We Now Know EXACTLY How Much Ass the Navy’s New Killer Drone Will Kick
1,000 pounds over 2,000 miles, is how much
The U.S. Navy is working on a radar-evading, armed, jet-propelled, highly autonomous drone warplane able to take off of and land on the pitching deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as early as 2018.
Known by the ungainly moniker UCLASS — that stands for “Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike — the new drone will be the first pilotless warplane with the same bombing abilities as today’s manned jet fighters.
It’ll be stealthy. It’ll carry lots of sensors and ordnance over long distance. It’ll be expensive. That much we knew. What we didn’t know until late last week was just how much stuff it will carry, how far and against what level of enemy defenses. We also had no idea how much the Navy expected to pay for the drone.
Now we do know, thanks to
an internal Navy document obtained by the U.S. Naval Institute’s news blog. The requirements document lays out what are called “key performance parameters” that the UCLASS drone is supposed to meet.........