Eye In The Sky
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 3,780
- Points
- 1,160
Thucydides said:While it is possible to do so in something like an Aurora, due to the amount of room inside, consider why the USAF is so desperate for the F-35: centralized network nodes like the AWACS are extremely vulnerable. A shoot down would be a disaster, but even a simple failure of electronics would cripple the entire system. A "mesh network" of distributed nodes (which is what a squadron of F-35's actually is, the routers are packaged inside supersonic jets) can cover a larger area, has fewer single point of failure nodes and can gracefully degrade as planes are lost, damaged or suffer electronic or mechanical breakdowns.
Having high performance aircraft as the nodes also gives much more flexibility; imagine a USAF strike package in 2025: there will be dozens of UCAV's carrying munitions and countermeasures with some F-35's hidden somewhere in the flock. Even if the enemy were to somehow burn through the layers of UCAV's, there are still full on jet fighters waiting inside capable of fighting and carrying on the mission on their own. A repurposed C-130 or Challenger full of electronics will not have these capabilities (and it is questionable they would have the performance to keep up with the UCAV flock anyway).
Much like the EH 101 debacle of the 1990's, the CF will lose or never gain critical capabilities that will be employed for decades to come in the pursuit of very short term partisan advantage. This analysis also does not include the industrial or political benefits of having a high tech aerospace industry making cutting edge equipment or being able to back words with actions in the international arena.
:goodpost: My :2c: is a simple addition; "don't put all your eggs in one basket".