The drone war; drones in modern warfare

The drone war; drones in modern warfare

Calm down, Colonel: you know the severe limitations of drones, starting with the lack of flexibility due to limitations during flight, without the ability to improvise and unforeseen situations and incidents, the drone becomes very easy prey for a human-piloted aircraft; then comes autonomy, which depends heavily on speed, size and autonomy, which determines the design with large wings, low speed, turboprop engine in a trade-off between hypersonic performance and stratospheric costs without the ability to be reused. In this case, the trade-off is a dilemma between a cheap, more simplified, disposable drone without great explosives transport capacity and low speed and autonomy versus lethality capacity, or the choice of a very expensive, sophisticated drone with active and passive protective measures with high technology for disposable use, as opposed to a very flexible aircraft, piloted with reusability, flexibility and with an intelligence that can improvise and perform alternative maneuvers that are not always anticipated and planned thanks to the human pilot.

Roberto da Silva Rocha, professor universitário e cientista político