This article’s headline is not much of a challenge. Years ago, an Air Force colonel described the ideal fighter pilot to me: “Blond hair, blue eyes, square jaw, steel muscles, instant reflexes—and an IQ of 4.” Quick reactions, of both man and machine, are central to victory in air combat, and thinking slows reaction time. There were exceptions, of course. Colonel John Boyd, America’s greatest military theorist, was a fighter pilot, and Germany’s famous “Red Baron” of World War I, Manfred von Richthofen, wrote extensively and intelligently about air combat at its dawn. But for the most part, a room full of fighter pilots is a rock garden.
Some people are catching on. Elon Musk recently said the F-35 fighter/bomber, America’s first trillion-dollar weapons program, is already obsolete because drones outperform it at a far smaller cost. In rapid air-combat maneuvering, a fighter pilot can only take so many g-forces on his body; a drone faces no such limitations.
For the first time since the 14th century, when great carracks ruled the waves, Portugal is leading the world in ship design. The Portuguese navy recently ordered the world’s first purpose-built drone carrier. It looks like an aircraft carrier writ small, at about 8500 tons, but I suspect it can carry more drones than our Ford-class carriers can manned aircraft. It is projected to cost about $135 million—approximately one-hundredth as much as a U.S. Navy carrier.
When you can cut your cost to 1 percent of what you were previously paying, that should get your attention. I hope Elon is planning a trip to Lisbon. […]
— Read More: www.theamericanconservative.com
