US Air Force Confirms New Stealth Aircraft

[cpxxx]

The landing gear on the aircraft look awfully familiar. I'll bet there are bits of the old F117 incorporated into that UAV.

[Timofei]

<snip>The U.S. Air Force has confirmed to Aviation Week the existence of the so-called "Beast of Kandahar"..

LOL, what a pompous name.
Back in 1975, "Beast of Saigon" was needed badly. But there was only one UH-1...

[Ack-Ack]

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

Depends on the UAV, the smaller field operated one used console controllers for the most part but the USAF ones like the Predator or the larger ones operated by the USN use in many cases the same joysticks we use.  I saw a photo of a Predator control center and they had what looked like Logitech sticks.


ack-ack

[Dadsguns]

   Maybe AH is involved with the goverment in a secret plan to train future pilets and we are all being trained for the future of UAV's              

[john9001]

LOL, what a pompous name.
Back in 1975, "Beast of Saigon" was needed badly. But there was only one UH-1...
(Image removed from quote.)

there were whole squadrons just off shore, but the democrats would not allow them to launch. Thats not political, thats history.

[kilo2]

Depends on the UAV, the smaller field operated one used console controllers for the most part but the USAF ones like the Predator or the larger ones operated by the USN use in many cases the same joysticks we use.  I saw a photo of a Predator control center and they had what looked like Logitech sticks.


ack-ack

yeah I have seen saitechs being used. I read somewhere that the british where using xbox 360 controllers (dont know if thats true)

[Sonicblu]

I talked with a uav contoler. I live right next to Northrupt Grumman Unmanned facility. Unless they have controllers close to the action. They are having to much trouble in tests with lag. Same as in AH. To fight air to air He said seconds count. Air to ground is different and will be the primary roll for years to come but they will have pilots also for different rolls. Unless they create and AI that is better than a human we will always have human pilots.

[Angus]

AH has players from all across the world, but yet the lag is not that bad. light speed is after all some 7,5 circles around the globe in a second....

[Enker]

AH has players from all across the world, but yet the lag is not that bad. light speed is after all some 7,5 circles around the globe in a second....

Yes, but we aren't uplinking to something in the air, which has to transmit by some wireless protocol. Also, we aren't being jampacked through a few cluttered fiber optic lines.

[Timofei]

AH has players from all across the world, but yet the lag is not that bad. light speed is after all some 7,5 circles around the globe in a second....

I think most of the data you see on your screen in AH is generated by your own computer.
UAV must transmit ALL the data from the plane, from all the systems, real time TV-image, data from the sensors, etc. Possibly many orders of magnitude more data.
Just guessing of course.

[Angus]

Real time TV travels at the speed of light.
All my data must go from me to HTC and back, while of cource simulation calculations are done with my front-end. But all control input as well as the status and coordinates of everything else around basically goes front and back. So, I have a guy in Japan firing at me in Iceland, and it could be thousands of bullets...all calculated.
The UAV will require a link with image/images, readouts and control input. The rest is the real world. No CG scenery. Of course an on-board computer could perhaps compile some data to make things more simple.
In theory, it is just a question of time when a RC aircraft becomes the ultimate RL dogfighter. No human body limitations you see....

[RedTop]

All thats gonna happen is...

Some Afghani is gonna get a hold of a remote control NIK and fly it into it....mess up the stealth skin and all youll hear back at HQ is....

FRIKIN HO COLLIDE TARD AFGHANI.....CRAP...now we gotta spend 100k to fix the skin.....LEARN SOME ACM YA GOAT HERDER!!!!! HOW THE HELL DID YA GET THIS HIGH ANYWAY....FRIKIN ALT MONKEY AFGHANI TWIT!!!!

 

[Grayeagle]

I dont know what a firebee is. And Vietnam was a long, long time ago.

Future attack drones will have sophisticated terrain following radar, "if its even used due to their stealth". The difference in computing power put in airplanes then and now is astounding anways. The technology is already here.

Not my problem that your education is sadly lacking. (Firebee is a drone, used for all kinda neato gee-whiz stuff ..I have seen more than my share on a trailer after being recovered from a mission that did not go as planned
..-evil grin-)

Stating the obvious is not really adding to the discussion.

'Future' attack drones will still go down when hit by something they are not programmed for.
All the stealth in the world doesn't do any good if bullets go through the airframe. (oops, sorry .. stated the obvious .. my bad)

-GE

[indy007]

Real time TV travels at the speed of light.

It's not real time TV, it's a heavily encrypted, serialized data stream being passed over what's basically an IP network. Try streaming multiple webcams at the same time, on the same pc, on the same link, and see how well your bandwidth holds up Now, do the same thing, with even more data, 2 way communication, error correction, and a wireless router flying around at 30,000 feet.

Our military bandwidth has always horribly lagged commercial bandwidth. It's being fixed, but it's not a fast process. It's marginally standardized at best right now. LINK4, LINK11, LINK16, ATDL-1, IJMS, PADIL, LINK22...

[Angus]

Well, since a cam can be linked to a bomb, why not a drone?
The basic image could also be compiled into a simpler image....