US Air Force Confirms New Stealth Aircraft

[Sundowner]

<snip>The U.S. Air Force has confirmed to Aviation Week the existence of the so-called "Beast of Kandahar" UAV, a stealth-like remotely piloted jet seen flying out of Afghanistan in late 2007.

The RQ-170 Sentinel, believed to be a tailless flying wing design with sensor pods faired into the upper surface of each wing, was developed by Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), better known as Skunk Works. An Air Force official revealed Dec. 4 that the service is "developing a stealthy unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to provide reconnaissance and surveillance support to forward deployed combat forces."....<snip>

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/BEAST120409.xml&headline=USAF%20Confirms%20Stealthy%20UAV%20Operations

Regards,
Sun

[Ex-jazz]

No more room for the testosterone in the cockpit anymore.

The best AI algorithm win.

[crazyivan]

Nice picture, is it a butterfly?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0FmWSmIJ0M

[kotrenin]

Better picture

[Rich46yo]

Now imagine squadrons of biggers ones, armed to the teeth, being launched against an enemy. Able to pull insane "G"s and able to defeat any known AA defense. The future.

I dont think we'll see a totally unmanned USAF strike air force in our lifetimes but it definitely is the future.

[Fishu]

Now imagine squadrons of biggers ones, armed to the teeth, being launched against an enemy. Able to pull insane "G"s and able to defeat any known AA defense. The future.

There will always be countermeasures being developed hand to hand with weapon advancements.

[Tac]

yeah like just lobbing up high something that creates a big arse EMP to interfere with the signals and adios drone craft.

though 98% of the planet cant do that so pilots will be kept for that 2% that can.

[kilo2]

Its funny they use a controller for the uav that looks like a ps2 controller.

[Fencer51]

That's why they were so interested in recreating that German Arado jet in the National Geographic program!

[MiloMorai]

That's why they were so interested in recreating that German Arado jet in the National Geographic program!

That was a Horten design. Thou the wing of the Handley Page Victor  was based on Arado design work

[Angus]

I was once on a visit on a US base. SQN of F-15E's, and I was with the SQN leader. I asked him if he thought it possible that RC or/and AI fighters would take over in the business. He said NO, the public would never accept it. And on top of that, what if the link got severed, intercepted or scrambled.
I said okay and thanks, while thinking what if YOUR link was cut, or your electronics.
AH'ers, better boost up yer scores, so the finest can really fly online 

[Die Hard]

yeah like just lobbing up high something that creates a big arse EMP to interfere with the signals and adios drone craft.

though 98% of the planet cant do that so pilots will be kept for that 2% that can.

And exactly how is that going to stop an F-22 from falling out of the sky? Just as dependent on computers to fly.

[john9001]

Electromagnetic shielding is the process of limiting the penetration of electromagnetic fields into a space, by blocking them with a barrier made of conductive material. Typically it is applied to enclosures, separating electrical devices from the 'outside world', and to cables, separating wires from the environment the cable runs through. Electromagnetic shielding used to block radio frequency electromagnetic radiation is also known as RF shielding.

The shielding can reduce the coupling of radio waves, electromagnetic fields and electrostatic fields, though not static or low-frequency magnetic fields (a conductive enclosure used to block electrostatic fields is also known as a Faraday cage). The amount of reduction depends very much upon the material used, its thickness, the size of the shielded volume and the frequency of the fields of interest and the size, shape and orientation of apertures in a shield to an incident electromagnetic field.

[Rich46yo]

yeah like just lobbing up high something that creates a big arse EMP to interfere with the signals and adios drone craft.

though 98% of the planet cant do that so pilots will be kept for that 2% that can.

What kind of EMP? And who's going to need an uplink? The drone fighter will be programmed for a function and will be able to do it without a constant uplink. Besides that kind of EMP, to knock down an EMP hardened drone, isnt that easy to come by. Its not like you can shoot a nuke off. We have been sheilding airplanes from EMP for decades. I was at a base in NM where they would put a huge bomber onto a huge wooden platform just to test EMP and shielding. There isnt going to be any surprises from EMP.

If we can program a space ship to land on Mars, and then send little robots out on their own, then we can pre-program attack aircraft. Heres another example of the future. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/warrior.htm or http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/ucav.htm

We will be coming to the point where we wont risk a pilot on an opening night strike package. Like I said we wont live to see a pilot-less air force. But eventually somebody will.

[Enker]

yeah like just lobbing up high something that creates a big arse EMP to interfere with the signals and adios drone craft.

though 98% of the planet cant do that so pilots will be kept for that 2% that can.

Or, you can get a really big gun with a very high rate of fire, and shoot the plane out of the air. Seriously, why make it more difficult than it needs to be?