No autonomous vehicle made by the US has attack / strike capabilities yet. The J-UCAS / J-UCAV was proposed and demo vehicles were made, but they are not even close to operational. I would imagine the blackhawk will be a similar situation where it starts out as a transport vehicle for the foreseeable future.
Tomahawk cruise missiles are autonomous vehicles, as are stand-off anti-tank weapons that loiter on parachutes after deployment and choose their own target tanks.
Israel have built an anti-radar missile that has cruise capability, allowing it to loiter above a theatre waiting for something to make an active radar lock. I think (but am not sure) that it can even land safely for reuse after a set time frame if unused.
I think initially this could be more effectively used for transporting the helicopters from one place to another, such as another base.
You are right though, aircraft like the Global Hawk operate at altitudes that are safe from enemies, so operationally they are easier to reason with for autonomous use.
You can get a support contract on the OSS version as well and just use what you pay for. If you need Multi-Site replication though, yes that's a EDS thing.
I was under the impression that Basho specifically chose not to provide paid support for the OSS version. Were you speaking of other companies offering support, or is this a new thing?
