Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft makes its debut

Been seeing pictures of this UAS for some time, but now it's here and ready to start flight testing. Nice looking design, with just a little "creepiness" when you see there's nothing where you expect the cockpit to be.

article

“Phantom Ray offers a host of options for our customers as a test bed for advanced technologies, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack and autonomous aerial refueling - the possibilities are nearly endless,” said Dennis Muilenburg, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

With no pilot to worry about in case an aircraft is lost, the U.S. can say to potential enemies, "Try and shoot down all of them you can, we'll just make more".

Changes the rules of war when a country realizes there are squadrons of these overhead darting in and out of radar view while systematically taking out your country's military infrastructure.



[edit on 5/13/2010 by centurion1211]

reply to post by centurion1211

"Try and shoot down all of them you can, we'll just make more".

Well if that is the case, when they do shoot one down...or more likely one crashes...the enemy will get there hands on some nice technology to copy

Originally posted by Pockets
reply to post by centurion1211

 

"Try and shoot down all of them you can, we'll just make more".

Well if that is the case, when they do shoot one down...or more likely one crashes...the enemy will get there hands on some nice technology to copy

Having a crashed aircraft or even stolen plans and it's still quite a leap to being able to actually build a stealth aircraft, let alone an unmanned stealth aircraft.

Just ask the rest of the world ...

america are the biggest threat to this world and they need stopped now sooner than later before they do any more damage

Originally posted by danielhanson420
america are the biggest threat to this world and they need stopped now sooner than later before they do any more damage

No doubt your own government will be one of the first and biggest customers for these for use in spying on you and others of its own UK citizens.

if they could afford it youd be right even then they'll find the money somwere. it sucks being americas bitch sorry i meant to say having a special relationship. on another note dosnt special relationship sound like something a peodophile would tell one of their victims they have lol

reply to post by danielhanson420


You know, there's actually quite a bit of speculation in the conspiracy world that it's actually the English monarchy behind the U.S.'s actions, thus reversing your assumption that your country is America's... well, you know.

Originally posted by centurion1211

Originally posted by Pockets
reply to post by centurion1211

 

"Try and shoot down all of them you can, we'll just make more".

Well if that is the case, when they do shoot one down...or more likely one crashes...the enemy will get there hands on some nice technology to copy

Having a crashed aircraft or even stolen plans and it's still quite a leap to being able to actually build a stealth aircraft, let alone an unmanned stealth aircraft.

Just ask the rest of the world ...

See also;
1. BAE Systems Corax and Raven - UK
2. BAE Systems Taranis - UK
3. EADS Barracuda, - Germany/Europe
4. Saab SHARC - Sweden
5. Saab FILUR - Sweden
6. Dassault Neuron - France/Sweden
7. Alenia Sky-X - Italy
8. MiG Skat - Russia

So far. Plus an honourable mention for 'Project Churchill' where the USA and the UK exchanged classified UCAV development information with each other.

This is not America's secret weapon. It is the general trend in military aerospace. The only difference between any of these projects and and of the American ones is that the USA throws more money at it in its desperate paranoia. Some people this means that America is 'smarter' than the rest of the world. Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Also, in closing, these are not disposable weapons to be used as Centurion rather fancifully wrote. They are still highly advance, complex, and EXPENSIVE air assets. The UCAV merely removes the biggest weakness that combat aircraft traditionally suffer from.



[edit on 15-5-2010 by waynos]

 




Go ahead and Google all of the UCAV "programs" mentioned above. What you'll find are "wannabe" designs looking somewhat like the U.S design and hoping to actually fly sometime in the future. The Spanish one did actually fly before crashing into the water, but no news on it since then.

Guess they must have gotten their copies of the stolen plans late ...




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[edit: removed unnecessary quote of entire previous post]
Quoting - Please review this link

[edit on 17-5-2010 by 12m8keall2c]

Originally posted by centurion1211

 

Go ahead and Google all of the UCAV "programs" mentioned above. What you'll find are "wannabe" designs looking somewhat like the U.S design and hoping to actually fly sometime in the future. The Spanish one did actually fly before crashing into the water, but no news on it since then.

Guess they must have gotten their copies of the stolen plans late ...



..............................................................................
[edit: removed unnecessary quote of entire previous post]
Quoting - Please review this link

[edit on 17-5-2010 by 12m8keall2c]

This should be fun. Are you really going to go head to head with Waynos on an aviation subject?

[edit on 17/5/10, by Fang]

Ah yes... Nothing soothes my heart more than seeing that my tax dollars are being siphoned off in to projects like this which will further ensure that death, destruction and war will forever continue..

Disgusting..

Originally posted by centurion1211

 

Go ahead and Google all of the UCAV "programs" mentioned above. What you'll find are "wannabe" designs looking somewhat like the U.S design and hoping to actually fly sometime in the future.

You think?

Actually that list was from memory, not google. Google it yourself and click 'images' for photos of many of them them IN FLIGHT. Whatever, more than half of the UAV's on that list have already flown, Taranis is due to fly BEFORE the Phantom Ray does, is the Phantom Ray, also, a wannabe? What do you suppose the US needed to get from the UK? After all, they must have wanted something, otherwise they wouldn't have taken part in Project Churchill. If they already knew all the answers?

The USA will certainly have their UCAV operational first. Like I said, they throw more money at it (50 times more at the last count). Unless the USA is planning an assault on Europe then I think our more leisurely and lower cost approach will do just fine


I'd also like to pick up a misleading point from the original linked article

The very first lines states "After only two years of development", which is a blatant lie. Boeing has been developing its UCAV for more than a decade. The name may have changed two years ago, as noted later on, but it is still the same development cycle.

Though this is just the fault of the hack that penned the article, not Boeing.

I'm not knocking the Phantom Ray. I'm sure it will do just fine and perform as promised. Its the misguided notion that America has invented something new and secret that I am correcting.

After all, you do know that there was an experimental radio controlled aircraft designed to carry, and drop of course, a 500lb bomb during WW2 called the Miles Hoop-la, don't you? This was the first UCAV project, almost 70 years ago.

Google THAT



edit to add this quote, from myself, five years ago on virtually the same subject;

Taking nothing away from the amazing stuff the US has achieved, I think the level of know how that exists in other countries is SERIOUSLY underestimated by some American members of this site.

Nothing changes much does it

www.abovetopsecret.com...

[edit on 17-5-2010 by waynos]

Originally posted by Fang

Originally posted by centurion1211

 

Go ahead and Google all of the UCAV "programs" mentioned above. What you'll find are "wannabe" designs looking somewhat like the U.S design and hoping to actually fly sometime in the future. The Spanish one did actually fly before crashing into the water, but no news on it since then.

Guess they must have gotten their copies of the stolen plans late ...



..............................................................................
[edit: removed unnecessary quote of entire previous post]
Quoting - Please review this link

[edit on 17-5-2010 by 12m8keall2c]

This should be fun. Are you really going to go head to head with Waynos on an aviation subject?

[edit on 17/5/10, by Fang]

Sure. If you "know" me, you also know that I'm not afraid to take on just about anyone on just about any subject. I can do the research just as quickly as the next person. So, do you have input into the subject of the OP, or are you just here to stroke your pal?

Note to waynos: I did Google your "list", which is where I found out that most of what you posted were basically still on the drawing board with the ones farthest along basically looking like copies of U.S. designs.

Imagine that ...

Note to waynos: I did Google your "list", which is where I found out that most of what you posted were basically still on the drawing board with the ones farthest along basically looking like copies of U.S. designs.

Imagine that ...

Doesn't matter what they 'look' like. The point is that all the worlds major aerospace industries are actively developing, and successfully flying, UCAV's. This is in response to the slant of the OP and early replies, which gave the impression that this was something that the USA has and nobody else does.

Just adding balance and denying ignorance.

[edit on 1-6-2010 by waynos]

reply to post by waynos


And I was just pointing out the difference between "has" and "wants" or "is developing and might have in the future".

You understand, of course, that if a country like the U.S. has a certain technology before other countries, by the time the other countries "catch up" (by copying, stealing, or whatever), the U.S. has almost always moved beyond the original technology that the others just "caught up" with?

reply to post by centurion1211


Has Phantom Ray entered service? - No

Has it flown? - No

Did any of the prototypes it is developed from fly operationally? - No

So, just the same as all the rest then

you understand, of course, that if a country like the U.S. has a certain technology before other countries, by the time the other countries "catch up" (by copying, stealing, or whatever), the U.S. has almost always moved beyond the original technology that the others just "caught up" with?

Our American members certainly like to think so, and repeat the mantra ad nauseum, whatever the subject. Usually when someone has has had a claim about a publicly known weapon and its 'superiority' called out. Its the 'Ah, yes, but what about the tech we don't know about' defence

It might be true, but hey, it might NOT be;

World first as fast jet pilot directs multiple unmanned aircraft? QinetiQ, UK.

Worlds first flapless UAV? BAE Demon, UK. (It was not on my list).

These are major milestones towards, in the first instance, fully operational UCAV's in place of manned squadrons and, in the second case, massively improving the LO and efficiency of UAV's/UCAV's over current levels. And they are not US developments, but no doubt we will let you buy them, like everything else.

To simply believe that America is in front of everyone and everything technologically is just plain arrogant. And the ATS mantra that you trotted out there is the catch-all get out clause that people arguing the case for the innate superiority of all things American ALWAYS trot out. Its boring. And its not really supportable. Its wishful thinking, no more no less.





[edit on 1-6-2010 by waynos]

reply to post by waynos


Stealth - only reason the russians, chinese, indians, iranians (and europeans) didn't copy them is that they couldn't.

Laser weapons.

[edit on 6/1/2010 by centurion1211]

Originally posted by centurion1211
reply to post by waynos

 

Stealth - only reason the russians, chinese, indians, iranians (and europeans) didn't copy them is that they couldn't.

Laser weapons.

[edit on 6/1/2010 by centurion1211]

Stealth - you seem to be conveniently forgetting two points. The Russian, British and German work on radar stealth and faceting (and plenty of other stuff) that was imported into the USA prior to hopeless diamond etc for one. Then there's the fact that that the US defence budget has been (still is?) vastly bloated in comparison with the rest of the world put together - this needs to be factored into any discussions about why the USA deployed stealth aircraft and nobody else did so far. Granted, it was America that did it while everyone else stayed at the theoretical stage, gold star for that. But again you are making the mistake that American science knows more than other countries science, which is bollocks. America just spends $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ where others don't, or can't. Nothing to do with knowledge.

Again I can only speak about the country I know about but British stealth activities are not limited to the UAV demonstrators we have flown, there is much more than that, such as project Nightjar and project Replica, plus there is also some operational experience from the RAF exchange pilots who flew F-117's, some of them on actual ops in the Gulf War. One of the leading test pilots on the F-35 programme is BAE's Graham Tomlinson, so yes, we COULD do it IF we would/could spend the money.

Laser weapons - the relevance to this discussion is, what exactly? Are we to take your sudden change of subject as a sign that the UCAV discussion is settled?



[edit on 2-6-2010 by waynos]

reply to post by danielhanson420


england americas bitch? your sure its not the other way round.
qween to obama
"oh obama whilst your here would you mind fetching my crown"

reply to post by mattifikation


yes i could not agree more were no body's bitch not Americas not
any ones. but yes we do have a special relationship.