Low-Cost Fighter Aircraft: Old Planes Reborn

Apologies ... I thought this info was so well known it needed only to be pointed out :-(

Rather than relying on my links too much,why don't you do a bit of research yourself?

googling "switchblade drone" will get you
  • the manufacturers site .. AeroVironment
    (who also make the Wasp, Puma and other small recon drones used by US forces
    ... no "pilots" there either just a low cost control station and an "operator")
  • general sources like wikipedia (with all their subsequent references)
  • reputable newspaper commentators
  • several professional defense publications
you might even try the DoD site... I think some of the relevant contract awards are still documented there.
In fact there is a whole raft of Manufacturers trying to get in the market for "loitering munitions" as the US prefer to call kamikaze drones
There is/have been a whole set of programme for this
Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System (LMAMS)
Low Cost Autonomous Attack System (Locaas)
etc etc

For visuals you might try youtube (though these will mostly be manufacturers "puff")

Same goes for the Hero-30 and the rest of it's larger brothers from uvision air.
This is an Israeli company supplying the IDF .. so there is a lot of newies interest about their use vs the Palestinians.

Hence Israel Industry is also a world leader
e.g. the Rotem rotor craft I mentioned is from IAI but new and AFAIK not in active use
See also the Harop from the same company.
However this larger drone is a low cost "loitering" ARM equivalent to the old UK ALARM
and thus probably not as much use in COIN as in lowish tech conventional war.)

Soon the IDF may have the larger/longer ranged/more expensive Skystriker announced only a few months ago
http://elbitsystems.com/pr-new/elbit-systems-introduces-skystriker/

Aside: as one of the few mid sized defense forces actively involved in genuine COIN,
the IDF happens to be world leaders in the tactical use of relatively low cost relatively small drones.

but Israel is also an example that a blade cuts both ways... Hamas is employing "improvised" recon drones against the IDF

with how much success it is difficult to know since the Israeli only ever publicize their shoot downs
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-israel-shoots-down-hamas-drone-from-gaza-strip-military-2017-2?IR=T)

and of course Hamas is not saying how much intel it was able to get in the face of the F-15/AWACS combo.


Thanks for this. I will have to dig into it at a later date.
 
I once favored the idea of light attack aircraft but have backed away by the increasing availability of inexpensive anti-air missiles and the like. Even so there do seem to be multiple conflicts with permissive anti-aircraft environments where a light attack aircraft might fit in

Here is a reason to favor light attack aircraft i just came across. It is a variation of the light attack/trainer aircraft argument.
In short fifth generation fighters will never be available in large numbers. This leads to a problem with young pilots not having sufficient opportunity to gain flight hours and to gain experience especially combat experience. The argument is to put these new inexperienced pilots in light attack aircraft, let them accumulate hours, and gain experience in the "minor league" before moving up to the fifth generation "big league".

http://aviationweek.com/defense/how-buying-light-attack-fleet-would-help-usaf-s-pilot-shortage

I don't know what this does to life cycle costs but it looks like there might be some net advantage with this approach.
 
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