Some are expendable; others are just expensive

This PPRuNE thread reminds me of something from the archives.

During a meeting we had not long ago, the increasing sophistication and cost of the Unpersonned Aircraft was raised – because by becoming too sophisticated and HVAA in nature, they were in some danger of becoming too valuable to risk in certain scenarios. Rather defeating their purpose.

I’ve long thought that if the loss-rate for UAVs is higher than manned aircraft (which is both the point of UAVs and also true) that as they become more complicated their costs will steadily converge on those of manned aircraft. This now appears to be happening.