Fire Scout

Fire Scout Crashes 

An interesting tidbit about Fire Scout:

"The Pentagon's top weapons tester criticized the MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter drone as unreliable in combat situations and only good for collecting non-time-sensitive data, according to a June 24 report submitted to the congressional defense committees."

Out of the box

The US Navy and the American taxpayer will be very sad in the not to distant future when a $10,000 torpedo or ballistic missile puts a multi-billion dollar flat top in the ship yard or worse on the bottom of the ocean! 

Unfortunately, the people that control the defense dollars for the Navy, like their big gun ship of the line battle ship bosses before them will make the same mistake.  In 20 years the future will be the small stealthy UAVs that can carry a $10,000 torpedo and cripple a flat top.  All those carrier based drones X-47 and others will be out of play. Big Navy, think outside the box, think small, think lethal think VSTOL on a cruiser or destroyer!  Tailhookers, your days are numbered!

The death of the "Aviator"

From the WSJ.com

"In 2009, for the first time, the U.S. Air Force trained more "pilots" for unmanned aircraft than for manned fighters and bombers."

An interesting article for those that care!