Reading post 503935 in main thread: Aircraft Carrier is obsolete as a modern Weapon
April 16th, 2009  
A Can of Man
 
 
But munitions are also getting smaller and more precise. UAVs can provide close air support. They have better loiter time and they are cheaper. You can deploy more of them for longer. Truly any ground pounder will really appreciate air cover that is timely and doesn't have to turn back 15 minutes after arriving on station.
As for the real heavies, B-52s have immense range and don't fit on aircraft carriers anyway. Truth is, the best CAS birds, AC-130 and the A-10 don't fly from carriers.
I think the UAV's vision is outstanding because it can look easily at places traditionally the conventional manned airplane's blind spot: below the aircraft, which is actually the most important place to look especially when hunting ground targets. The operator on the ground will actually see the image on a bigger screen and have staff to share the work with. It's like having a very large crew in an aircraft too small to hold a single person. As for 3D perspective, I don't think it's that important. If you can judge the range, that's probably good enough and UAVs can do that no sweat.
I think the nature of the carrier will change as the nature of aerial warfare will change. It's still going to take a little time before the UAV can really over take the manned aircraft but it's probably not too far off.
 
 
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