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Holy crap!

DARPA Eyes Unmanned A-10 Demo: DARPA is advancing the concept of using unmanned or optionally manned A-10 aircraft for persistent close air support (PCAS). The goal is to develop the autonomous flight controls and the interfaces so that joint terminal attack controllers are able to visualize, select, and employ weapons from these A-10s at the time of their choosing. This would result in \"dramatic capability improvements\" compared to current CAS, enabling \"near-instantaneous airborne fire,\" writes the agency in a July 8 announcement. DARPA intends to host a PCAS workshop on July 23 in Arlington, Va., to articulate the goals and objectives to the research community. The agency wants this work to lead to a live-fire demonstration of the concept. Back in February, DARPA projected that the demo would occur in the 2012-13 timeframe. (DARPA PCAS notice)

Holy crap indeed!

Coach! Help! We need a common sense reply of why this isnt going to happen and that its all been a bad dream or an April 1st 2011 joke thats been released to early.

Hate to let you guys down, but I'm an independent contractor and they need a guy who is an expert in A-10s, CAS and JTAC stuff...I already have reservations for 23 July! This is long-term employment!!!

Coach

PS. The unmanned A-10 part of it is just a tech demo, they have no plans to pursue that concept as a way to fight wars. They wanted to do strafe with an unmanned platform, so they chose the most famous strafer of them all.

PPS. The son of one of the most famous Hog Drivers of all is the contractor at DARPA managing the program!

Thanks Coach.....it was the word 'unmanned' that I, and I suspect M2 had a problem with.

I admit I'm 'so last decade' and still wedded to the idea of a pilot in the cockpit, I'm a fan of leather flying helmets,goggles and silk scarves (though perhaps not appropriate in a Hog) and still can't let the Battle of Britain go.

Good luck with the PCAS workshop!

Coach, agreed, as a contractor I can appreciate positive cash flow!

And speaking of the BoB, this past Saturday marked the 70th anniversary of its beginning...



Cheers! M2

It certainly was M2, thanks for noticing and posting that, we are in Battle of Britain 70 overload at the moment!
Where I am sat typing this (and struggling to find a Hog connection to avoid thread creep) the Battle was raging in the skies overhead 70 years ago.
Attended an airshow at Duxford last saturday with an 8 Spitfire tailchase with a Hurricane and a solitary ME109 (the Luftwaffe were never that outnumbered 70 years ago)!

I'm thinking that says something about how long this aircraft has been around.

OC

BB

Yup, not many survivors of the BoB left...

\"We do not want to be remembered as heroes, we only ask to be remembered for what we did....that's all\"

- W/C Robert \"Bob\" Doe, British 234 & 238 Squadrons Fighter Command

Given enough time, robots are going to replace us all.

Bumping a 2 year old thread... http://www.armedforces-int.com/news/unmanned-a-10-close-air-support-programme.html

as long as we all get playstation controllers!

Id go to war in flipflops with a cooler full of beers and a Hawaiian t-shirt....and no shorts, cause when its all hanging out on the line. Theirs only one way to go..... COMMANDO.

...although beer guts dont attract chicks.

_________________
\"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. \"

George S. Patton