Message posted by n01_b4_flash (Member since 01/29/2012) on July 28, 2023 at 15:19:30 PST:
Lockheed and Boeing the fight for trophy is hapenning. The Southwestern US bases are now full of work and had to stand on with tight schedules. Northrop went different way and now is in hands of Navy with their outgoing F/A-XX project. The majority of autonomous systems to work with it are on their way to succeed also. Now, if we think about it for a second it may be quite entertaining and interesting process. Northrop was prepared to NGAD bid with their bird but changing plans and focuses on Navy now. The Northrop F/A-XX on the other hand goes through mechanical and materials change with modernization of its gear to prepare it for less gently landings, especially on carriers. I give it 3-4 months to do the modernization and one year to full aircraft being prepared for ops and achieving IOC milestones. This is the time the new, refreshed hangars are to get the new occupants and new mission. Would not think the China Lake could be the only place. How about putting some quantity of the fleet to places like TTR where they have a lot of spare(I guess) hangars and plans to built new infrastructure that some folks here mentioned. Lets think for a while. Would be Navy's F/A-XX something akin to NGAD that is consisted of both unmanned and manned assets. One manned aircraft and at least a few unmanned systems following it? Can we suppose them being standalone programs not connected to eachother? I guess no. Progression of technological advances points modern aviation to avoid taking human in the cockpit so, sadly though, I think the era is slowly getting to history and upcoming dacades will find plenty of systems operated autonomously. *Narrative voice* Are NGAD and F/A-XX programs the last ones the be the partly manned assets?
I think it was not a case in the past for Groom playing as an developement base for Navy so I believe they are going to take their toys out of Groom and reside them to places like China Lake where Navy is basing.
Well, I guess we will have to wait and see!
Replies: