in fact, operations, payload and ordnance are controlled by different people, on some of them. Teaming Grey Eagles with the 64 allows many unique TTP's. Finally, you have trained gunners in the kill chain, that understand so much more than the operators sitting far away who probably aren't going to be able to be part of an Air Mission Brief, in person, with the AWTs. Ultimately this increases capability and reduces target latency, and latency is a huge issue with any engagement. It's all part of platform integration, and putting the UAS in the 64 crews hands is just another TTP (s) in the kit bag.
Besides, when Red Force figures out how to turn around UAS and put ordnance on Blue Force, the UAS days will be over for an unspecified period of time.
So how busy is the front seater going to be? UAS are point and click flying anyway. Second, most of the operators aren't FAC qualified and in fact, operations, payload and ordnance are controlled by different people, on some of them. Teaming Grey Eagles with the 64 allows many unique TTP's. Finally, you have trained gunners in the kill chain, that understand so much more than the operators sitting far away who probably aren't going to be able to be part of an Air Mission Brief, in person, with the AWTs. Ultimately this increases capability and reduces target latency, and latency is a huge issue with any engagement. It's all part of platform integration, and putting the UAS in the 64 crews hands is just another TTP (s) in the kit bag.
Besides, when Red Force figures out how to turn around UAS and put ordnance on Blue Force, the UAS days will be over for an unspecified period of time.