>More Air Force drones are crashing than ever as mysterious new problems emerge
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/19/more-u-s-military-drones-are-crashing-than-ever-as-new-problems-emerge/
>A record number of Air Force drones crashed in major accidents last year, documents show, straining the U.S. military’s fleet of robotic aircraft when it is in more demand than ever for counterterrorism missions in an expanding array of war zones.
>Driving the increase was a mysterious surge in mishaps involving the Air Force’s newest and most advanced “hunter-killer” drone, the Reaper, which has become the Pentagon’s favored weapon for conducting surveillance and airstrikes against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and other militant groups.
>The Reaper has been bedeviled by a rash of sudden electrical failures that have caused the 21/2-ton drone to lose power and drop from the sky, according to accident-investigation documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Investigators have traced the problem to a faulty starter-generator, but have been unable to pinpoint why it goes haywire or devise a permanent fix.
Even Chinese and Russian drones crash less now.
Air Force is worst force
More news at 11
Except neither Russia nor China have actual UCAVs
>>28620545
>yfw they are actually crashing into insurgent camps because they had too much fun letting off hellfires
That's what happens when you log in a ridiculous number of flight hours onto aircraft. Drones are beat to shit because they don't have a human crew ergo it's only a money loss if it crashes.
There's also a shortage of drone pilots and existing ones are putting in way more hours then they normally would be allowed to. Working six days a week, in 12 hour combat shifts (even if it's just a chair) fucking destroys people if it happens for more than a month or so.
>Even Chinese and Russian drones crash less now.
Surprising, what is the accident rate per flying hours of Russian and Chinese UCAV's?
>>28620589
I wish we had this issue in canaduh. I'd love to operate a drone
>>28620545
I wonder what the actual failure rate is per flight hour. It could be something as simple as the US having more drones in use.
>Air Force
When they aren't committing fratricide, being fat, yapping about holiday parties and bitching about women's issues they are crashing into nothing. Brilliant. And their SOF is irrelevant.
Remember to spit on an Airfag. For the good of the tax payer.
>>28620545
USAF ON SUICIDE WATCH
>>28620589
>>28620605
>yfw you realize often civilians operate the drones and a military guy comes in to pull the trigger
>>28620619
Literally, read up on this faggot and his mom.
>>28620589
Not to mention, whereas something like a starter generator failure would ground a manned fleet and force the problem to be identified and fixed, with these drones they're just not giving 2 shits.
Air Farce
Reminder that their SOF is the easiest way to get into the SOF community.
Reminder that their air assets have contributed to more Canadian and British military deaths than the Talibs ever did.
Remember to spit on an airman or make it suck your dick to pass the time. LOL
>>28620623
That's not true in the slightest
>While Air Force leaders have publicly bemoaned a lack of personnel and resources, they have said little about the high number of drone crashes, a long-standing vulnerability that worsened substantially last year.
>Ten Reapers were badly damaged or destroyed in 2015, at least twice as many as in any previous year, according to Air Force safety data.
>The Reaper’s mishap rate — the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown — more than doubled compared with 2014. The aircraft, when fully equipped, cost about $14 million each to replace.
>The Air Force’s other primary drone model, the Predator, also suffered heavy casualties.
>An older and less capable version of the Reaper, the Predator was involved in 10 major accidents last year. That’s the most since 2011, when the U.S. military was simultaneously surging troops into Afghanistan and withdrawing ground forces from Iraq.
embarrassing.
>>28620589
why don't they just use fat NEET who play fly sim all day long ?
i bet those guy would do it for free if provided with food shelter and some CIA slave pussy
>>28620589
I wonder why they don't do it in 4 hour watches instead of burning people out. Besides, they should de-officierize drones, besides when a trigger needs pulling.
>>28620672
Air Farce tendency to blame everyone else but themselves. Its a cultural thing, please be understanding.
>>28620635
http://gazette.com/el-paso-county-coroner-air-force-academy-cadet-mother-committed-suicide/article/1553049
>stab yourself 28 times
>mother poisons herself with antihistamine
not much about this makes sense
>>28620623
Yep, that does happen. Or it's a civilian sitting in a chair while his .mil colleague sits right behind him. The fact that we're at this point just goes to show how totally unprepared the AF was for drones, because while they got all the technical stuff out of the way they didn't have the training programs to get more pilots in.
>>28620638
Totally. That was my point: drones are beat to shit because they're fully expendable.
>>28620675
>embarrassing
You think the Air Farce knows what shame is?
The same branch that let pic related happen?
>>28620714
Its the Air Farce, they don't need to make sense.
Here is another Air Farce faggot who smoked himself. Guess he just realized he was Air Farce.
>>28620703
Because they just don't have the manpower
>>28620704
I was reading some .mil mag and some general was blaming their military academy for not having enough drone pilot slots.
The technical issues aren't a problem since drones can be bought wholesale and easily replaced. What is a problem is that there's a limited number of pilots, and the more they work the more stressed they get. Which increases the chance of another ft hood.
>>28620736
Automate it. Fuck the middle man.
>>28620714
chair force = faggot academics
The AF is the "gentleman's" branch, because it's very technical (ie lots of places for college grads to slot in) and high pay (since everyone's an officer).
Unlike the army, navy or marines the AF does not require nearly the same amount of grabassery and horseplay from officers or enlisted. Which means that rich people naturally float into it. Which means you also get rich people problems, namely a high suicide rate due to the heavy academic competition.
>>28620545
>more flights than ever
>more crashes than ever
Man, I love how Washington Compost BTFOs itself within their own articles.
>>28620545
More US drones are flying than ever, so there's more chances for incidents
>>28620703
Because that requires more people, which they simply don't have. De-officerization won't ever happen, because that would >imply that enlisted (such as army boots) could fly fixed wing aircraft (which is a no-no). The current use of civilians is a stopgap measure that nobody likes, because civilians are civilians and thus can't be NJP'd/bullied into compliance like military staffs can. Also because civilians demand a higher pay and benefits, and they could possibly unionize and go on strike (thus fucking with the chain of command). Remember, most of these people are working out of offices in Virginia and Maryland.
>>28620545
>tfw my country doesn't even have drones to crash
What about them is SOF again? What do they do that 160th SOAR can't?
>>28620722
The Air Farce didn't "let" that pic happen. Those two that's did that shit in their uniforms without consulting anybody.
My sister in law works with them both.
Women in general are terrible, but every one of them I've ever known who served in the military were goddamned heathen cuntbeasts. Especially my sister in law.
>>28620826
>What about them is SOF again?
the entire reasons drones exist as they do is because they can do things that may not be politically palatable
For example, imagine if Obama was using B-52s on ISIS and not drone strikes. His base would revolt, like they did with the attempted no-fly zone over Syria. And should one actually get shot down, we'd have a video of ISIS defiling American corpses or executing them.
tl;dr political reasons. Obama can get away with putting "advisers" and "special forces" into a lot of places, but not regular troops.
>>28620925
You do know the majority of US airstrikes on ISIS are being done by manned bombers and fighters right?
>>28620941
as far as we know, Obama is going full Cambodia on ISIS and Yemen at the moment
>>28620811
According to this book, there are a number of enlisted SEALs that can pilot drones. I'm sure enlisted men outside of the SEAL community can do it too.
>>28620545
>mfw the US Army drones crash a lot less then our fucking air force.
Do we need to bring back the army air corps as another fixed wing redundant air force like what the navy and marines have?
How many branches within branches do we need? The air force Ground Corp? The Naval Inland Expeditionary Force?
Jesus christ.
This is how airfags pass the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hVoLIqFEi4
Disband the air force.
Pic related is another wonderful product of the Air Farce
>>28620568
Let me direct you to this thread:
>>28606459
CHinese drones are racking up quite a bit of kills recently, and are increasingly popular with states that cant get uncle sam's toys.
>>28620680
It's perfect until one of em eventually spergs out and rains hellfire on Daisy Ridley, or whichever flavor of the month actress everyone's orbiting because she didn't respond to the pile of erotic fan fiction he sent the day before
>>28621038
>air force Ground Corp
TACPs, nonners
>Naval Inland Expeditionary Force?
US Marine Corps
>>28621065
And they crash less.
That's right, the USAF is the only 1st world branch worse than Russia/China's equivalents.
>>28621028
>Dick Couch
I wonder how he was conceived..
>>28621072
No bruv, its about those Daddario Double Ds
>>28621079
kek
>>28621079
so
the entire point of drones is that they are expendable
>>28621077
Yeah that's what I'm referring to.
Have redundant units that supplant those you just mentioned, because Pentagon loves spending dem freedom bucks. And 'special' units just love compartimalization and dick waving.
>>28621056
what are you going to replace the air force with, the USN is already bloated as fuck and the army works good enough
we could just replace the air force with a nationalized, defense-only airline for strategic airlift purposes, and then let them have weapons and so forth so they can bomb things too
>>28621028
Different kind of drone, nygguh
>>28621079
I don't suppose you're trying to shill in this thread?
Let's just say that they have UCAV. How capable they are relative to the ones belonged to USAF remains to be seen (and thats not the point anyway).
Thing is, the reapers and avengers have ben deployed for the last 5, 6 years now. They bound to have structural fatigues as well as worn out components since they've been flown round to clock not only in Afghanistan, but also Iraq, Libya, Somalia, south america, hell perhaps even Best Korea. You can't compare a 6 years old drone with a brand new chink UCAV that those towelheads bought last year. Of course now drone would be less likely to crash than older ones, no matter who built it or now advanced the electronics are.
>>28621146
The author said they went to the same school and pilot the same drones as USAF pilots.
>>28620589
This. I'm applying for the RAF and they're pushing RPAS (drone pilot) pretty hard right now.
Probably the same across the pond.
>USAF can't keep big hobby planes in the air
fucking hilarious, they should just give up now and let the more effective and better chinese take over.
>>28621056
Thats how the women and PoC's spend their time since they are only there to meet quotas
Anyways crashing drones is likely them getting rid of old shit without scrapping them.
>>28620714
>The autopsy report for Alexandre, an astronautics senior who made several dean's and commandant's lists, details 28 wounds, from incisions to stabbings, of his neck, forehead, scalp, eyelid, chin, left leg, chest and upper abdomen.
"suicide"
And then his mother "suicides" as well
>The autopsy also cited scattered blunt-force injuries but gave no explanation for those.
And people believe we live in a free country, when the government openly murders people like this.
>>28620545
>Chinese and Russian drones
>that never fly
FTFY
>>28620591
Whatever stats they feel like making up this week.
>>28624024
Ask the Iraqis and Nigerians, they are the only ones operating Chinese drones in combat situation. And their records show one single CH-3B crashed. No more.
>>28622079
Russian drones are flying all over Syria, Armenia, Belarus and Eastern Ukraine and Chinese drones are flying combat missions over Iraq and all over Africa.
>>28624024
It's next to impossible to hide crashes these days due to social media. Even the OP article says that AF had to admit a bunch of crashes because the images appeared on twitter/Facebook/etc.
