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US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
https://forums.plasmasky.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3510		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Satis [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:44 am ]
Post subject:  US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
Coolio... they're basically making the pilot optional for helicopters.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/04/a ... p_042410w/
Quote:
The AH-64D Apache Longbow, the CH-47F Chinook and UH-60M Black Hawk already have most of the necessary electronics on board. Sikorsky plans to autonomously fly the UH-60M by year’s end...


Hehe... an Apache helicopter flying like a UAV? How awesome is that. Puts the predator drone to shame.
Author:  derf [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
Mmmm, can't make much sense of this one.
Author:  Peltz [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 2:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
Well from what i read the idea is that the copters wont engage if there is no pilot on board. Unmanned for spy games only.

Quote:
But UAVs that fire weapons autonomously are not part of the Army’s plan, he said.

“We don’t believe that, in the conduct of ground war fighting, you can possibly take out the soldier from that mix,” he said.
Author:  Satis [ Wed Apr 28, 2010 6:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
hmmm...I thought they were just making them basically into UAVs. IE, a pilot on the ground flies the sucker.
Author:  Peltz [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 2:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
Not sure whats the idea behind all that. Perhaps logistics, no need for pilots while flying from one base to another? or on team recovery missions one extra free spot.
Author:  derf [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 5:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
No no, to my knowledge UAV's are for surveillance only. I think they're only exploring the capability. To me using these helicopters for UAV purposes is wrong on so many levels.
Author:  Satis [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 6:31 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
UAVs aren't just for surveillance. We have UAVs in Afghanistan and Iraq that are armed with missiles and can engage enemy targets.

Image

I'm guessing that they're trying to pull live humans out of danger. People care a lot more about "Apache was shot down, pilot and gunner killed" than "Apache shot down, pilot and gunner in bunker shrugged and switched to a spare".

Though I agree, this makes more sense for scout helicopters, at least at first.
Author:  derf [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 11:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
But I don't recall 1 combat helicopter pilot casualty since the start of Iraq and A-stan.
Author:  Satis [ Thu Apr 29, 2010 7:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
There've been some, you just don't hear about it. Helicopters fail regularly. They're complicated machines.

I googled and can't believe there's a wikipedia article on this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_av ... e_Iraq_War
:shock:

Two helicopter crashes so far this year in iraq, total of 3 deaths.
Author:  Peltz [ Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:53 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-22_Osprey
From satis link. This looks so awesome.

Quote:
December 29, 2004 - An American Special Forces MC-130H Hercules (c/n 382-5054, 16th SOW, 15th SOS) is written off while landing on Q-West airfield near Mosul, Iraq, though no one was hurt. The pilot was unaware a large pit had been dug in the runway

Again from Satis link. Check out the last sentence.
Author:  derf [ Fri Apr 30, 2010 2:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
Good article. Let's look at the numbers:

278 total helicopter casualties since beginning of Iraq.

But how many of these casualties are related to a mission that was applicable to UAV's? Remember, transporting troops and supplies may form a big part of helicopter missions.
Author:  Satis [ Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
yea, true enough. And that's a piddlingly small number of deaths, in the greater scheme of things. Then again, training pilots is expensive as hell, and experience is irreplaceable.

Also, if we had a really heavy attack helicopter presence, what impact would that have had on ground casualties? If there were a significant reduction in deaths/injuries on the ground, it may well be worth it.
Author:  Peltz [ Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:23 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
What they need to do is develop a decoy copter, one that can shrug off everything ground launched. Now that would have a significant impact on casualty number.
Author:  Satis [ Fri Apr 30, 2010 6:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: US Army Helicopters go Pilotless
I don't think you could armor something enough to shrug off large caliber bullets, and definitely not RPGs, but perhaps something nimble enough to dodge everything? I don't see why not. Make it relatively small, put a gatling gun on it (otherwise people would just ignore it), and autonomous computer control with radar/laser to detect incoming fire and dodge it. Infrared cameras to detect launch sites for missiles and even gun barrels. Presumably the radar could pick up bullets in flight and backtrack their position. That'd be freakin' awesome.

Dodge, kill... dodge, kill... dodge kill. It could be programmed to loiter around the battle area until it comes under fire, or directly controlled by a ground-based pilot until its self-defense routines kick in.

Of course, automatically returning fire is a dangerous proposition. There's no guarantee that the people firing at it (or near it?) aren't friendlies.
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