slim vigil
Problem : If reconaissance assets are destroyed in an area of interest, it can be difficult to detect enemies without making yourself vulnerable to short range air defense.
Solution : Small recon drones certain aircraft can deploy from a pylon to act as datalink donors. These could be mounted on the Cricket, Chicane, upcoming utility helo, and maybe the Compass. It would have a loiter time of 10-15 minutes before running out of fuel.
There's a lot of different ways the player might deploy the drone. One way might be that, if fired at a target, the drone flies toward that target and orbits it at a given altitude and spots targets near it.
If fired at a target that isn't actively being spotted, it could fly toward the last known location and search in a radius around the target until it is located. If it can't find the target, it might follow another moving vehicle in the area or just maintain the orbit spotting targets.
If it is fired untargeted, it could fly along the launch heading until it spots a vehicle, then follows it.
thick maple