Future Fighters Won't Need Ejection Seats

Dr. Tom writes "The U.S. has deployed more than 11,000 military drones, up from fewer than 200 in 2002. They carry out a wide variety of missions while saving money and American lives. Within a generation they could replace most manned military aircraft, says John Pike, a defense expert at the think tank GlobalSecurity.org. Pike suspects that the F-35 Lightning II, now under development by Lockheed Martin, might be 'the last fighter with an ejector seat, and might get converted into a drone itself.' The weakest link is the pilot. A jet could pull 15 Gs, out-turning any conventional aircraft, except it would kill the pilot. Is it time to stop spending billions on obsolete aircraft?"

Re:Hope no one hacks our entire Air Force one day

[noh8rz10]

I would install gps controls so it could never attack anything in the US. Then we'd be safe.

What's the rush?

[ReallyEvilCanine]

Install ejection seats on the remote pilots' chairs would certainly serve as a strong deterrent to unsafe manoeuvres as well as providing a means for a broad range of disciplinary actions.

Re:There will always be a physological need

[robinsonne]

Yes, but it's actually preferable if the cruise missile doesn't come back.

Re:Hope no one hacks our entire Air Force one day

[ArcadeMan]

Yes of course, the USA military switched to military-grade frequencies and waveforms that nobody else on the planet can use.

think more differently for a brighter futar

[Thud457]

And how do you plan on making this world "safer" when all the bad guys are using weapons to KILL YOU?

A. Give them all $25,000 / year to not kill us. And go learn a productive skill. And stop abusing their women.

B. Or just hire 10,000,000 sluts to give everyone blowjobs. That might require a crash cloning program to keep the gender ratios at the right level...

C. Establish free pot / hash / heroin dispensaries in troubled areas.


There's a myriad of potential solutions that don't involve expensive killing people or blowing things up[*] if you put your mind to it.

[*] granted, blowing things up is cool. But most of the time, it's a destructive process with no productive result.

Re:Hope no one hacks our entire Air Force one day

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Missiles go ~mach 8-10.

Please check your Internet connection, your post from 2027 seems to have traveled (will have traveled?) back in time. It's 2013 here and the fastest A-A missiles don't go above Mach 4.5, with some S-A missiles reaching Mach 6.