The US Air Force and Navy are buying and testing new superdrones that can act as wingmen with existing bombers and fighters. They will have a competition to select the winning superdrones late this year. However, there will be multiple contracts and constantly upgrading superdrones over the next few years and beyond. The superdrones will initially cost about $5 to 50 million each. The drones will need to fly at 450-650 mph and some could be supersonic. They need the speed to keep pace with fighter jets and bombers.
The F-35 or F-18 fighters or the B2 bomber could each have two or more drones flying with them. The drones would be able to divert enemy anti-air systems and bring more missiles.
The Boeing MQ28 and other drones are flying now and able to start performing the intended role. The MW-28 is slower based upon currently reported specs of about 200 mph.
Two XQ-58A Valkyrie were bought for $15.5 million. The Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie is an experimental stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) designed and built by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions for the United States Air Force’s Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator (LCASD) program, under the USAF Research Laboratory’s Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) project portfolio.
XQ-58A Performance
Cruise speed: 476 kn (548 mph, 882 km/h)
Range: 3,000 nmi (3,500 mi, 5,600 km) approximate
Service ceiling: 45,000 ft (14,000 m)
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DoD recently was sending out info about CCA powerplants needing to be 3-4x (6k-8k) the size of the ones used on the current crop (XQ-58, MQ-28)(2k). DoD is thinking bigger loyal wingman drones that can self deploy over the Pacific, along with increased speed/electrical power/cooling. But that makes current designs questionable due to fuel load.
Looks like Power-ups from old side scroller shoot them ups games, where your ship could get these small things that followed you, or rotated around you, etc, helping you shooting and protecting you
It shows the DOD path to the future. Continuous competitive orders of lower cost aircraft. Regular technology upgrades. Start with “Wingman” and as they demonstrate capability, drop the human piloted partners and send them alone. Seems likely all would be built with StarShield and could communicate/be operated from anywhere not just by their partner aircraft.
ROFL!!!!! 2 drones with 6th Gen fighter… Is this some kind of a joke? Wakethe hell up USA.
the PURE evil chinese authoritative, totalitarian dictators are building
1. cruiser wtih 8,000 Shahed like drones that can be launched in minutes.
2. fighters with 20 drones, cheap, dirty.
USA making the same mistakes as WW2 Germany. Germany’s military tech was FAR ahead of the allies…
Hmm… so the Chinese are evil because they are authoritative and totalitarian?
Funny how we are brainwashed into thinking any forms of government non-democratic is inherently evil.
I would say the suppression of the people in Hong Kong is evidence that Xi JinPing is very bad. The kidnapping of people like Jack Ma (CEO of Alibaba) for a few months for re-education. It is not necessarily the forms of government. There is the suppression, censorship and jailing of innocent citizens in many countries with many systems. Democracy is a system with more distributed power and some rights. However, these safety layers can be overcome. Deng xiaoping and a few of his successors reduced the power of leader and the state in order to have a more dynamic economy and system. Deng experienced the abuses of Mao. Deng was purged twice. During the Cultural revolution he was forced out of all positions, his son and family imprisoned and his son thrown out a fourth story window and became a parapalegic. Deng had four years in a labor camp. A Democracy can still have things like putting your main political opponent with unfair trials and unfair charges. Xi Jinping reversed Deng’s liberalizations to consolidate and centralize even more power than Mao had.
[ Are there ‘un-biased’ academical studies for a measure (or comparing parameters at all, e.g. corruption index, imprisonment numbers of journalists or government’s opposition, sources for news/information) of liberalization for world wide view on types of government? Are more strict rules a reaction to globalization, population change/growth and behavior of citizens within different cultures? What is a progressive, substantial improvement on 21st century democracies, what would not be neglected/rejected for being an (potential) attack to democratic principles? What are hidden attacks to reasonable/unjustified(unacceptable?) collective expression of (humanitarian) will? ]
thinking out of the box
” The drones would be able to divert […] and bring more missiles.”
Could 6th gen fighters&bombers&drones deploy seed ‘bombs’ for fighting CO2 effects (infrastructure maintenance & effective usage of training hours/energy & strategic advantage & disaster precautions) ?
20 drones? 8000 cheap drones? Where’s the cost-plus development profit in that?