ATS: USAF’s New ‘Black’ Bird - Faster, Stealthier UAV, page 1

posted on Aug, 3 2004 @ 01:39 PM

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The air force has plans to develop a new unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV), that would be faster and stealthier than the current fleet of RQ-4 Global Hawk's and RQ-1/MQ-9 Predator UAV's. Does this surprise us?
No.
Sightings of high-flying, maneuvering vehicles have been reported during the early and mid 1990s.

ISRJournal.com News

In what could be the largest top-secret aircraft program since the B-2 bomber, the U.S. Air Force is racing to develop a stealthy, supersonic, long-range unmanned reconnaissance plane that would give commanders better intelligence on the ever-shifting targets in the war on terrorism and elsewhere.

And allow them to strike those targets.

The Air Force wants to develop an unmanned airplane that combines attributes designers historically have said were difficult, if not impossible, to blend: high speed, high stealth, high altitude and, most important, high persistence — the ability to remain over a given spot for a day or more. The new aircraft would fill a looming gap caused by delays in developing an ambitious new generation of spy satellites.

The ultimate aim, senior officials said, is to combine characteristics of stealth, speed, altitude and endurance not seen since the legendary SR-71 Blackbird spyplane built by Lockheed Martin was retired from active duty in the late 1990s because of costs.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

For more information: GlobalSecurity.org Mystery Aircraft

[edit on 3-8-2004 by Zion Mainframe]

flycatch

posted on Aug, 3 2004 @ 02:50 PM

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By releasing this information the Air Force has opened the door to unveil a new type of aerovehicle. Don't be surprise to see this unveiling within the next twelve months. It also may be assumed that this aircraft is already operational like the F-117.

[edit on 3-8-2004 by flycatch]

MarkLuitzen

posted on Aug, 3 2004 @ 05:16 PM

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especially after reading this I got some thoughts about what they might disclose

�I won�t comment on specifics, but we are investing in a range of systems, manned and unmanned,� Roche said. �Blackening the sky with satellites isn�t the answer. What we are talking about and doing is developing a range of capabilities, because you can�t do everything from space.�

FredT

posted on Aug, 4 2004 @ 12:45 AM

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I think that the Air Force finnaly saw the light that Cancelling the SR-71 was a bad idea. The airborn spy platform allows for flexability adn rapid tasking. As kick ass a the Blackbird was its days of overflights were coming to an end anyway.

I wonder if this is realted in someway to the reports of a stealthy next gen drone flying over Iraq during GWII or a totaly new direction.