That is a different matter. What the original post was getting at was that the US was using TLAMs at mujahids in Afghanistan hence on the wrong side of the cost equation. As i wrote, there is no documented evidence that I have come across of the weapon being used in that theater since 2001. Again, I could be very much mistaken in which case I requested that it be shared. Now the other notion was that somehow lower cost systems that are effective for the sort of low intensity conflicts would not be pushed through and instead highly expensive systems will. That as I said is not actually supported by facts. One could easily do a simple exercise..In Excel plot the number of manned fighter, ISR, and Bomber squadrons in the USAF active and reserve between 1995 and 2017 and compare that to its RPA strike and ISR squadrons over the same time-period. Regardless, as I have spoken to before the primary US RPA family has logged more than 4 Million accumulated flight hours, and averaged something like 45,000 hours of utilization a month by late last year.darshhan wrote:So basically now Great US of A should be able to defeat Pakistan-Taliban combine in Afghanistan. That's great news.brar_w wrote:Well either way, there is a 350+ aircraft/3+ million flight hour program that will fundamentally disagree with that notion.
What one may use as evidence for institutional support the amount of hard cash spent at acquiring and operating this RPA fleet but one at times fails to appreciate that as an institution a very large amount of money has been invested in making this concept work each and every day when it comes to creating, maintaining and supporting the communication nodes and the satellite constellation that makes them work. So yeah, as needs arose and technology advanced the USAF for a very long period of time spent a heck of a lot of money creating the infrastructure and back end required to support the largest large UAS force in the world that could deploy globally. Had they focused mainly on costly systems they would have focused on neglecting that track and investing in buying more F-15Es, F-15Cs, F-22As, B-2As etc etc etc