There is an opportunity to ask the 'what could it do?' part of the question and also what would we WANT/LIKE it to do.
Just thoughts, the 'brainstorming' thing of throwing suggestions out at random:
- have 3 buoy fields out there when you are looking for something 'in a general area'. That could be one nice fat field no? Have MPA fly center, possibly 2 RPA(M)s flying outer monitoring. ASOs on MPA can call up/command/control any/all buoys at any time. If you go hot on one of the ends, MPA and RPA(M) switch places so MPA can do its thing. The RPA(M) is a sensor platform only, no kill stores. Sono deploy/monitor. Add a lightweight MAD (I know people think MAD is going to the way-side, my recent experience says otherwise). You then have 2 sensors to gain and maintain contact/Atk Cri while MPA is inbound. I don't know much about how low-slow a modern RPA can fly but MAD altitudes would be nice. 300-500. I would like to do some quick research to see if there is any kind of lightweight RADAR that would be even worth talking about but...no idea. Just something to think about. nice to be able to flood with RF on a deter type gig.
- MPA out farther, use RPA for closer to homeplate ops. In our case, a must with no platform to launch/recover.
- MPA open ocean, RPA 'choke points'.
Is there a possible benefit? I see some, yes. Of course I am in support of 'buy enough MPAs to do the job!" but..I am also a realist and I don't know if anyone, us included, can or will do that in the near future.
Forget kill stores I say, but that is also without spending time to find out the specs on what these things can carry and how much 1 or 2 fish would affect their on-sta, transit, all that stuff.
Government might buy into this as a 'cheaper' way to flush-out MPA Sqns and their caps; we may as well start asking the 'what can we do with this and what are we going to ask for bells and whistles'. Far better to get something useful by having positive input?
Although, for Canada, even this discussion is an exercise in the 'not in my lifetime' file IMO. 8)