I have done alot of research and reading up on UCAV's from the US and around the world. I agree with you that the US is probably the world leader in this type of tech and that they WILL be integrating UCAV's into their airfoce.....but at the moment these UCAV's with the exception of a modified surveilllance UAV named predator have only been through testing and so far have not been used in open conflicts with other countries to my knowledge. The predator is a unique unnmaned air surveillance vehicle and was a kind of a test bed to see if the technology for unnmaned flying craft would be worth the funding and development to mass produce and factory machine for the USAF. After hundreds of succesfull missions some predators were retrofitted with a small amount of armaments for use in stategic bombing missions agains sensitive/dangerous targets where they could justify the use of a UAV where the use of a pilot would be unneccesary.


The most recent things Im hearing from a source close to Boeing, is that the X-47A will be the first real UCAV to see active service in the USAF. They have been tested and approved for use now, but the process of rolling them out for the USAF may still take 2-3yrs or longer. At the moment there have been only 2 X-47A's constructed for tests, of which 45% of their mass is made of composites, but the real thing to be used in the USAF in the coming years will be constructed from 90%composites. I agree that few airforces in the world would have a chance against the USAF at the moment, and with these new UCAV's being designed and built they offer a first strike capability which will be more manouverable, carry a larger payload and will be more efficient and stealthy than even the JSF and the F-35 currently in development. This also means that instead of wasting good pilots in very dangerous dogfights/bombing mission on the first day of any war, the pilots could be kept in reserve whilst these planes soak up and destroy most of the enemy capability.

Just my 5cents, hope this helps.

[edit on 25-11-2004 by radiant_obsidian]

how many are in service?

Originally posted by swastika
how many are in service?

Well the Predator is not a UCAV but it is a UAV its only a matter of time till the UCAV's are in service. IN 2006 the X-45 will be entering the i believe it is training phase or something.

Swastica, there are as yet no UCAV's (Unnmaned Aerial Attack Vehicle) in use other than a few Predators modified from surveillance use and UAV (Unnmaned Aerial Vehicle) status to UCAV status. So far only 2 UCAV's have been designed, built, tested and approved for future use by either USAF or the Navy as they both have contract options on the design, build and appropriation of this tech.

Originally posted by radiant_obsidian
Swastica, there are as yet no UCAV's (Unnmaned Aerial Attack Vehicle) in use other than a few Predators modified from surveillance use and UAV (Unnmaned Aerial Vehicle) status to UCAV status. So far only 2 UCAV's have been designed, built, tested and approved for future use by either USAF or the Navy as they both have contract options on the design, build and appropriation of this tech.

Plz tell me, how about their radar signature?
can't they be catched by AWACS?

I just finished a book, although a novel, that features a lot of UCAV action.
The research that the author did was extensive and the story line is filled with
internet security themes, international conspiracies, aboriginal legends and
cool characters. the name of the book is the Freya Project. Its just coming out
now. I learned a lot about UCAV capabilities and enjoyed the story thoroughly.
There is so much technology we will never be aware of, totally awesome!

This is an amazing advance that’s hard to overstate. The aircraft is MUCH less complicated due to removal of all those bits to support a pilot. It can carry more payload and pull sustained high-G maneuvers. Nothing manned will be able to take it on.

Currently if a pilot pulls a high-g maneuver they cannot turn their head around and watch the enemy, they can only pull the maneuver for a short period of time before blacking out. Now a UCAV can pull a sustained 10-g maneuver while the pilot looks around and observes the battle space.

Heck, he can even chat with his wingman sitting right next to him or peek at the battlefield C&C display to see where everyone is at. If he’s shot down, well he learned something and can fly again once a debrief identifies what went wrong. A Chinese pilot could only make one mistake.

China’s pilots won’t have a chance against that even if they manage a kill ratio of 2:1. Eventually, they would only be flying inexperienced pilots against and entire air force of ace’s.

Unfortunately I dont think these UCAV's have a great dogfighting capability yet, they are being designed as stealthly unnmaned bombers and not as dogfight aircraft, tho I can see this type of tech being used to create the ultimate attack/fly and forget aircraft we have to date.....I may be wrong, but id you study closely all current aircraft used in close quarter dogfights, the aircraft can only be as stealthy as the missile and fuels attachements on the wings allow them to be. So far I have seen not 1 picture of any of these UCAV's from X-40 through to X-47A with an external attachment as these would only lower the incredible stealth capabilities they possess. Have a look at the pics availabe and see if you can spot any armaments that would support dogfighting or Air-to-Air combat....Id luuurve to be proved wrong on this one.

It would be a amazing if the military were researching ways to make the current Air-to-Air missles less detectable such as hiding their firing positions in the wings of the UCAV's but I have not seen anything verifiable to support this do date and this would also mean increasing the width of the UCAV's current wing configuration and making them less-stealthy.