Message posted by Vahe Demirjian (Member since 04/28/2022) on June 26, 2024 at 9:21:10 PST:
The XRQ-73 is similar to the XRQ-72 Great Horned Owl in being a hybrid electric powered aircraft, but utilizes stealth attributes and has its engines buried in the wing like those of the "RQ-180", not to mention lacking the upturned fins at the wingtips. While it's still unclear why the Great Horned Owl was designated as XRQ-72 rather than Q-28 even though the Air Force Research Laboratory requested an X-series design number for it, it's good that the Defense Department assigned the next Q-series designation in sequence following XRQ-72 to the SHEPARD. The Valkyrie and OBSS were only designated in the Q-series despite borrowing the numbers 58 and 67 respectively from the X-series designation sequence only due to these drones being designed for a variety of military applications, and despite being in some respects experimental like the XRQ-72, the XRQ-73 is geared towards future military needs.
In Reply to: DARPA SHEPARD posted by noskcaJ on June 25, 2024 at 21:42:29 PST:
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