Skyborg
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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Skyborg
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019...one-sidekicks/
Under Skyborg program, F-35 and F-15EX jets could control drone sidekicks
WASHINGTON — The F-35 and F-15EX fighter jets could get drone wingmen in the coming years, the U.S. Air Force’s top acquisition official revealed to Defense News.
The service is exploring ways to team Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and Boeing’s new F-15EX with the XQ-58 Valkyrie drone — a low-cost attritable fighter made by Kratos Defense — or similar unmanned platforms. Attritable systems trade attributes like “reliability and reparability” to achieve lower costs, according to the Defense Technical Information Center. The Air Force is in discussions with Boeing and Lockheed on the prospect, and the Air Force Research Laboratory is working on the technology, Will Roper said May 21 in an exclusive interview.
“I’m very passionate about doing it, and the F-35 has a wonderful opportunity to do this as part of Block 4,” Roper said, referring to the F-35’s upcoming upgrade program. “We might also have an opportunity to do this as part of F-15EX.”
Roper told lawmakers this month that Valkyrie would transition to a prototype program known as Skyborg, where the drone will be outfitted with new sensors and payloads and will be networked to manned fighter jets. In March, he characterized Skyborg as an artificial intelligence wingman that would train and learn alongside pilots, or possibly be incorporated into a manned fighter cockpit to act as an assistant to the pilot like R2-D2 in the “Star Wars” films. But until now, the Air Force had not identified the platforms are under consideration to be equipped with Skyborg or teamed with the XQ-58 Valkyrie.
The Valkyrie, which flew its first test flight at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, on March 5, was designed to perform and maneuver like a fighter jet. It can fly at high subsonic speeds, takeoff without a runway, and, according to Kratos, meet or exceed the Air Force’s requirement for a 1,500-nautical-mile range with a 500-pound payload. When produced in volume, Roper predicted that they will cost “a couple million bucks” each — not cheap, but inexpensive compared to the F-35A and F-15EX, which are expected to cost about $80 million per jet over the same time frame.
The Air Force is also assessing whether other unmanned aerial systems would complement the Skyborg program. A March request for information describes “a modular, fighter-like aircraft” that is autonomous and attritable, with open systems that allow it to be updated with new AI software or new hardware. Desired characteristics include the ability to detect and avoid obstacles and bad weather, and to takeoff and land autonomously.
According to the solicitation, an “autonomous airborne system experimental campaign” could occur in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, with the hope of having an aircraft ready by 2023.
Roper said teaming fighters with drones could “open up the door for an entirely different way to do aerial combat.” For example, take a typical four-aircraft formation and replace it with an F-15EX and three Valkyries........
Under Skyborg program, F-35 and F-15EX jets could control drone sidekicks
WASHINGTON — The F-35 and F-15EX fighter jets could get drone wingmen in the coming years, the U.S. Air Force’s top acquisition official revealed to Defense News.
The service is exploring ways to team Lockheed Martin’s F-35 and Boeing’s new F-15EX with the XQ-58 Valkyrie drone — a low-cost attritable fighter made by Kratos Defense — or similar unmanned platforms. Attritable systems trade attributes like “reliability and reparability” to achieve lower costs, according to the Defense Technical Information Center. The Air Force is in discussions with Boeing and Lockheed on the prospect, and the Air Force Research Laboratory is working on the technology, Will Roper said May 21 in an exclusive interview.
“I’m very passionate about doing it, and the F-35 has a wonderful opportunity to do this as part of Block 4,” Roper said, referring to the F-35’s upcoming upgrade program. “We might also have an opportunity to do this as part of F-15EX.”
Roper told lawmakers this month that Valkyrie would transition to a prototype program known as Skyborg, where the drone will be outfitted with new sensors and payloads and will be networked to manned fighter jets. In March, he characterized Skyborg as an artificial intelligence wingman that would train and learn alongside pilots, or possibly be incorporated into a manned fighter cockpit to act as an assistant to the pilot like R2-D2 in the “Star Wars” films. But until now, the Air Force had not identified the platforms are under consideration to be equipped with Skyborg or teamed with the XQ-58 Valkyrie.
The Valkyrie, which flew its first test flight at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, on March 5, was designed to perform and maneuver like a fighter jet. It can fly at high subsonic speeds, takeoff without a runway, and, according to Kratos, meet or exceed the Air Force’s requirement for a 1,500-nautical-mile range with a 500-pound payload. When produced in volume, Roper predicted that they will cost “a couple million bucks” each — not cheap, but inexpensive compared to the F-35A and F-15EX, which are expected to cost about $80 million per jet over the same time frame.
The Air Force is also assessing whether other unmanned aerial systems would complement the Skyborg program. A March request for information describes “a modular, fighter-like aircraft” that is autonomous and attritable, with open systems that allow it to be updated with new AI software or new hardware. Desired characteristics include the ability to detect and avoid obstacles and bad weather, and to takeoff and land autonomously.
According to the solicitation, an “autonomous airborne system experimental campaign” could occur in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, with the hope of having an aircraft ready by 2023.
Roper said teaming fighters with drones could “open up the door for an entirely different way to do aerial combat.” For example, take a typical four-aircraft formation and replace it with an F-15EX and three Valkyries........
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BATS
Meanwhile, this is being built (not just the CAD shown here):
https://www.boeing.com/defense/airpo...tem/index.page
Sun.
https://www.boeing.com/defense/airpo...tem/index.page
Sun.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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https://aviationweek.com/defense-spa...kyborg-weapons
U.S. Air Force Launches Three-Year Fielding Plan For Skyborg Weapons
The next combat aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force inventory will not be a manned sixth-generation fighter or even the Northrop Grumman B-21.
By fiscal 2023, the Air Force expects to deliver the first operational versions of a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) called Skyborg, a provocative portmanteau blending the medium of flight with the contraction for a cybernetic organism. The Skyborg family of aircraft is expected to fill an emerging “attritable” category for combat aircraft that blurs the line between a reusable UAS and a single-use cruise missile.
As the aircraft are developed, Skyborg also will serve as the test case of a radical change in acquisition philosophy, with ecosystems of collaborative software coders and aircraft manufacturers replacing the traditional approach with a supply chain defined by a single prime contractor.
The Air Force also plans to manage the Skyborg aircraft differently than other UAS. Although Air Combat Command (ACC) is considering the Skyborg family as a replacement for pre-Block F-16s after 2025 and MQ-9s after 2030, the aircraft is not likely to fit neatly into an existing force structure with dedicated Skyborg squadrons. “Even though we call Skyborg an attritable aircraft, I think we’ll think of them more like reusable weapons,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.
The Skyborg propulsion systems—including expendable subsonic and supersonic jet engines—will be rated with a fraction of the service life expected of a fully reusable UAS or manned aircraft. “We’ll do whatever number of takeoffs and landings they’re ‘spec’d’ for, and then we’ll attrit them out of the force as targets and just buy them at a steady rate,” Roper says.
Starting in fiscal 2023, a concept of operations for a formation of four Lockheed Martin F-22s will include Skyborgs as part of the manned aircraft’s load-out. “I expect that the pilots, depending on the mission, [will] decide: Does the Skyborg return and land with them and then go to fight another day, or is it the end of its life and it’s going to go on a one-way mission?” Roper explains. In some cases, the pilot may decide a target is important enough that it is worth the loss of a Skyborg, even if its service life has not been used up, he adds.
As the concept evolves, a diverse array of Skyborg aircraft designs will likely find roles beyond the air combat community, Roper says. “I don’t think it’ll just be fighters,” he says. “I think they’ll fly with bombers. I think they’ll fly with tankers to provide extra defensive capability. That’s what I love about their versatility and the fact that we can take risks with them.”
Skyborg is often presented as the epitome of the “loyal wingman” concept, in which one or multiple UAS are controlled or managed by a manned aircraft to perform a variety of surveillance, support and strike tasks during a mission. But the aircraft also could have the ability to operate independently of a manned aircraft, with the capability to launch and recover hundreds of such systems without the need for runways or even bases.
“If [China and Russia] know that they have to target only tens or even hundreds of ports and airfields, we have simplified their problem,” says ACC chief Gen. Mike Holmes. The new class of attritable aircraft, he says, are designed so that “we can still provide relevant high-tempo combat power to be freed up from a runway.”
If Skyborg is the future, it begins on July 8. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is due on the second Wednesday of this month to award a contract to start developing the first in a family of experimental UAS bearing the name Skyborg.
The AFRL already has a stable of potential concepts. The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, which has flown four times since March 2019, is the most visible example of the AFRL’s Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology platform. Meanwhile, the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform--Sharing project quietly kept several UAS industry leaders involved in design studies, including Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Each company selected will be awarded a contract with a maximum value of $400 million over a five-year ordering period.
But the core of the Skyborg program is the software; specifically, the military aviation equivalent of the algorithm-fed convolutional neural networks that help driverless cars navigate on city streets.
In announcing Leidos on May 18 as the Skyborg Design Agent (SDA), the AFRL selected the same company that delivered the software “brain” of the Navy’s Sea Hunter unmanned surface vehicle, which navigated from San Diego to Honolulu in 2018. As SDA, Leidos’ role is to deliver a software core that uses artificial intelligence to learn and adapt as the aircraft flies. The autonomy mission system core—as integrated by Leidos from a combination of industry and government sources—will be inserted into multiple low-cost UAS designed by different companies, with each configured to perform a different mission or set of missions......
As the acquisition strategy has evolved, so has the Air Force’s thinking about how to use the Skyborg family of systems. “The whole idea was [that] the contested environment is going to be challenging, it’s going to be uncertain, and so it makes the most sense to have something that doesn’t have a pilot in it to go into the battlefield first,” Roper says. “But once you agree that’s a self-evident operational concept, it opens up the door for a lot of nontraditional thinking for the Air Force.”
After a 2-3 year experimental phase, the AFRL plans to deliver an early operational capability in fiscal 2023. Follow-on operational Skyborgs could be funded within the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) project or through a separate program of record.......
U.S. Air Force Launches Three-Year Fielding Plan For Skyborg Weapons
The next combat aircraft to enter the U.S. Air Force inventory will not be a manned sixth-generation fighter or even the Northrop Grumman B-21.
By fiscal 2023, the Air Force expects to deliver the first operational versions of a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) called Skyborg, a provocative portmanteau blending the medium of flight with the contraction for a cybernetic organism. The Skyborg family of aircraft is expected to fill an emerging “attritable” category for combat aircraft that blurs the line between a reusable UAS and a single-use cruise missile.
As the aircraft are developed, Skyborg also will serve as the test case of a radical change in acquisition philosophy, with ecosystems of collaborative software coders and aircraft manufacturers replacing the traditional approach with a supply chain defined by a single prime contractor.
The Air Force also plans to manage the Skyborg aircraft differently than other UAS. Although Air Combat Command (ACC) is considering the Skyborg family as a replacement for pre-Block F-16s after 2025 and MQ-9s after 2030, the aircraft is not likely to fit neatly into an existing force structure with dedicated Skyborg squadrons. “Even though we call Skyborg an attritable aircraft, I think we’ll think of them more like reusable weapons,” says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics.
The Skyborg propulsion systems—including expendable subsonic and supersonic jet engines—will be rated with a fraction of the service life expected of a fully reusable UAS or manned aircraft. “We’ll do whatever number of takeoffs and landings they’re ‘spec’d’ for, and then we’ll attrit them out of the force as targets and just buy them at a steady rate,” Roper says.
Starting in fiscal 2023, a concept of operations for a formation of four Lockheed Martin F-22s will include Skyborgs as part of the manned aircraft’s load-out. “I expect that the pilots, depending on the mission, [will] decide: Does the Skyborg return and land with them and then go to fight another day, or is it the end of its life and it’s going to go on a one-way mission?” Roper explains. In some cases, the pilot may decide a target is important enough that it is worth the loss of a Skyborg, even if its service life has not been used up, he adds.
As the concept evolves, a diverse array of Skyborg aircraft designs will likely find roles beyond the air combat community, Roper says. “I don’t think it’ll just be fighters,” he says. “I think they’ll fly with bombers. I think they’ll fly with tankers to provide extra defensive capability. That’s what I love about their versatility and the fact that we can take risks with them.”
Skyborg is often presented as the epitome of the “loyal wingman” concept, in which one or multiple UAS are controlled or managed by a manned aircraft to perform a variety of surveillance, support and strike tasks during a mission. But the aircraft also could have the ability to operate independently of a manned aircraft, with the capability to launch and recover hundreds of such systems without the need for runways or even bases.
“If [China and Russia] know that they have to target only tens or even hundreds of ports and airfields, we have simplified their problem,” says ACC chief Gen. Mike Holmes. The new class of attritable aircraft, he says, are designed so that “we can still provide relevant high-tempo combat power to be freed up from a runway.”
If Skyborg is the future, it begins on July 8. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is due on the second Wednesday of this month to award a contract to start developing the first in a family of experimental UAS bearing the name Skyborg.
The AFRL already has a stable of potential concepts. The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, which has flown four times since March 2019, is the most visible example of the AFRL’s Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology platform. Meanwhile, the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform--Sharing project quietly kept several UAS industry leaders involved in design studies, including Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Each company selected will be awarded a contract with a maximum value of $400 million over a five-year ordering period.
But the core of the Skyborg program is the software; specifically, the military aviation equivalent of the algorithm-fed convolutional neural networks that help driverless cars navigate on city streets.
In announcing Leidos on May 18 as the Skyborg Design Agent (SDA), the AFRL selected the same company that delivered the software “brain” of the Navy’s Sea Hunter unmanned surface vehicle, which navigated from San Diego to Honolulu in 2018. As SDA, Leidos’ role is to deliver a software core that uses artificial intelligence to learn and adapt as the aircraft flies. The autonomy mission system core—as integrated by Leidos from a combination of industry and government sources—will be inserted into multiple low-cost UAS designed by different companies, with each configured to perform a different mission or set of missions......
As the acquisition strategy has evolved, so has the Air Force’s thinking about how to use the Skyborg family of systems. “The whole idea was [that] the contested environment is going to be challenging, it’s going to be uncertain, and so it makes the most sense to have something that doesn’t have a pilot in it to go into the battlefield first,” Roper says. “But once you agree that’s a self-evident operational concept, it opens up the door for a lot of nontraditional thinking for the Air Force.”
After a 2-3 year experimental phase, the AFRL plans to deliver an early operational capability in fiscal 2023. Follow-on operational Skyborgs could be funded within the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) project or through a separate program of record.......
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Golden Horde
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020...nition-swarms/
US Air Force gears up for first flight test of Golden Horde munition swarms
......Golden Horde is one of the three technology development efforts chosen by the Air Force in 2019 as a “Vanguard program” — a high-priority prototyping and experimentation initiative that the service earmarked as potentially groundbreaking. Along with its fellow Vanguards — the loyal wingman drone known as Skyborg and Navigation Technology Satellite-3, an experimental satellite that would augment GPS — the Air Force hopes to speed Golden Horde toward either fielding or failure.
AFRL is working on two networked munitions for Golden Horde: the Collaborative Small Diameter Bomb I (CSDB-1) and the Collaborative Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (CMALD). Both involve taking munitions currently in production — the laser-guided version of Boeing’s Small Diameter Bomb I and Raytheon’s Miniature Air-Launched Decoy — and then outfitting them with new radios that allow the weapons to exchange information, and equipping them with new processors for additional computing power, said Norma Taylor, the program manager for Golden Horde.
That in turn enables a massive software upgrade known as the “autonomy module,” a playbook of algorithms that tell the weapon how to respond to specific changes on the battlefield, whether that means the sighting of a new threat or the destruction of some of the collaborative weapons.....
AFRL is on track to begin F-16 fighter jet flight tests with the CSDB-1 this fall and winter, with similar tests of the B-52 bomber carrying the CMALD planned for summer 2021, Hasse said.......
“[Mission planners] would give information to the weapon on an appropriate engagement zone, where it would be considered proper for the weapon to engage targets … and they would give the weapons information on known targets in that zone,” she said. “But if they have some idea that there might be other targets out there that they don’t know, they will give the weapon some information in terms of priorities, so that if you come across a higher-priority target that’s in the authorized engagement zone, then you have permission to change your assignment.”
Eventually, AFRL will use the CSDB-1 and CMALD together in an integrated swarm in a more complex scenario, currently scheduled around 2022, Taylor said....
US Air Force gears up for first flight test of Golden Horde munition swarms
......Golden Horde is one of the three technology development efforts chosen by the Air Force in 2019 as a “Vanguard program” — a high-priority prototyping and experimentation initiative that the service earmarked as potentially groundbreaking. Along with its fellow Vanguards — the loyal wingman drone known as Skyborg and Navigation Technology Satellite-3, an experimental satellite that would augment GPS — the Air Force hopes to speed Golden Horde toward either fielding or failure.
AFRL is working on two networked munitions for Golden Horde: the Collaborative Small Diameter Bomb I (CSDB-1) and the Collaborative Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (CMALD). Both involve taking munitions currently in production — the laser-guided version of Boeing’s Small Diameter Bomb I and Raytheon’s Miniature Air-Launched Decoy — and then outfitting them with new radios that allow the weapons to exchange information, and equipping them with new processors for additional computing power, said Norma Taylor, the program manager for Golden Horde.
That in turn enables a massive software upgrade known as the “autonomy module,” a playbook of algorithms that tell the weapon how to respond to specific changes on the battlefield, whether that means the sighting of a new threat or the destruction of some of the collaborative weapons.....
AFRL is on track to begin F-16 fighter jet flight tests with the CSDB-1 this fall and winter, with similar tests of the B-52 bomber carrying the CMALD planned for summer 2021, Hasse said.......
“[Mission planners] would give information to the weapon on an appropriate engagement zone, where it would be considered proper for the weapon to engage targets … and they would give the weapons information on known targets in that zone,” she said. “But if they have some idea that there might be other targets out there that they don’t know, they will give the weapon some information in terms of priorities, so that if you come across a higher-priority target that’s in the authorized engagement zone, then you have permission to change your assignment.”
Eventually, AFRL will use the CSDB-1 and CMALD together in an integrated swarm in a more complex scenario, currently scheduled around 2022, Taylor said....
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020...skyborg-drone/
These 3 companies will build prototypes for the Air Force’s Skyborg drone
WASHINGTON — Boeing, General Atomics and Kratos will create prototypes for the Air Force’s Skyborg program and have a mere five months to build the first test vehicles of the autonomous combat drone.
As part of the Skyborg program, the Air Force hopes to build a family of low-cost, attritable drones that can be reused, but are cheap enough that losses in combat can be financially and operationally tolerated. The project is meant to produce a family of uncrewed aerial systems that can move into contested spaces and conduct aerial missions that might be too dangerous for human pilots to perform.
The Air Force announced contract awards Dec. 7 for the three companies that will produce prototypes for the air vehicle portion of Skyborg and compete in a series of experiments in the hopes of winning a production contract.
Three companies are under contract for a two-year period of performance:
• Boeing, which received $25.7 million;
• General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which received $14.3 million;
• Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., which received $37.8 million.
Military officials expect the first prototypes to be delivered no later than May 2021 for initial flight tests. The prototypes will then proceed into flight experiments beginning in July 2021 that will test each drones’ ability to team with manned aircraft, the service stated in a news release..........
These 3 companies will build prototypes for the Air Force’s Skyborg drone
WASHINGTON — Boeing, General Atomics and Kratos will create prototypes for the Air Force’s Skyborg program and have a mere five months to build the first test vehicles of the autonomous combat drone.
As part of the Skyborg program, the Air Force hopes to build a family of low-cost, attritable drones that can be reused, but are cheap enough that losses in combat can be financially and operationally tolerated. The project is meant to produce a family of uncrewed aerial systems that can move into contested spaces and conduct aerial missions that might be too dangerous for human pilots to perform.
The Air Force announced contract awards Dec. 7 for the three companies that will produce prototypes for the air vehicle portion of Skyborg and compete in a series of experiments in the hopes of winning a production contract.
Three companies are under contract for a two-year period of performance:
• Boeing, which received $25.7 million;
• General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which received $14.3 million;
• Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc., which received $37.8 million.
Military officials expect the first prototypes to be delivered no later than May 2021 for initial flight tests. The prototypes will then proceed into flight experiments beginning in July 2021 that will test each drones’ ability to team with manned aircraft, the service stated in a news release..........
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Thread Starter
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...udget-proposal
Two New Secret Drone Programs Could Emerge In The Air Force's Next Budget Proposal
Two New Secret Drone Programs Could Emerge In The Air Force's Next Budget Proposal
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022...n-report-says/
US Air Force must build trust to add drone wingmen
WASHINGTON — The Air Force is all-in on the concept of drone wingmen teamed up with human piloted fighters as the future of air combat.
But how exactly will the human pilots inside F-35s or the Next Generation Air Dominance platform work with and guide collaborative combat aircraft? And will these drone wingmen be ready to fight under their human pilots’ instructions in a future war?……
US Air Force must build trust to add drone wingmen
WASHINGTON — The Air Force is all-in on the concept of drone wingmen teamed up with human piloted fighters as the future of air combat.
But how exactly will the human pilots inside F-35s or the Next Generation Air Dominance platform work with and guide collaborative combat aircraft? And will these drone wingmen be ready to fight under their human pilots’ instructions in a future war?……
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...g-accelerates/
US Air Force eyes fleet of 1,000 drone wingmen as planning accelerates
AURORA, Colorado — The Air Force is ramping up plans for incorporating drone wingmen into its fleet, and envisions 1,000 of the so-called collaborative combat aircraft in service as it sketches out ideas.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Tuesday that the service will ask Congress for funding in the fiscal 2024 budget to move forward with the CCA program, as well as the Next Generation Air Dominance program of futuristic fighter aircraft, so it can map out how it will operate, organize and support these new systems.
In his keynote address at the Air and Space Force Association’s AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, Tuesday, Kendall said he and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown told planners to assume the service might acquire 1,000 CCAs. Under this model, the Air Force would acquire two CCAs for each of 200 NGAD platforms, and two for each of 300 F-35s, Kendall said.
Kendall cautioned those numbers aren’t likely to be what the Air Force’s inventory ends up tallying. Instead, he said, it’s a ballpark estimate to allow the service to estimate its basing needs, organizational structures, training and range requirements, and sustainment concepts.
“The CCAs will complement and enhance the performance of our crewed fighter force structure,” Kendall said. “CCAs will dramatically improve the performance of our crewed aircraft, and significantly reduce the risk to our pilots.”….
Kendall stressed in his speech that adopting drone wingmen will not mean the Air Force has fewer crewed fighters in its inventory. Instead, he said, CCAs can be thought of as remotely controlled versions of the targeting or electronic warfare pods or weapons that crewed aircraft now carry…..
US Air Force eyes fleet of 1,000 drone wingmen as planning accelerates
AURORA, Colorado — The Air Force is ramping up plans for incorporating drone wingmen into its fleet, and envisions 1,000 of the so-called collaborative combat aircraft in service as it sketches out ideas.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Tuesday that the service will ask Congress for funding in the fiscal 2024 budget to move forward with the CCA program, as well as the Next Generation Air Dominance program of futuristic fighter aircraft, so it can map out how it will operate, organize and support these new systems.
In his keynote address at the Air and Space Force Association’s AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, Tuesday, Kendall said he and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown told planners to assume the service might acquire 1,000 CCAs. Under this model, the Air Force would acquire two CCAs for each of 200 NGAD platforms, and two for each of 300 F-35s, Kendall said.
Kendall cautioned those numbers aren’t likely to be what the Air Force’s inventory ends up tallying. Instead, he said, it’s a ballpark estimate to allow the service to estimate its basing needs, organizational structures, training and range requirements, and sustainment concepts.
“The CCAs will complement and enhance the performance of our crewed fighter force structure,” Kendall said. “CCAs will dramatically improve the performance of our crewed aircraft, and significantly reduce the risk to our pilots.”….
Kendall stressed in his speech that adopting drone wingmen will not mean the Air Force has fewer crewed fighters in its inventory. Instead, he said, CCAs can be thought of as remotely controlled versions of the targeting or electronic warfare pods or weapons that crewed aircraft now carry…..
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Thread Starter
ZELL redux….
XQ-58 Valkyrie loyal wingman drone rocket assisted take off
XQ-58 Valkyrie loyal wingman drone rocket assisted take off
Administrator
Who needs a runway if you have JATO? 
I'd have thought loyal wingmen/Skyborgs would be useful as a radar platform. Since the radar emitter instantly tells the enemy where you are, I'd be using a disposable drone to host the radar, be 100 km away from the real strike package and be broadcasting the tactical picture to the strike package which obviously is in receive only mode and hopefully undetected. Or use the drone to suddenly start emitting over the target, get all the air defence emitters to light up then send a missile their way.
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I'd have thought loyal wingmen/Skyborgs would be useful as a radar platform. Since the radar emitter instantly tells the enemy where you are, I'd be using a disposable drone to host the radar, be 100 km away from the real strike package and be broadcasting the tactical picture to the strike package which obviously is in receive only mode and hopefully undetected. Or use the drone to suddenly start emitting over the target, get all the air defence emitters to light up then send a missile their way.
Welcome to 10 years ago when they started to design the radar for this reason. Not sure if it has an actual name but raytheon has developed a small radar that weighs about 60kg for loyal wingman drones. Up till this radar there wasn't any really effective small radars available. Ghost bat will come with modular noses and one will is expected to be this radar or something equivalent
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Thread Starter
Not thinking in wide enough a context.
Think multiple LW networked in a stealthy broad-spectrum net across a wide front providing long baseline inferometry.
Each LW radar emits just a few unique dissimilar pulses - too little for a receiver to identify or pinpoint whilst others listen for the echo. Meanwhile up threat another in stealth mode fires AAM based on the acquired targeting data.
You don’t even need active emitters, using same principle as multipolar passive radar the same baseline can just monitor echoes of mobile phone, TV and other emitters to pinpoint even stealth aircraft (most aircraft are optimised for stealth from the front and are vulnerable to 360 degree passive detection)
Think multiple LW networked in a stealthy broad-spectrum net across a wide front providing long baseline inferometry.
Each LW radar emits just a few unique dissimilar pulses - too little for a receiver to identify or pinpoint whilst others listen for the echo. Meanwhile up threat another in stealth mode fires AAM based on the acquired targeting data.
You don’t even need active emitters, using same principle as multipolar passive radar the same baseline can just monitor echoes of mobile phone, TV and other emitters to pinpoint even stealth aircraft (most aircraft are optimised for stealth from the front and are vulnerable to 360 degree passive detection)
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Thread Starter
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/the-rise-of-fury
The Rise Of Fury
How a small company’s big attempt to disrupt air combat training has suddenly turned into something much, much more.
The Rise Of Fury
How a small company’s big attempt to disrupt air combat training has suddenly turned into something much, much more.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...e-marine-corps
XQ-58 Valkyrie Is Now Flying With The Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps has begun flying its stealthy Kratos' XQ-58A Valkyrie drones, making it the second known operator of the type beyond the U.S. Air Force.
The Marines now plan to evaluate the drones as highly autonomous surveillance and reconnaissance assets, electronic warfare platforms, and wingmen for crewed fighters, including in kinetic roles.
The first flight of a Marine XQ-58 took place on October 3, the service announced today. The drone was launched from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The test flight was conducted in cooperation with the Air Force's 40th Flight Test Squadron, part of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin, and the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), part of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, or OUSD(R&E), has also been involved in the Marine Valkyrie program.
As can be seen in the video above, the XQ-58 is a completely runway-independent design that uses a rocket-assisted takeoff method via a static ground-based launcher. The drone uses a parachute recovery system to get back on the ground, with inflatable airbags helping to cushion it when it touches down.
According to Kratos, the XQ-58, with its 30-foot overall length and 27-foot wingspan, has a maximum range of around 3,000 miles and a maximum launch weight of 6,500 pounds (including up to 600 pounds in its internal payload bay and/or another 600 pounds under the wings). It has a subsonic cruising speed of Mach 0.72 and can hit an absolute top speed of around Mach 0.85.
"This XQ-58A test flight and the data collected ... not only help to inform future requirements for the Marine Corps," Scott Bey, a prototyping and experimentation portfolio manager at OUSD(R&E), said in a statement about the October 3 sortie. “It fuels continued joint innovation and experimentation opportunities and demonstrates the agility that can be achieved through partnership.”
XQ-58 Valkyrie Is Now Flying With The Marine Corps
The U.S. Marine Corps has begun flying its stealthy Kratos' XQ-58A Valkyrie drones, making it the second known operator of the type beyond the U.S. Air Force.
The Marines now plan to evaluate the drones as highly autonomous surveillance and reconnaissance assets, electronic warfare platforms, and wingmen for crewed fighters, including in kinetic roles.
The first flight of a Marine XQ-58 took place on October 3, the service announced today. The drone was launched from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
The test flight was conducted in cooperation with the Air Force's 40th Flight Test Squadron, part of the 96th Test Wing at Eglin, and the U.S. Navy's Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), part of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).
The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, or OUSD(R&E), has also been involved in the Marine Valkyrie program.
As can be seen in the video above, the XQ-58 is a completely runway-independent design that uses a rocket-assisted takeoff method via a static ground-based launcher. The drone uses a parachute recovery system to get back on the ground, with inflatable airbags helping to cushion it when it touches down.
According to Kratos, the XQ-58, with its 30-foot overall length and 27-foot wingspan, has a maximum range of around 3,000 miles and a maximum launch weight of 6,500 pounds (including up to 600 pounds in its internal payload bay and/or another 600 pounds under the wings). It has a subsonic cruising speed of Mach 0.72 and can hit an absolute top speed of around Mach 0.85.
"This XQ-58A test flight and the data collected ... not only help to inform future requirements for the Marine Corps," Scott Bey, a prototyping and experimentation portfolio manager at OUSD(R&E), said in a statement about the October 3 sortie. “It fuels continued joint innovation and experimentation opportunities and demonstrates the agility that can be achieved through partnership.”
Very reminiscent of the likes of Mace, Matador and Snark from the 50's...
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
It should be remembered that drones were increasingly being used in Vietnam due to the high threat environment, even with their limited capabilities without modern electronics. Their use vanished after the war due to disinterest and pressure from the FJ hierarchy.
Whilst their recent rise again is related to Ukraine it is mainly being driven by the increasing threat to manned aircraft in the Pacific theatre - so I would expect their use to proliferate….
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside...tten-drone-war
Whilst their recent rise again is related to Ukraine it is mainly being driven by the increasing threat to manned aircraft in the Pacific theatre - so I would expect their use to proliferate….
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside...tten-drone-war
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023...drone-wingmen/
New in 2024: Air Force plans autonomous flight tests for drone wingmen
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s plan to create a fleet of drone wingmen to fly alongside piloted fighter jets will accelerate in 2024, as the service ramps up its experimentation with autonomous flight.
These drones, which the Air Force calls collaborative combat aircraft, are intended to fly alongside F-35s and the future Next Generation Air Dominance platform. The service wants them to be able to perform a variety of missions, including striking enemy targets, conducting surveillance, jamming enemy signals, or even acting as decoys.
The Air Force has been using a ballpark figure of 1,000 CCAs for planning, but Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in November said the fleet will likely end up being larger than that.
But before fielding the drones, the Air Force needs to do more research on how autonomous flight will work, and how it can be folded into the day-to-day operations of units.
The service’s proposed 2024 budget calls for almost $50 million to test autonomous software on F-16 fighters under a program called Project VENOM. Another $69 million would be used to launch an experimental operations unit team, which would start developing tactics and procedures to incorporate CCAs into a squadron.
Project VENOM, which stands for “Viper Experimentation and Next-generation Operations Model,” would load autonomous code into six F-16s. Those fighters would be flown by humans from takeoff to an in-air experimentation zone, where the self-flying software would take over.
The Air Force hopes these experiments will show whether autonomous flight, as envisioned by the CCA concept, can bring the intended benefits.
The Air Force wants to collect in-flight data from the Project Venom tests about how pilots and machines work together, and use that information to create more refined autonomous software.
The experimental operations unit would also help the Air Force figure out how CCAs might help with missions, and how squadrons would train to use them. This is intended to cut down on the risks that might come from teaming autonomous drones up with crewed aircraft.
Speaking at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security think tank, Kendall said the Air Force is using Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bats as experimental aircraft to team them up with crewed aircraft and get airmen operational experience.
The service also wants CCAs to be cheap enough that they could be “attritable,” meaning the service could afford to lose some in combat. According to Kendall, CCAs will probably be roughly one-quarter to one-third of the cost of an F-35, suggesting they could run $20 million to $27 million.
Defense firms have already pitched several different concepts for CCAs, and the acquisition will take several years. The Air Force hopes to have the first “increment” of CCAs in production later this decade, and fielded “in reasonable quantities” soon after, Kendall said.
New in 2024: Air Force plans autonomous flight tests for drone wingmen
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force’s plan to create a fleet of drone wingmen to fly alongside piloted fighter jets will accelerate in 2024, as the service ramps up its experimentation with autonomous flight.
These drones, which the Air Force calls collaborative combat aircraft, are intended to fly alongside F-35s and the future Next Generation Air Dominance platform. The service wants them to be able to perform a variety of missions, including striking enemy targets, conducting surveillance, jamming enemy signals, or even acting as decoys.
The Air Force has been using a ballpark figure of 1,000 CCAs for planning, but Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in November said the fleet will likely end up being larger than that.
But before fielding the drones, the Air Force needs to do more research on how autonomous flight will work, and how it can be folded into the day-to-day operations of units.
The service’s proposed 2024 budget calls for almost $50 million to test autonomous software on F-16 fighters under a program called Project VENOM. Another $69 million would be used to launch an experimental operations unit team, which would start developing tactics and procedures to incorporate CCAs into a squadron.
Project VENOM, which stands for “Viper Experimentation and Next-generation Operations Model,” would load autonomous code into six F-16s. Those fighters would be flown by humans from takeoff to an in-air experimentation zone, where the self-flying software would take over.
The Air Force hopes these experiments will show whether autonomous flight, as envisioned by the CCA concept, can bring the intended benefits.
The Air Force wants to collect in-flight data from the Project Venom tests about how pilots and machines work together, and use that information to create more refined autonomous software.
The experimental operations unit would also help the Air Force figure out how CCAs might help with missions, and how squadrons would train to use them. This is intended to cut down on the risks that might come from teaming autonomous drones up with crewed aircraft.
Speaking at the Washington-based Center for a New American Security think tank, Kendall said the Air Force is using Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bats as experimental aircraft to team them up with crewed aircraft and get airmen operational experience.
The service also wants CCAs to be cheap enough that they could be “attritable,” meaning the service could afford to lose some in combat. According to Kendall, CCAs will probably be roughly one-quarter to one-third of the cost of an F-35, suggesting they could run $20 million to $27 million.
Defense firms have already pitched several different concepts for CCAs, and the acquisition will take several years. The Air Force hopes to have the first “increment” of CCAs in production later this decade, and fielded “in reasonable quantities” soon after, Kendall said.