AIR FORCE'S FUTURE JETS MAY LACK STANDARD FEATURE - HUMAN PILOTS.

Byline: Michael E. Ruane Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

They would fly at 12 times the speed of sound and be largely invisible on radar. They could soar to 150,000 feet and withstand incredible heat and g-forces. And they would carry "directed energy," precision-guided and hypersonic weapons.

That's how the Air Force sees its 21st century fighter jets - filled with mind-bending new features and with one large stumbling block removed. There won't be a pilot around to slow things down.

Indeed, as described in a new Air Force study, battle would be waged by fast, invisible planes called UCAVs - uninhabited combat air vehicles - that would gain much of their ability from the absence of on-board humans.

Suggesting a bit the new sci-fi movie, "Screamers," about menacing robots, the UCAVs would relentlessly hunt down the enemy, aided by a sweeping array of sensors that could detect an opponent's most minute false move and bring down destruction in minutes.

But the Air Force is not dealing in science fiction.

Its study - "New World Vistas: Air and Space Power for the 21st Century" - was commissioned by the Air Force Secretary Sheila E. Widnall to make a serious examination of air conflict of the future.

A summary of the study, conducted by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, was detailed Wednesday at the Pentagon by Widnall and the science board's chairman, Gene H. McCall.

"We have . . . attempted to define some possibilities," McCall said, "and we have defined a path to the future, which begins today."

Projecting well into the next century, the study envisions a battlefield ordered by such things as global sensing systems, "information munitions" and fleets of robot aircraft.

There would be huge technical obstacles to be overcome in reaching these goals, the report says. One of the largest challenges would be mitigating human frailty.

Take the UCAV. For one thing, the report says, it would enable "the use of aircraft and weapon technologies that cannot be used in an aircraft that contains a human . . . For many missions the uninhabited aircraft will provide capabilities far superior to those of its inhabited cousins."

"For example," the report says, "shape and function will not be constrained by a cockpit, a human body or an ejection seat."

Further, "UCAV survivability can be increased by increasing maneuverability beyond that which can be tolerated by a human pilot." Humans can tolerate 9 or 10 Gs of acceleration, the report says, while a UCAV might be designed to accelerate to 20 Gs.

Humans are so serious a variable, the report states, that it might be wise to conduct human "modeling," the same way the Pentagon models Army units or weapons systems.

"We do not . . . model the individual behavioral characteristics of humans," the report said. "Significant improvements in simulations of engagements could be made by including human qualities such as leadership, cohesion, experience, intelligence and level of training."

And while "detailed physical models of humans will be available in the design of weapons systems, improved modeling of human structure, motion and performance will provide valuable input to the design of new weapons."