Message posted by Smythers (Member since 01/10/2010) on March 21, 2022 at 5:13:02 PST:
A new proposal by the U.S. Air Force is transforming the concept of a “Loyal Wingman” for the Northrop Grumman B-21 bomber and future Next-Generation Air Dominance aircraft. Rather than a small, reusable, autonomous aircraft that is cheap enough to sacrifice on any given mission, two new classified programs set to be proposed in the fiscal 2023 budget may call for new types of long-range uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) capable of carrying thousands of pounds of munitions, with a price tag higher by an order of magnitude compared to the low-cost, attritable systems shown to date. A new proposal for the Air Force’s “wingman” UAS concepts for the B-21 and Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) aircraft instead recalls the operational versions that were supposed to follow DARPA’s pioneering Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program before its termination in 2006. They will be designed to accompany and support crewed B-21s and NGAD fighters but will be powerful weapon systems in their own right, costing up to hundreds of millions of dollars each. “We’re looking for [uncrewed] systems that cost nominally on the order of at least half as much as the manned systems that we’re talking about for both NGAD and for [the] B-21,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in remarks at the Air Warfare Symposium on March 3. 50% Read the entire rest at link.
In Reply to: Recall when I told you that there were heavy exquisite UCAV in the shadows? posted by Smythers on March 20, 2022 at 14:34:32 PST:
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