Joerg Fliege

2022-08-13 22:18:20

Necro-aircraft and necro-pilots.

Recent news reports document Russia converting various An-2 passenger and cargo aircraft — old Soviet biplanes that first flew in 1947 — into drones, possibly as decoys to trigger air defenses. China has caught on too, converting 1950s Soviet jets into drones to serve as either decoys or for overwhelming an adversary. [...] Decades later, the U.S. military continues to convert old aircraft into drones for target practice.

The United States should go a step farther: instead of using old aircraft for target practice, weaponize them and throw them at an adversary. The U.S. military should harvest American and allied aircraft graveyards (both military and civil) to generate cheap, unmanned mass. This will require careful inventories and inspections of aircraft in the graveyards to assess flightworthiness, the feasibility of conversion to remote or autonomous flight, and options for weaponizing. Adding long-range guns, bombs, or missiles might work for some undead aircraft, while others may only be suitable for kamikaze attacks. The broad range of aircraft involved also suggest the Air Force may require specialized pilots — call them necro-pilots, maybe — able to comfortably handle a variety of undead aircraft that may be missing parts or fly a bit janky.

Undead aircraft could serve a variety of military functions. The most obvious is filling the aircraft with explosives, then carrying out a kamikaze strike. Aircraft confined to the boneyard are not doing anything, so cavalierly throwing them against an adversary only costs the time and technology to prepare the aircraft. The aircraft’s long range makes them well-suited to deep-strike attacks against softer targets, like rail bridges. Their low cost also means many undead aircraft can be thrown against a target. Depending on the target, smarter, more advanced munitions may be kept in reserve, saving stocks for when they are really needed. Alternatively, the aircraft may carry bombs, missiles, or other weapons that allow it to carry out multiple attacks against multiple targets. This could be quite effective as a first-wave attack in advance of manned aircraft: The undead aircraft and other decoys trigger radar and air defenses that can be countered with anti-radiation missiles. If undead aircraft make it through the air defenses, they might be able to crash into targets and cause some damage too.

Necro-Aeronautics: Raising Undead Aircraft for War - War on the Rocks

^{Leigh Kaplan (War on the Rocks)}