First Flight XB47

[ardowling]

One sexy bird:evilg:

[twa]

Coming along pretty well.

[Larry]

Gotta admit that I find myself thinking that we sure are spending a lot of money on the assumption that we will always have secure, reliable, communications over the battlefield.

I also find myself wondering just how stealthy an aircraft can be while maintaining constant, high-bandwidth, two-way radio communication.

[Dan T.]

I wouldn't call it sexy. It looks like a flying won ton dumpling. Cool though.

[Hubbs]

Gotta admit that I find myself thinking that we sure are spending a lot of money on the assumption that we will always have secure, reliable, communications over the battlefield.

I also find myself wondering just how stealthy an aircraft can be while maintaining constant, high-bandwidth, two-way radio communication.

That's always been my problem with unmanned fighters. You have to maintain communication between them and the actual pilots on the ground.

I'm not sure we'll ever see effective aircraft that do much more than what Predators do now. I definitely wouldn't want air superiority to rely on our ability to defeat enemy jamming aircraft.

[twa]

That's always been my problem with unmanned fighters. You have to maintain communication between them and the actual pilots on the ground.

I'm not sure we'll ever see effective aircraft that do much more than what Predators do now. I definitely wouldn't want air superiority to rely on our ability to defeat enemy jamming aircraft.

What if we have the ability to make them autonomous or to do independent programed missions?

If they can effectively jam our signals,they have the ability to make even manned fighters extremely near sighted.

added

you want to clear a airspace?....send up a fighter version of the Global Hawk

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/aug/featflying

As Guidry takes a long walk around the aircraft's elegant 116-foot tapered wing, he arrives at a computer station on a trolley that is hooked up to onboard computers by a small jack port under the single tail-mounted engine. "When you start it up," he says, "the airplane runs a check of all its systems, just the way a pilot would do. You download the mission plan via computer. You say, 'We want you to image Kandahar and Tora Bora.' " Then, inside a windowless camouflaged control trailer, all Guidry has to do is "click the takeoff button" with a computer mouse, "and off it goes."

In flight the Global Hawk is piloted by two onboard computers, which "keep track of the plane's location, altitude, attitude, and posture of all its controls and spoilers," says Guidry. Using a complex set of algorithms, the computers decide "how to fly and steer and take pictures to accomplish the mission plan." The only thing humans do is plan the mission on desktop computers and monitor signals from the plane in flight. Display screens in the Mission Control trailer show the plane's position and course on a map and give classic ****pit instrument readings such as altitude, airspeed, and throttle settings. One monitor shows scrolling computer code. "That tells us what the computers on board the plane are thinking," says Robert Ettinger, the flight-test manager employed by Northrop Grumman, the aerospace company that built the Global Hawk.

added

Self-flying, self-planning, pack-hunting UCAVs, expected to be operational by 2008, will deploy as the first wave against enemy air defenses when conditions are too risky for piloted planes. Eventually, engineers hope to build dogfighting UCAVs, a notion that thrills veteran top gun Ettinger. He says manned fighters reached their maneuverability limits decades ago because human pilots cannot tolerate much more than nine positive g's of force. Cruise missiles, by contrast, can make 20-g maneuvers, and so could a UCAV. "When it's fully developed," Ettinger says, "the UCAV will think better and move better than a human pilot and be a much better dogfighter."

Navy UCAVs will need greater sophistication to make carrier landings, long considered the most difficult flying challenge. David Mazur, program manager of the Navy's Pegasus UCAV, says the craft will use a Shipboard Relative GPS system, which provides the exact position of the aircraft relative to the tossing deck of the carrier within eight inches of precision. "In a heavy-sea state, it should do the landing better than a pilot," he says. In addition, the Navy UCAV will have to fit in among the beehive swarming of carrier traffic. "We want to operate all mixed up, human and nonhuman, without missing a beat," says Randy Secor, the Northrop Grumman Navy UCAV program manager.

[Larry]

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong with us creating armed, autonomous, aircraft that operate without human control whatsoever?

[twa]

That are capable of it being the key.....why do you fear technology and advancing science citizen?:evilg:

we have a pill for that;)

added

on a serious note....how much does that really differ from our latest cruise missile's capabilities?

The swarm capabilities are either scary or exciting ...you choose.

added

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~eroberts/cs201/projects/1995-96/autonomous-weapons/articles/smart-weapons.txt

[ardowling]

What you may or may not realize, this is not the "Beast of Kandahar", this bird is going to be launched (and recovered) from aircraft carriers making it a huge force multiplier in the attack and air defense spectrum. About the security of our comms with these birds take a guess what the hard to find and highly maneuverable, spacecraft we just tested will be used for!

Heres a shot of the "Beast"

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2011/01/post-8.html

[Larry]

So your point is that this stealthy aircraft we're building will have a radio transmitter on it that's so powerful, it can be clearly picked up from orbit?

[ardowling]

They are already directed from orbit (satellites), the highly maneuverable spacecraft I refer to will protect those Sats. Sorry misunderstood the question, don't be surprised if this type of aircraft don't become autonomous in the near future

[AsburySkinsFan]

I guess I'm not excited about building more toys that make it easier for us to go to war.

[twa]

There is the flip side to that ASF.,as well as benefits to civilian tech

[AsburySkinsFan]

There is the flip side to that ASF.,as well as benefits to civilian tech

So Federally fund civilian technological research.

[twa]

we do,as well as many social programs...now can we get back to technology that can cut costs and save lives while providing defense?

[TradeTheBeal!]

This will prove to be very effective at annihilating illiterate sheep-herders and falafel chefs.

[AsburySkinsFan]

we do,as well as many social programs...now can we get back to technology that can cut costs and save lives while providing defense?

Defense...strange...what nation in the world even poses a threat to our Air Force...defense please, it should be called the Department of Offense. Either way, like I said before I find it hard to get excited about things that make it easier to go to war.

I always find it interesting that King David brought more shame upon himself for staying home while he sent his army to war than he did sleeping with Bathseeba. Maybe things would be different if our leaders still led the charge into battle instead of fighting war from daily briefings.

[twa]

Killing her husband seemed rather important to me.

Careful or someone will compare you to congressman West with those radical thoughts

anyhoo,back to the engines of destruction

The PHAE concept has been studied before , with a view to roles including countering WMD, attacking fixed and mobile targets, and suppressing air defences. Its not clear what weapons might be used from this sort of altitude, though a guided kinetic penetrator would make quite an impact from sixteen miles up. A stealthier approach would be for PHAE to act as a mothership for smaller UAVs (such as the 100 lb Dominator) killer UAV or miniature munitions. The US Navy has already experimented with launching the FINDER UAV from a Predator drone for close-in reconnaisance, as well as the miniature CICADA Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft which would be dropped in large numbers for electronic attack.

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2006/04/23/air-forces-secret-drone-program-revealed/#ixzz1DDEhjstY

Defense.org

[AsburySkinsFan]

Killing her husband seemed rather important to me.

And yet his shame was in how he killed her husband...he was in Jerusalem and he was off fighting. Make war a rarity, put the politicians on the front lines.

Careful or someone will compare you to congressman West with those radical thoughts

I think the more accurate phrasing is "someone will contrast me to Congressman West".

Regardless, war will become more common the further we remove ourselves from danger.

[TheGreatBuzz]

As a NDI tech onboard NAS Pax River that is responsible for inspections of every aircraft on the base, I would like to "Hey look! It's another piece of crap that will become a huge pain in my ass! Just like JSF and P-8!". That is all.

[twa]

And yet his shame was in how he killed her husband...he was in Jerusalem and he was off fighting. Make war a rarity, put the politicians on the front lines.

I think the more accurate phrasing is "someone will contrast me to Congressman West".

His shame would be less if he lead from the front and killed him in the same manner?

I think David went wrong by forgetting priorities and duties...a common failure he compounded by taking innocent human life to correct.

Buzz...if your jobs a drag why don't ya move on?

[TheGreatBuzz]

His shame would be less if he lead from the front and killed him in the same manner?

I think David went wrong by forgetting priorities and duties...a common failure he compounded by taking innocent human life to correct.

Buzz...if your jobs a drag why don't ya move on?

I will soon. The Navy decides when I move on, not me.

[AsburySkinsFan]

His shame would be less if he lead from the front.

He never would have had the affair to begin with if the corrected post above was true.

[twa]

Choices do have consequences