U.S. Radar Laden Weapons

The most intriguing and potentially the most effective solution to Amlie’s dilemma is to get rid of the human pilot altogether.

In the 1990s it will be easy to build tens of thousands of unmanned air vehicles, at less than $1 million each, with long endurance and long range and replete with suites of automatic, intelligent sensors (including radar). These air vehicles would communicate the exact locations of targets back to B-1Bs, F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18, A-6, F-111, etc., all stationed far from Soviet armaments. Weapons could then easily be launched from these “safe airplanes” and remotely guided to their targets by the unmanned vehicles. In the years beyond 2000, the unmanned vehicles themselves would be armed and would launch their own weapons.

To paraphrase Amlie: Specialists have understood the new roles for unmanned air vehicles for years. Why aren’t we doing something about it? Despite congressional support for the elegance and economy of the unmanned air vehicle, the Pentagon and its subservient industrial complex are moving at a snail’s pace in this area due to the threat to entrenched Army (helicopters and planes), Navy (helicopters and planes and carrier task forces), and Air Force bureaucracies, and the multi-hundred-billion dollar contracts to be let over the next decade.

S. BRADLEY

Beverly Hills