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Secret New UAS Shows Stealth, Efficiency Advances
Fnord666 writes in with this link about one the development of a new unmanned toy for the U.S. Air Force. "A large, classified unmanned aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman is now flying—and it demonstrates a major advance in combining stealth and aerodynamic efficiency. Defense and intelligence officials say the secret unmanned aerial system (UAS), designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, is scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force and could be operational by 2015. Funded through the Air Force's classified budget, the program to build this new UAS, dubbed the RQ-180, was awarded to Northrop Grumman after a competition that included Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The aircraft will conduct the penetrating ISR mission that has been left unaddressed, and under wide debate, since retirement of the Lockheed SR-71 in 1998."
What I found interesting about the recent SR-72 "teaser" was that it is essentially what people have rumored for the Aurora for years now. Maybe it already exists, and "announcing" it as a hypothetical is step 1 of the unveiling process?
Unmanned Aerial System Stragedy
In these times of austerity it is necessary to disguise your pork barrels.
Advanced stealth technology makes this enormous barrel of pork look more like a small can of spam.
Workers. Uhm??
Yep...
All the Chinese workers stand up and fight.
Its job is to continue the fine tradition of violating other nuclear powers' airspace on a daily basis.
...and you don't see them getting any military contracts.
The difference being that defense pork creates good STEM jobs with the profit being rolled into pension plans (major defense contractors being very stable and worthless for the wallstreet slime) whereas most welfare programs in the US are designed to reinforce the poverty trap.
Does anybody really believe there's a "coverage gap" between satellites and (for example) Global Hawks? No, of course not. The SR-71 was retired because it wasn't needed, not with satellites that can read a license plate from orbit in real time. This is just a corporate handout for Northrup Grumman, we can't have them feeling left out, what with Lockheed Martin getting all the F-35 moniez.
... for eternal peace. Those funds --- ah forget it. Nothing going to change anytime soon.
This one bears resemblance to a cylon raider. Perhaps their plan is a much more sinister one?
I don't know what country you're in, but the US is not doing austerity.
wsss
Northrop Grumman style!
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Encrypted communications channels? Redundant navigation systems? Ability to return home amid heavy signal jamming?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
...Stealth Blimp.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Is there a reason we're not calling this a drone? The use of 'UAS' makes me feel like I'm reading propaganda.
China, blowing up their own rocket, demonstrates that in event of a war with them.. the first thing they would do is take out all enemy satellites. With no spy camera's in space, GPS gone, the only way to obtain surveillance then would be good old fashioned spy plane.
In addition, satellites have a predictable orbit, even observatories are told *Not* to observe certain spots in the sky as one is their, so enemies, have already rendered their purpose of spying from space, on the most sensitive opponents, useless.
The next area of conflict this century SHALL be East Asia. The good ole' spy plane is now more needed than ever!
Neither a satellite not a Global Hawk could collect air samples downwind from Yongbyon. The Global Hawk would get shot down.
Fear thrives on ignorance. Imagine where we'd be without spy satellites.
The histories of the SR-71 program show an irrational, tribalist rejection of anything that didn't drop bombs or refuel bombers. It's more than a little disturbing to read about.
Maybe the CIA should have taken it over. It was their program in the first place (look up "Oxcart").
The machines will rise and stop you all.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
We already know the coordinates of the Three Gorges Dam.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
How many cup holders does it have? And why were the windows painted over?
The Air Force had better be working on detection of stealth aircraft, because other countries are working on them, too.
How do you know that your nation's defense budget is just a welfare program for arms merchants? Easy, the top secret military hardware is advertised for everyone to see.
The US has conducted a little experiment in 1962 called "starfish", in which they blew up a nuclear missile in space. It created temporary artificial radiation belts which knocked down a number of satellites.
The bottom line is that space has been a war zone long before China did their ASAT missile experiment.
Really. Everybody stand up. Oh, you are...sorry.
Anyway, this doesn't sound like a very secret project if defense and intelligence officials are being quoted about it...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
USA conducted an ASAT test about 20 years earlier. So how exactly is China to blame here again?
If you don't want others to act like irresponsible bastards, stop being one yourself...
https://www.sensefly.com/
ultralight drone (0.7 kg) for aerial orthorectfied imagery. Ten square kilometers of imagery per 45 minutes flight.
Was the 'major advance' the fact they managed to paint it white? I mean, who ever thought that a huge, pointy black aircraft was 'stealthy'?
Do you really believe the US has been without a high-altitude, high-speed reconnaissance aircraft since the SR-71 was moth-balled? You believe that the government that is listening to all your phone calls, and reading all your email has been without this kind of aerial surveillance capability? You also probably believe that if you speak out openly in a negative regard about this administration, or our Glorious Leader himself, that the IRS will not target you for auditing as well. The year 1984 may have come and gone. But it's realities are here and now