www.defenseindustrydaily.com...
From this article:
www.defenseindustrydaily.com...
And the register has a CGI image of the plane:
www.theregister.co.uk...
They seem to share your worries about the project:
While the Global Hawk boasts an operation range of 13,500 nautical mile range and 36-hour endurance during which it can comfortably "conduct surveillance over an area the size of Illinois" controlled either by line-of-site or satellite-connected operators, it is not expected to deliver 4,500 pounds of ordnance down Osama bin Laden's chimney without hitting the orphanage next door while controlled by a very human operator in an air-conditioned trailer thousands of miles away. It remains to be seen whether DARPA's substantial investment in the X-47B really does provide "revolutionary new air power" or an expensive flying turkey.
From above link.
I was recently watching a program on TV about the future of military aircraft,and the general vibe was that the only remaining restrictive factor in state of the art flight technology is the human body.
If you remove the relativley fragile human body from the equation,your aircraft can perform under massive G forces etc...that was the vibe of the program.
I can also see the advantage of using unmanned drones,as 10 shot down drones would not cause the media uproar of 10 downed manned aircraft.
Good way to protect your highly trained pilots from potential injury.
It makes sense to use unmanned craft if you have the technology.
Saves pilots from high risk situations,but has the negative side effect of relying on potentially poor intel,as we have seen in some of the global hawk incidents in Af/Pak.
No matter what technology is avaliable,acurate target intel will remain just as important.Thats the tough part.
All in all though,I would freekin Love to have a go at flying one of those awesome beasts...few beers,low pass over London,then Zoom under the Eiffel tower...all from the comfort of my computer.
That would be a great night of entertainment...watch the news start reporting UFOS..Hehhe
Edit to add:
Heres a CGI video showing the X-47B,flying,recon,bombing,RTB.
From a year or so back made by Northrop Grumman so says the you tube poster:
www.youtube.com...
Looks formidable-Manned fighters against these things would be a turkey shoot...with the Drones doing the shooting.
Just as long as they promise not to sign these things over to the coming AI master computers...
[edit on 14/7/2009 by Silcone Synapse]
