Uncrewed aircraft may eventually provide fleet numbers while crewed types take on difficult specialist work. Such a force would need more satellites and communications infrastructure. Water takeoffs and landings leave little margin for error, as the earlier US-2 accident illustrates. An autonomous system able to make those judgments could require substantial computing power and support. If the fleet needs only a small number of aircraft for this role, keeping pilots aboard may cost less.
Chapter · 38:21-39:49
Why a crewed US-2 may survive in an uncrewed fleet
Uncrewed aircraft may provide mass, but satellite links, communications support, and difficult water operations could keep a small fleet of crewed US-2s useful.