The Air Force’s Drone-Only Future?

Many people gloss over the flight configurations for the F-35 multi-role/function fighter soon to be rolled out in the next few years. Hidden in plain view is the capability of the aircraft to be flown unmanned – as a drone. Sit back and think a minute. The current “drones” in the inventory are located near hostile operational theaters. There, ground crews configure the craft with the necessary payloads for the next mission profile. At the appropriate time, a flight crew at the station both taxi's and launches the aircraft. Once airborne, the “drone” makes contact with specific satellites in known configurations and controls are handed over to the mission crew back in the states somewhere. Once the mission is complete, the drone is handed back over to the local area flight crews which land the craft and the ground crews begin to service it for the next mission profile. The only change to the current scenario would be a pilot sitting in an F-35 flight simulator at SomeBase, USA and being fed all the visual and weapons information in realtime. He sees the video straight out of the on board optics and can lock his view at any opportunity that presents itself. The only draw back is time. Transmitting those signals and responses takes time – quite a number of seconds – and targets of opportunities could easily be lost. But still, the pilot is half way around the world and can fight another day if his drone is lost and there are more drones available to fly than there are pilots.