Navy Drone Crash in Maryland

[Hacker15e]

You must not have read "Lt. Col. Craig Fisher of the 64th Aggressor Squadron said:...." that was the authoritative source..

That's actually not his quote at all. The Pop Sci author actually wrote everything that is in bold and underline in your post #56.

In the article, Fisher says (discussing his fighting the F-22 while flying the F-15C),

"We never got close to them," Lt. Col. Craig Fisher of the 64th Agressor Squadron said in a videotaped interview. "It was very much an unfair fight."

He's speaking specifically to the Raptor's capabilities, which I completely agree are quite impressive. I've stated this numerous times in my own posts, that when I fought the Raptor in the F-15E, all the members of my squadron were absolutely annihilated in fights which numerically favored the Eagle, and, like Fisher, none of us never even got close to the Raptors. That is also the end of his quoted contribution to the article -- he does not discuss the future of combat, nor the likelihood of WVR engagements in future conflicts.

The quote you're hanging your hat on,

The nature of air war has changed, and close-range visual combat might never happen again.

...is written by the un-named authors of the piece, presumably the PopSci editorial staff.

Regardless of the legitimacy of PopSci as a news and technology discussion source (I agree that it's a fine magazine -- I used to subscribe to it years ago), I stand by my mockery of the idea that it is in any way an authority on air-to-air combat tactics.

 

[///AMG]

I fully agree with Hacker on this one. There is a reason we train heavily to WVR engagements. If professional technology commentators or Ivy Tower senior O's with a dog in the acquisitions fight can't agree, then so be it.....they have their reasons for saying the things they do, regardless of the legitimacy of their claims. They also don't train to this mission on a daily basis. I think the historical record of air to air engagements in the last 20 years (the era of LO aircraft and advanced air to air weapons) speaks volumes to what is reality, and what is not.

 

[Minuteman]

http://www.engr.utexas.edu/features/humphreysspoofing

A University of Texas at Austin research team successfully demonstrated for the first time that the GPS signals of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, can be commandeered by an outside source — a discovery that could factor heavily into the implementation of a new federal mandate to allow thousands of civilian drones into the U.S. airspace by 2015.

Cockrell School of Engineering Assistant Professor Todd Humphreys and his students were invited by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to attempt the demonstration in White Sands, New Mexico in late June.

 

[MikeD]

University of Texas Research team successfully demonstrated for the first time?

The Iranians will be very disappointed at that claim, as they have been doing it for much longer.

 

[Hacker15e]

GPS spoofing isn't exactly a new technique or technology.