British UCAV?

[Tankcrewman2008]

Just finished reading an article on BAE's proposal to the MOD about a newish UCAV. Usually I'm against such technology but seeing that the RAF is being spread thin with depleting numbers of personnel means less crews for aircraft and ground crews, these new UCAV's could prove to be an answer to Britain's personnel problems. What do you think?

[windscorpion]

You still need people to pilot the things (though of course they are sat at a base somewhere) and service them, i don't see how it can help the manpower problems.

Anyway was the UCAV the Taranis? There is definately a role for UCAVs in the current air force never mind the future one though manned planes will be needed for the foreseeable future too.

[outsider]

It may help a bit, regarding numbers of pilots, as in theory the ucav pilots back at base wouldn't need as lengthy a flight training as pilots flying manned aircraft.

Also as the ucav pilots would be located at airbases in the uk, they would get to spend more time with their families, so increasing pilot retention (at least ucav pilots).

Having ucavs may also take some of the strain off of pilots flying manned aircraft on overseas deployments, enabling them to spend more time with their families, thus again increasing pilot retention.

JMO.

[swerve]

Originally Posted by windscorpion

You still need people to pilot the things (though of course they are sat at a base somewhere) and service them, i don't see how it can help the manpower problems.

Far, far fewer crew needed than for manned aircraft.

Servicing of something like Mantis should take far fewer crew than a manned aircraft. It's smaller, lighter, simpler. Even Taranis should be much easier to maintain than anything manned.

Operating them is also less manpower-intensive. Unlike the USAF, the RAF doesn't have hangups about only fully qualified pilots being able to operate their drones, or insist on them being "flown" all the way. IIRC, Mantis or Taranis are supposed to be capable of being operated part-time, flying themselves most of the time, with operators monitoring, & only intervening occasionally (e.g. saying "take off now", "fly to coordinate X", "fly search pattern Y", or "fly home now"). You should, in theory, be able to have one operator (probably an NCO technician, not an ossifer pilot) running two or three of 'em while a reserve or two has a nap or a cup of tea, ready to step in if needed.