x-45A - just looks awesome!

The x-45 looks great but Im more of a Northrop fan




The X-47A Pegasus oh yeah I love that baby

zakattack - While they are flying and getting ready to bomb there intended target they dont have time to sight see and notice the trucks with machine guns on them.

Can you give me a real life example: When was the last time the USAF had a target of oportunity?

Also...It only takes a few seconds for the UAV's tranmission to go to the sat and back to a ground base. Some times Predators in Afghan or Iraq are flown by people in the US, time isn't an issue.

Originally posted by Murcielago
zakattack - While they are flying and getting ready to bomb there intended target they dont have time to sight see and notice the trucks with machine guns on them.

Can you give me a real life example: When was the last time the USAF had a target of oportunity?

Also...It only takes a few seconds for the UAV's tranmission to go to the sat and back to a ground base. Some times Predators in Afghan or Iraq are flown by people in the US, time isn't an issue.

Thats there Job is to look for targets of opportunities, now if it were F-16 at 40,000 and 1000mph then your right he wouldnt have time, but an A10 flies low and slow he has time to look, a Bunker hideout is not going to be moving any where, he just has to Destroy it, so he has the ability to make a straffing run on those trucks

As technology gets better they will use UAV more and more but its just not logical yet

here is the closest example i can think of
lets say an Unmanned attack helicopter is hovering over area in an unmanned heli there maybe a camera looking straight out of the heli but to the Heli's 3 oclock a skinny on a roof top shoots an RPG a camera cant rotate fast enough to see it BOOOM you just lost thirty million

But a manned heli say an apache is hovering, a humans Visual perception and Pereferal vision is far better then what a camera can send back to a screen therefore making the chances of getting out of the way quicker is alot more Logical then just hovering 30 million in the air praying that every enemy that shoots at shoot directly into you line of sight

And here is another example when a missile is launched at an F-16 an alarm goes off on the plane, pilots can look out the back by slightly turning in the cockpit and see if the missile is coming from the back, or the right or back right or left

If your flying straight and the alarm goes off and the pilot sees a missiles Smoke trail coming from his left lets say his 8 oclock its not in the pilots best interest to turn to the Right cuz that would Aid the missile in hitting its Target therefore he would wait till he feels ready and actually Drop flares and turn low left or High left causing the missile to over shoot, missile can fly faster then planes but cannot turn as sharp

So if that were a UAV and the alarm went the Pilot back on US territory inside a base or computer room is not going to be able to turn around in his seat and look where the missile is coming from cuz if he turned around in his seat in the computer room all he is going to see is everyone else lookin back at him like he is idiot

UAV will play a vital role in future conflicts but it is not logical to say that the F-22 is the last manned Plane the Airforce will use

If the mission was to destroy a bunker, I doubt they would send an A-10.

I said "real" situation, one that has happened, not a made up scenerio.

Also, with todays tech humans in the cockpit can see more, but that will change with in 10 years.

I gave you a real situation of a missile being fired at a F-16, thats something that has happend before the 2nd Gulf war while F-14 and -F18 were flying the No Fly zone there was reports of Iraqi Ground to Air missile being fired at US planes, it was almost an everyday occurence.

Did you ever see the Documentary on the History channel about the 2 A-10s that saw an Iraqi tank division crossing a bridge 22 tanks to be exact and they Took the "OPPORTUNITY" and those 2 A-10 took out all of them by first Destryoing the 2 tanks in front then destroying the 2 tanks and Fuel supply truck at the back creating a Road blocks at the front and back so the tanks had no where to go,

This is a real world scenario and it did happen

However as time goes UAV like i said will be used more and more UAV do have on great advantage well 2 actually #1 they dont a live human in danger
#2 The F-22 aircraft can withstand alot more then 12 or 14 Gs the plane is only limited to the amount of Gs cause the Pilot cannot withstand much more then 13 Gs with the special suits that they wear, so a UAV would have much greater manueverability.

As a hobby i fly remote control Airplanes one of my Favorite Planes to fly is my WWII P-51 Mustang, its alot of fun and yes the airforce has much better tech then i do when it comes to flying But if its all going to change within the next 10 yrs like you say it will Then Im all trained up for the Future of US airforce

Hmm, I doubt that the airforce will completely get rid of manned flight, manned flight will always remain a vital role in the Air Force, UCAVs just aid in those "too risky missions".

Anyways, me personally, I'm a Lockheed Martin fan, Boeing is good, but I would take Skunk Works over Phantom Works.

But I doubt that UCAVs will completely take the role of manned aircraft anytime soon, so don't expect to see that.

Shattered OUT...

Zakattack
But if its all going to change within the next 10 yrs like you say it will Then Im all trained up for the Future of US airforce

I'm assuming you use a remote control, future USAF jets will be much better then that. If its all preprogrammed then you dont need a person.
Its possible that the F-22 will be the last manned air superiority fighter, I'm sure you have seen those "movie glasses", where you put on what looks like wierd glasses and it looks like you starring at a 65' tv screen. you could put very tiny cameras surrounding the entire craft. Now those "glasses" could have a satellite link to the aircraft, and in the glasses there are two seperate screens for each eye, and have it so if you are sitting in a chair and you turn your head (with the glasses on) right, the cameras on the plane are all networked together, so as you turn your head they "scroll" (for lack of better word), and then your looking threw 2 of the cameras on the edge of the wing, instead of 2 cameras near the front. It would have hundreds maybe thousands of small cameras all over the entire plane, if you were wearing the glasses on the ground it would give the feeling of full 360 degrees of situational awarness. So if you look up with the glasses on it would be like looking up if you were in the cockpit, and you could look down, which you obviously cant do in a real craft. On the top and bottom part of the glasses screens you would see all your other information like speed, altitude, gps quardinates, fuel, payload, etc.

Sorry if that sounds a little wierd, its kinda hard to type what you can visualize.


EDIT: this is what I was referring to when I said "glasses".


[edit on 19-3-2005 by Murcielago]

I don't know whether or not we will convert completely to robotic warcraft, but most of the people where I work, including a lot of marketing weenies, believe that the day of the manned attack aircraft is over.

So although there may be increased capabilities in air superiority fighters (depending on how dominant the United States stays), unmanned aircraft, within the next ten or twenty years, should have all the capabilities of human-flown airplanes, and the F/A-35 could well be the last manned attack craft in the US inventory.

I don't think anyone knows for sure.

Yeah ive seen those glasses before those are pretty cool, i dont know There is advantages on both sides of it i guess when i think about it, i just dont know if were to that point yet, the f-22 Gaurentees air superiority for the next 20 yrs, I would imagine that the F-22 replacement is already in the works and the F-22 hasnt really even got deployed yet

I think US would have a tough time getting congress to switch over to UAV after they just signed a Billion dollar deal for the F-22 and the JSF

Zakattack
I think US would have a tough time getting congress to switch over to UAV after they just signed a Billion dollar deal for the F-22 and the JSF

i agree...Thats why UCAVs are emerging, and in about 15 years we will start seeing the first concepts of Unmanned fighters.

The F-22 is 25 year old technology. whatever is about to roll out in the next generation will be interesting.

Predicting the future of warfare is a difficult issue, the air force removed dogfighting capabilities from fighters a while back, they believed that Era was passed...well, they were forced to reinstall dogfighting systems on fighters again.

The weak link in unmanned is communications. disrupt comm links and you have a very expensive flying brick. electronic warfare is a world unto its own, who can tell what will go where.
it would be a mistake to abandon manned fighting capability. i would imagine we will continue seeing side by side development of weapons platforms....abandoning one or the either would be a mistake.

Oh man, that is one ugly bird IMHO, Northrop's looks a lot better, the bubble body and squared off wings just don't do it for me. Give me a good old F-18 any day

the european evaluation ucav NEURON, first flight planned to -09
if only we had your (US) budgets.. *dreams on*



link to SAAB

Originally posted by Off_The_Street
I don't know whether or not we will convert completely to robotic warcraft, but most of the people where I work, including a lot of marketing weenies, believe that the day of the manned attack aircraft is over.

So although there may be increased capabilities in air superiority fighters (depending on how dominant the United States stays), unmanned aircraft, within the next ten or twenty years, should have all the capabilities of human-flown airplanes, and the F/A-35 could well be the last manned attack craft in the US inventory.

I don't think anyone knows for sure.

you haven't mentioned antigravity. Come on, out with it. We've all read Nick Cook. We know. Its alright. No one'll get ya. Please.

There were two verison of the X-45A the northrop version (better) and a boeing verison) i belive the x-45a is apperiing at air show in uk in july

Originally posted by jupiter1
There were two verison of the X-45A the northrop version (better) and a boeing verison) i belive the x-45a is apperiing at air show in uk in july

no, your mixing the 2 up. Theres the Boeing X-45A and there build the Boeing X-45C. While a different one is built by Nprthrop called the X-47A and they are building the X-47B.