gambit
PROFESSIONAL
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DO NOT associate what the US does with our UAVs to be technically feasible for everyone. At the component level, yes, Pakistan can do UAVs and high probability with ease. But at the infrastructure level, Pakistan faces huge hurdles.actual pilots are obsolete now - that's so clear
Pakistan definitely needs to invest more heavily in UAVs
You have to look at this at the conceptual/philosophical level, which then set the engineering directions. What is the link between pilot and his aircraft ? His limbs. Simple as that. He make a decision to do X, sends a command to his arm to do X, the aircraft via the control stick translate his physical movements into electrical impulses to do X.
With a UAV, this relationship now have several more and lengthier links. Each link have vulnerabilities that must be guarded and nothing is perfect. Radio links are conceptually/philosophically no different than the joints in your arm. The problem with radio links is line-of-sight (LOS) limit.
For example...
- If your link to the UAV is blocked by a mountain, how fast can your UAV becomes autonomous and continues the mission ?
- While being autonomous, how sophisticated is the programming to give the UAV the options to deal with variables, such as hostile radars, queries for identification from friendlies and enemies, and/or even physical threats ?
- If, and once, you re-established communication link with the UAV, what is the priority of mission update, as in what it encountered while you were virtually absent, or the current situation, which may be that it is trying evade threats ? Think about this for a moment. If the UAV is trying to evade radars and missiles, why should it bother to tell you what happened while the two of you were out of communication ? Even more important, if the UAV is trying to survive threats, why should it relinquish its autonomy to your authority ? While you were trying to digest the current situation, the UAV would be flying straight and level, waiting for you, then a missile comes. Now you just lost a valuable combat asset.
The reason why we are successful with our UAV program and fleet is because we have an established link infrastructure, notably satellites to deal with the LOS issue. Not every country can afford this.
