Way back in 2010, Elon Musk said,
The fighter jet era has passed.
And he seems to have a point. Although fully autonomous fighter planes are some way off (see above linked article), why doesn't every existing fighter plane (and, for that matter, recon and bomber aircraft) get retrofitted to allow it to be remote-controlled by a pilot sitting a thousand miles away in a simulator? With a good simulator and good communications, it would seem to allow the same maneuverability, and dynamic decision making capabilities, as being in the cockpit, and remove every pilot from harms way.
What am I missing?
And as a follow up question: Are there any fighter jets flying real missions this way now?
One answer pointed to the QF-16 as demonstrating such tech. It's true they are flown unmanned, but oddly enough they seem to undercut the possibilities that exist. For example, in this account from the Drive:
When flying the QF-16 from the ground under remote control, it’s fairly easy to make mistakes, because you don’t get the feeling of G-forces and you’re not hearing the noises from the jet. The X-ray (remote-control) pilot relies solely on computer screens and instruments. [There’s no live video feed to look at either].
Why on earth wouldn't there be video feeds, and ground-based simulators, fitted onto such a jet? This does not sound so expensive for the USAF. Even air museums have great fighter jet simulators.(This video shows some real-time footage from a QF-16 flight, but it looks like they just rigged two GoPros so they could make an ad.)
