On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Pierce Nichols wrote:
> >And their reliability record, so far, makes expendable launchers look
> >wonderful. And it's not because people haven't been trying hard.
>
> What about Global Hawk and Predator? They are remotely piloted as
> opposed to autonomous, but my impression is that they have a good
> reliability record.
Good only by unmanned-aircraft standards. Military drone operators expect
loss rates that would be utterly unacceptable to most anyone else.
Predator attrition rates are quite high, and it's not because people are
shooting them down. They crash, or crack up on landing, or drop out of
communication without warning. I'm not current on Global Hawk's record,
but I don't think it's any better.
The last numeric comparison I heard -- slightly old -- put the accident
rate of unmanned aircraft at about 2000x that of manned aircraft.
Henry Spencer
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