Ace or not?

[Rugbyref]

If one of our pilots shot down 5 Iranian UAVs last night, would he/she be an ace, or is there a requirement for the target to be crewed?

[Nighthawke]

Didn't V-1s count in WWII, and if they did have the "rules" changed?

[UKADGE]

I believe drones count. But some countries may not advertise the fact, due to political sensitivities.

[marku51]

There were a number of articles in February about a US Marine pilot being hailed as the first US Ace since Vietnam after shooting down drones, here is one:

https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/red ... -50-years/

I did think that it was interesting that while Harriers never saw service in Vietnam it was still an aircraft that started flying in there era and it is still around and able to do the job.

[Sparts99]

meh it would be more impressive getting the crews flying the drones

I'd have thought they had preprogrammed flight paths rather than controllers.

[lardyboy999]

Didn't that F22 driver get a "kill" for the Chinese balloon last year?

[Ghastly Whisper]

meh it would be more impressive getting the crews flying the drones

I'd have thought they had preprogrammed flight paths rather than controllers.

Somebody has to programme or control them somewhere. They also have to be released from somewhere, take out those avenues, no more drones.

[Sparts99]

I had a read up on the Iranian drones, there's a good link from the general chat thread about them. It looks like the drones can be programmed using GPS, hence they have a bit of ECM to help deal with GPS jamming. With mobile launchers being used getting at the infrastructure will be really hard. There probably is a known location somewhere in Iran where all the prep work happens and the attack was co-ordinated from which is where I'd imagine any response will be aimed at. If the specific nature of the attack was known in advance there could have been a pre-emptive strike but as most countries are saying restraint is the order of the day that would have been inflammatory and gifted the Iranians a diplomatic advantage. As it was the response to the attack was very effective, I can't help thinking that wasn't reactive but pre-planned.

[STN RAMP RAT]

We are nearing "thread drift", the original question was "ace or not". There is a seperate thread in the General chat part of the board viewtopic.php?f=90&t=242560 for a wider discussion on the attacks.