Drones, the Air Littoral, and the Looming Irrelevance of the USAF

[Kirkhill]

AUKUS in the air

The Boeing Australia MQ-28 Ghost Bat CCA can be handed off from RAAF to USAF and RAF fighter control.

Common Standard Opens Up CCA Sharing Between Australia, U.S. | Aviation Week

U.S. and Australian fighter pilots will have the technical ability to take turns flying the same MQ-28, a Boeing official says.

aviationweek.com

 

[Kirkhill]

AUKUS in the air

The Boeing Australia MQ-28 Ghost Bat CCA can be handed off from RAAF to USAF and RAF fighter control.

Common Standard Opens Up CCA Sharing Between Australia, U.S. | Aviation Week

U.S. and Australian fighter pilots will have the technical ability to take turns flying the same MQ-28, a Boeing official says.

aviationweek.com

The MQ-28 has already demonstrated the ability to launch the AIM-120 AMRAAM, in similar fashion to the German Cobra 600 launching an IRIS-T.

 

[Kirkhill]

Lockheed bought Divergent and invested 25 MUSD.

12 months later they had a 3D printed, robot assembled, UAV. Software included.

Lockheed Skunk Works built new drone using 3D printing

Lockheed Martin's secretive Skunk Works division has built a drone from scratch in under a year using 3D-printing technology, demonstrating a manufacturing approach that the company says could fundamentally change how quickly the U.S. defense industry can develop and field

defence-blog.com

 

[Kirkhill]

More on the Ghost Bat

Newer, bigger

Boeing unveils bigger Ghost Bat drone with enhanced combat powers

Boeing's Ghost Bat Block 3 also has beyond line of sight (BLOS) communication links which will enable the drone to be operated from far-off.

interestingengineering.com

 

[HavokFour]

So one of the owners of Fire Point believes a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAS armed with a 30mm cannon might be a solution to the glide bomb problem.

Ideally something can can loiter up to 24 hours at 23,000ft.

Makes you wonder if they're dropping hints that something is already in the works.

Fire Point Co-Owner Calls For Ukraine To Get Cannon-Armed UAS | Aviation Week

Ukraine still needs a MALE uncrewed aircraft system to loiter in domestic airspace and shoot down incoming Russian attack drones and glide bombs, a co-owner of Ukrainian attack drone and missile-maker Fire Point says.

aviationweek.com