Hacker News Reader

I don't think CAS stuff is well suited for drones (at least not the current stuff). You want lots of ordnance and you want the forward observer on the ground to not have to talk to someone possibly 100's of miles away right?

Also, I don't know that I buy that the drone pilot has the same local/situational awareness that a pilot sitting in an A-10/Apache does.

View on HN

Why? The drone pilot has been flying around that area for much longer than the A10. He is a fully trained pilot as well, except he has fantastic cameras and doesn't really have to worry about dying. I think you are underestimating the effectiveness of remotely piloted aircraft.

You could definitely be right. Whats the latency like for drone control? Is latency low enough that fast low altitude/tight terrain flight isn't a problem?

Guess you could always turn something like a AC-130 into a drone too.

Also, isn't that one of the yet unrealized capabilities of a drone? You can have a control unit embedded with the forward observer so they can directly control the drone. Depending on their design you could have them land at the nearest FOB or directly at the line and re-arm it as desired.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com