Coming to a War Near You: 'Nuclear Powered Drones"

"American scientists and engineers are researching a new generation of UAV's that would be nuclear-powered. Why do this? They would have the capacity to stay over a target area for months and only be limited by the ordinance they could drop on a potential foe. They would be similar to a nuclear attack submarine but not limited to the amount of food on-board.

The article notes: “The blueprints for the new drones, which have been developed by Sandia National Laboratories – the U.S. government's principal nuclear research and development agency – and defense contractor Northrop Grumman, were designed to increase flying time ‘from days to months’ while making more power available for operating equipment, according to a project summary published by Sandia,” the paper reported.

Such a proposal would have the power to create a drone with vastly more powerful capabilities than anything seen before. There is only one problem, what happens if a nuclear drone ever crashed or was shot down?"

the-diplomat.com...

Coming to a War Near You: 'Nuclear Powered Drones"

Not really,

“What people seem to be missing is that the program was not approved. We are not building it!” he told me. “All sorts of ideas are proposed by scientists, and this one was found to involve a technology not yet ready for prime time and which carries some deep concerns about its implications for operations, legal concerns, and fear of accident impact. So it was not approved.”

Bill Roggio, editor of The Long War Journal, agrees that at this stage, nuclear-powered drones are very much just an idea, and a potentially flawed one at that.

I do not see this thing, which is only an idea, flying anytime soon.

reply to post by liejunkie01


I though ti had read that the idea had been shelved.
Good I say-Not only could these cause fallout to land on innocents if they crashed or were shot down,but they could also be targeted by terrorists,just to get the radioactive components to build dodgy bombs with.

Reminds me of another idea that never happened-The Ford Nucleon:

www.damninteresting.com...

For anyone who has played "Fallout3"-Those cars are featured in the game-you can't drive them,but they sure do explode nicely when you shoot them!

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Awesome game! I need to finish it, I keep shelving it because it causes migraines for me.

Yikes, this doesn't seem like a good idea. I thought the whole concept of nuclear powered aircraft got shelved. lol

reply to post by travis911


So a mini nuclear reactor drone could have a self detonation sequence that would result in a large explosion. ? Thats comforting.

Who is developing nuclear drones, US?

they need to be Sanctioned by NATO & UN! pronto!