Quote Originally Posted by Mark O'Neill View Post
You cited a certain platform: Work out the accurals on a P-3 and crew.............. and that is without getting one 'lost'. 'Robot spuds in' makes a far better headline for any government than '13 aircrew die a horrible death' , even before one calculates any other costs
Well aware and that's all pretty obvious, but what if you have P-3 in theatre anyway? The issues related to cost, is that you have P-3s anyway, and they cost what they cost. You can't stack them and see a reduction is cost without loosing big time in capability and skills fade.

I just used the P-3 as an example, but put another way, "Big War" mission, chasing subs. "Small War " mission, -something else. Could me good to ask the same question of the MQ-9s?