COMMENT
flightglobal.com 3-9 March 2020 | Flight International | 7A lotta wokka
Who’s in charge?
The global military’s next generation UAVs – set to make obsolete the most
exotic of current aircraft – must spur a review of war and its consequencesGet some (more)I
t may have been a stalwart of military
aviation since the Vietnam War, but the
Chinook’s appeal seems undiminished.
Aside from its big US Army customer,
Boeing’s heavy lifter has been acquired by
serious defence players like Australia,
Canada and India.
In Europe, the list of CH-47 operators
spans the continent from Italy, Greece and
Spain in the south to the Netherlands and
the UK in the north.
Indeed, for some militaries the answer
to any shortfall in rotary-wing capability
is simply “more Chinooks”.
That list of operators may soon be
joined by France – which has expressed
an interest in taking an initial two units on
trial – plus Germany, where the CH-47F
is competing for a 60-aircraft contract
against the Sikorsky CH-53K, Lockheed
Martin’s muscular heavy-lift rival.
But the Chinook’s dominance is not
down to any innate superiority – although
it is clearly a very good aircraft – more that
it has lacked a serious rival for decades.
In particular, European industry’s
failure to address the segment has ceded
the field to Boeing.
However, with military helicopters
likely to undergo something of a revolu-
tion in the coming years as high-speed,
long-range designs enter service from the
2030s, could the likes of Airbus and
Leonardo have another crack at heavy lift?
Of course, it would take a concerted
effort from European governments to spur
such a development, but with Franco-
German collaboration already driving
work on a next-generation fighter and
medium-altitude, long-endurance un-
manned air vehicle, such teamwork is not
out of the question.
But that is years away. In the meantime,
the Chinook’s distinctive wokka-wokka
sound will continue to be heard. ■N
ot so long ago there was a good chuckle
to be had in thinking about how the PC
on your desk could outperform the room
full of big metal cases with flashing lights
and whirly tape reels that was the super-
computer of days gone by.
Today, of course, that desktop computer is
becoming another dinosaur – and the laptop
that replaced it looks vulnerable to the phone
in your pocket, which packs enough punch
to run the original Moon missions.
The critical, complicated calculations in-
volved in modern warfare may need a bit
more than that – but maybe a more rugged
laptop, not a mainframe computer. Network
a few of those laptops together and the
mainframe really does look like a fossil.
The generals and politicians who plan air
forces are starting to recognise that this
technology revolution could soon turn their
exotic fighters and bombers into T Rex with
afterburners: fierce, for sure, but yesterday’s
lord of the battlefield.
As we learn this week in our special re-
port on attritable aircraft, US defence plan-
ners with an eye on advanced Chinese
weaponry and the vast Pacific area of opera-
tions are developing unmanned air vehicles
that threaten to meet or exceed the capabili-
ties of cherished traditional programmes.
Computing power, modern sensors and
manufacturing technology may soon make
drones the unquestionably superior option. At
a fraction of the per-unit acquisition cost of a
fifth-generation fighter, such machines willsoon, for some missions, outperform crewed
options for range, payload, speed and surviva-
bility, while slashing the bill for pilots, train-
ing, maintenance and basing. So generals with
a love of ribbons, braid and brass bands had
best decide now to ditch emotional attach-
ment to their Billy Mitchell air forces and
focus on the challenges of the 21st Century.But the mindset shift needed goes way
deeper than merely replacing a human pilot
with a computer. We – all of us, and not just
the generals and politicians we charge with
our protection – need to think more broadly
about combat and its consequences.
New technology may save money, which
is good. It may also keep our people out of
harm’s way, also good. But the new genera-
tion of drones will soon be flying with the
sensors and “brain power” to decide, on our
behalf, what – or who – is a target and
whether or not to kill it.
This sort of artificial intelligence is rapid-
ly becoming science reality. We have yet to
decide who is in charge. ■
See Cover Story PThat was the futureShutterstockSee Defence PThe new generation of drones
will soon be able to decide
what – or who – is a target
and whether or not to kill it
Nick Ut/AP/Shutterstock