Su-35

[AtW]

"Predators had been armed with AIM-92 Stinger air-to-air missiles, and were being used to "bait" Iraqi fighters, then run. In this incident, the Predator did not run, but instead fired one of its Stingers.

It was like 10 years ago.

Manned fighter vs ONE drone will probably result in a win by the fighter, however it would lose against fleet of drones unless fighter manages to disrupt them electronically in some way.

New fighters cost too much, teaching pilots also is expensive - the future belongs to drones: without risk to pilot they can attack targets that otherwise would be too high risk for pilots to engage.

[stek]

Can an English Electric Lightning do most of that? But in the 50's?

[Cliphead]

Can an English Electric Lightning do most of that? But in the 50's?

Don't need to do this with a drone.

[Dominic Connor]

encyclopedia[/url]
Yes, but can a drone match the evasive of a manned A/C? And win? I'm not so sure.

These days an aircraft can throw itself around harder than a pilot can survive even suited up, so at that level I'd expect drones to outperform manned a/c

That being said, modern air combat has a decent amount of shooting at a distance so in many scenarios, maneuverability is not the issue, missile guidance and range, how you detect things coming your way, stealth and countermeasure are the critical factors.

But currently I believe it is the case that no drone stands much of chance against a modern fighter, since pilots are picked from the sharper end of people and they really care about not being shot down, though the difference will erode.

Drone can be used to saturate in a way the manned a/c can't.

A cruise-style missile costs about 1% of the cost of an fully equipped fighter and pilot, so if you had 100 of them converging on a target one fighter would be hard pressed to take down them all, in many cases it would simply not have the ammo. For £1 billion you could buy 1,000 or so cruise missiles, could the RAF shoot them down ? How many countries have a defence budget where a gigaquid would be affordable ? My guess is 50, I've met individuals who could do that, not all of them like us.

That's today's tech where cruise comes in pretty dumb, they are pre-programmed to follow a route, not hard to see later generations taking evasive and cooperative action.

Be do need to remember that air combat and attaining command of the air is not an end in itself, you have to kill people and blow things up if you want to win and ever smarter bombs seem to be inevitable.

[Gibbon]

These days an aircraft can throw itself around harder than a pilot can survive even suited up, so at that level I'd expect drones to outperform manned a/c

That being said, modern air combat has a decent amount of shooting at a distance so in many scenarios, maneuverability is not the issue, missile guidance and range, how you detect things coming your way, stealth and countermeasure are the critical factors.

But currently I believe it is the case that no drone stands much of chance against a modern fighter, since pilots are picked from the sharper end of people and they really care about not being shot down, though the difference will erode.

Drone can be used to saturate in a way the manned a/c can't.

A cruise-style missile costs about 1% of the cost of an fully equipped fighter and pilot, so if you had 100 of them converging on a target one fighter would be hard pressed to take down them all, in many cases it would simply not have the ammo. For £1 billion you could buy 1,000 or so cruise missiles, could the RAF shoot them down ? How many countries have a defence budget where a gigaquid would be affordable ? My guess is 50, I've met individuals who could do that, not all of them like us.

That's today's tech where cruise comes in pretty dumb, they are pre-programmed to follow a route, not hard to see later generations taking evasive and cooperative action.

Be do need to remember that air combat and attaining command of the air is not an end in itself, you have to kill people and blow things up if you want to win and ever smarter bombs seem to be inevitable.

What the hell have you been reading, are you seriously suggesting that it would be better to buy cruise missiles rather than manned aircraft. A cruise missile is a tactical one use, one mission weapon of limited range. Very limited in the price bracket you are talking, for the more sophisticated longer ranger weapons you are looking at a couple of million.

Also they are only useful against fixed assets, useless against mobile ones and area denial roles like the Typhoon in Libya for instance stopping the army from deploying armour.

Drones are great in asymmetrical warfare, but against an enemy with a modern integrated air defense system a lot less so.

The Tornado GR4 is still a highly rated bomber and whilst the much maligned F3 version was a poor dog fighter it was a highly developed missile platform which was it's function. It also performed very well against the Yanks in all the flying exercises I was involved in.

[gingerjedi]

I saw the last flying Vulcan again at the weekend along with the superb Red Arrows at Weston air day, the commentator said there was a competition to win a flight in a Spitfire which would be a lifetime event in itself but this one would be flying alongside the Vulcan, it doesn't get much better than that!

[Paddy]

I would imagine that the primary use of the Su-35 is interception. Would you trust a drone to intercept and judge the situation? Don’t forget the Mig and Su were beefed up to chase the US U2 spy planes and successfully shot one down.

[KaiserWilly]

I would imagine that the primary use of the Su-35 is interception. Would you trust a drone to intercept and judge the situation? Don’t forget the Mig and Su were beefed up to chase the US U2 spy planes and successfully shot one down.

You mean the Gary Powers incident? IIRC, it was a SAM hit.

[Paddy]

You mean the Gary Powers incident? IIRC, it was a SAM hit.

No, that’s what the US claimed… after first denying is was shot down at all. The whole point of the U2 was that it flew higher than SAMs could reach