Without digital control of actuators, the mechanical control may not be enough for maneuvering ability of MiG21 plane. Drones are slow for a reason - they can't stabilise when fast due to difficulty in maneuvering ability and ability to balance in fluctuating winds. If you want MiG21 to fly at high speeds of 800kmph (0.7Mach), then you need digital FBW or a pilot sitting inside.
If a pilot sitting in the cockpit can maneuver, then an auto-pilot can do it better!!!
Turbulence (fluctuating winds?) are best handled by auto-pilot than a pilot. That's why aircraft like Tejas are superior!
Also, a remote operator doesn't need to 'fly' the aircraft every millisecond! He gives input every now and then and the auto-pilot does the rest (much better than a pilot would sitting in the cockpit - hence the upgrade to Jaguar too)
Further, unlike a regular pilot who's is trained to do (& does) extreme maneuvers, a UCAV need not! It just needs to take-off, cruise & land (just like Rustom would, only travelling much faster and with shit load of more payload)
The high speed is difficult without immediate response from a pilot sitting inside. No matter what, the transmission, reception and retransmission will have some time lag. Telephones have latency of 0.1 second and such latency is to be expected for the drone too. The other parameters like flutter, turbulence etc are hard to understand sitting in a simulator. Sensor integration in a manual aircraft like MiG21 is very difficult.
Firstly, no immediate response is needed.
LOS control signals will get to the aircraft in less then 100 micro seconds! Satellite use might increase delay a wee bit but is irrelevant! MQ9, Avenger etc all use satellite communication and are able to control and combat effectively!
Remember, Mig21 may be old but the comm devices and software will be state-of-the-art!
So, merely stabilised EO is not enough to ride at higher speed. Direct feeling of all the sensors are also needed. In addition as I mentioned above, digital FBW is needed for any high speed flight stabilisation, not just supersonic flight.
No direct feeling required! That's the whole idea of 'autonomous' flight!
If Mig21/Jaguars can fly 'stabilized' in high speed realms without FBW, then they'll fly even better with auto-pilot (no FBW needed). FBW will definitely make the implementation much more easy (signals from the operator in digital form can be directly applied to the FBW); without FBW, the signals will be fed to the a computer that will run some mechanical devices in the cockpit!
I am not bent on fuel price. I am bent on range and loiter time. Rustom 2 has lot of loiter time and hence can do surveillance in addition to strike. MiG21 will be only strike and that too in limited manner which is not useful. If we know the exact location of the target beforehand, we would rather hit with a missile like Nirbhay in a pin point precision strike. If we don't know the location, we would need the UCAV to first survey the area and then strike. Since MiG21 can't survey due to limited loiter time, it is not useful as UCAV
As I said earlier the idea is not a replacement/substitute for Rustom/Nirbhay, but to complement the arsenal. It's a DIRT CHEAP way of getting kick-ass combat capability. Even if 20%-30% are lost due to malfunction, it's no big deal!!
