X-47B's First Cat Shot

[jmcquate]

Yes, yes we do....so? If you are trying to draw a correlation between autonomous use of force and ICBM ops you totally lost me.

Sort of tongue-in cheek, but once the PALS are met and the keys turned and buttons pressed they’re autonomous.

 

[707guy]

And yet...the F-22 has exactly the same number of pilots as a Sopwith Camel...almost 100 years later.

...at least the Sopwith Camel pilot can breathe while he's flying...

 

[707guy]

Has anyone noticed this thing is a dead ringer for the invading spaceship in the original "War of the Worlds"??? Has the Navy been infiltrated by aliens? Are we all doomed?

It looks like the bastard child of the A-12...

 

[jollygreen07]

Sort of tongue-in cheek, but once the PALS are met and the keys turned and buttons pressed they’re autonomous.

Meh, I wouldn't say that you could draw a comparison between the autonomy of a UCAV and an ICBM, but I guess I missed the "tongue-in-cheek" part of that.

 

[Brett327]

Sort of tongue-in cheek, but once the PALS are met and the keys turned and buttons pressed they’re autonomous.

Yeah, I don't get the connection. Any fire and forget weapon is autonomous after you pull the trigger. It's the man out of the loop trigger pulling which is at issue.

 

[jmcquate]

Agree, on second thought not a good example. Didn’t the Brits have an autonomous SEAD weapon that would loiter and wait for a search radar to go active?

 

[KBayDog]

It's the man out of the loop trigger pulling which is at issue.

Brett, stop. Stop, will you? Stop Brett. Will you stop Brett? Stop Brett.

 

[Brett327]

Daaaaaay seeeeee, daaaaaaay, seeeeeeee.

 

[Flash]

Agree, on second thought not a good example. Didn’t the Brits have an autonomous SEAD weapon that would loiter and wait for a search radar to go active?

The ALARM can deploy a parachute so it can 'loiter' if the target radar shuts down to wait for it to come back up again, not exactly autonomous.

 

[Flash]

UAVs crashing at civilian airports overseas, Djibouti and the Seychelles specifically, get their very own article. I like the comments about the Djibouti ATC guys, brought to mind a few posts from the 'things you have heard on the radio' thread.

I love the typical military bureaucracy solution to the great deal that some guys had flying Reapers out of a tropical paradise (I knew someone who was headed there but got retasked to Djibouti while in training), hire contractors to replace them who may or may not know what they are doing. In this case it sounds like they didn't know what they were doing.......

 

[Grimace]

Hey fellas. I'm the Strike Ops officer on the Truman and the X-47B is aboard as I type this. They have been doing a lot of testing underway, taxiing it around using this Robocop-looking controller and stuff. If their testing goes OK, we're planning on launching it off the cat before we pull back in. The future is closer than you might think. That said, we're doing absolutely no work on how this thing is going to land.

 

[Scoob]

we're planning on launching it off the cat before we pull back in.

Good riddance!!!



Oh, wait...

 

[phrogdriver]

Agree, on second thought not a good example. Didn’t the Brits have an autonomous SEAD weapon that would loiter and wait for a search radar to go active?

Our Tacit Rainbow experimental SEAD missile was supposed to do that too--way back in the 1980s.

 

[Grimace]

I'

concur. This thing will probably be tractored to the cat, be hooked up for an early go and launched by itself. It will most likely have it's own recovery too. I think it has a long way to go to be completely integrated.

I'm the Strike Ops Officer on the Truman. The X-47B is onboard right now as I type this. They're doing taxi tests this week where they're taxiing it around using a Robocop-looking arm controller. We're scheduled to do the first cat shot of a UAV off a carrier deck later this week. The future is closer than you think!

 

[Hozer]

^Ha! River City claims another victim!