Screw Manned Air Power—Drones Could Change Everything -- Rob Farley, War Is Boring
An excerpt from ‘Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force’
The novelty of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles can obscure how well they fit within traditional air power theory. Drones’ capacity for combining persistent surveillance with precision-guided munitions makes them useful for air campaigns designed to detach the sinews of enemy military and governmental institutions.
Indeed, if neoclassical air power theory is about leveraging intelligence and surveillance to achieve political and strategic effect, drones are ideal platforms. Drones’ vulnerability to surface and air attack—at least by sophisticated opponent—is ameliorated by their lower material and human costs.
While certain very sophisticated opponents could potentially prevent drones from functioning within part of the battle space—either by making it inhospitable for slow, defenseless aircraft or severing the data link that drones depend on—forcing an enemy to pay the costs of defeating drones is probably, on balance, worth it to many attackers.
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My Comment: The US Navy is in complete agreement with this analysis.
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