The UAV of tomorrow, the Darkstar...

Originally posted by intelgurl
You may be more right than you know.

I posted back in September '05 that the USAF & Lockheed's Skunkworks have been working on an:
intel gathering,
deep strike capable,
high altitude,
long endurance (ie: loitering)
UAV project that insiders are calling "Son of Dark Star".

This project is expected to go public in the 1st quarter of '06 or whenever the USAF's revised "Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap for 2005-30" comes out.
The reason for going public is 2 fold, to demonstrate to critics (who control the USAF's money) that the USAF is serious about UAV development and to allow the "Son of Dark Star" to compete in the J-UCAS program.

I first heard of this in a company email, the next day it was in "Aviation Week".
Here's the link to my original post:
Skunkworks working on ISR/Strike capable UAS

ATS member Fred T quoted some of the AW&ST article in my original post, as well so check it out.

This system is rumored to have been active during the invasion of Iraq, having been seen by US and British pilots. Their descriptions of the UAV is that it is a much larger, stealthy (didn't show up on anyone's radar) version of the Dark Star.



[edit on 12-7-2005 by intelgurl]

I sure didn't know that. That souns very interesting... I can't wait to read more. The model of the Darkstar sure looks pretty good, doesn't it...