PLAN Carrier Strike Group and Airwing

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

bd popeye said:

Big news for the X-47B..

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Actually the X-47B has already completed its first landing using an arrester cable on 4th May, conducted at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, it was a successful "trap" made completely by computer guidance with oversight by a landing officer on the runway

Additional testing and further land based traps are required before the second unit makes a landing on USS George Bush

The USN will issue a request proposal in June for the design of a unmanned carrier launched surveillance and strike aircraft known as UCLASS, Northrop will face competition from Boeing and Lockheed Martin

Also to note is that by the time the UCLASS enters service the Chinese will have thier own aircraft ready to deploy

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

asif iqbal said:

Actually the X-47B has already completed its first landing using an arrester cable on 4th May, conducted at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, it was a successful "trap" made completely by computer guidance with oversight by a landing officer on the runway

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Less than 10 knots WOD for recovery isn't to much. In windy weather the carrier has to perform U-turns from upwind to downwind to give this vehicles a chance to land.

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Besides Brazil, Saab identified future demand for naval fighters in countries like India, Italy and the UK, which, in the coming years will be commissioning new aircraft carriers in their navies. According to Saab, there is a real and viable market for this type of aircraft. Aiming this market, the company is already developing a naval version of JAS-39 Gripen, which aims to be a variant of its newest product, the Gripen NG (Next Generation). This new version was named Sea Gripen.

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Re: Aircraft Carriers II

asif iqbal said:

Actually the X-47B has already completed its first landing using an arrester cable on 4th May, conducted at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland, it was a successful "trap" made completely by computer guidance with oversight by a landing officer on the runway

Also to note is that by the time the UCLASS enters service the Chinese will have thier own aircraft ready to deploy

Click to expand...

The X-47B has made many landings on terra firma...on fixed earth airfields. It is true that beginning May 4th they added a trap wire to the landings on land...but it was still on land and that is all just building up to the real test for what the aircraft is designed to do.

The catapault takeoff from the USS Bush was historic. It was the first cat launch from a carrier at sea for this type of, and this sophisticated of a UCAV. Now, in the next couple of weeks, they will add the more dicey trap landing on the moving carrier at sea. That will also be historic.

The US, with its Preadtors, Reapers, Global Hawks, and numerous other deployed and combat tested UAVs has made literally many thousands of landings on fixed airfields over the last ten+ years...probably tens of thousands at this point.

But now this more sophisticated system is being designed for dedicated carrier use, as a part of the airwing. and that will be a huge difference.

Not that we have not made ship launches (including off of carriers) of other, smaller and much less sophisticated UAVs. We have.

But the X-47B, which is a full scale technology demonstrator of the follow on production project is in a completely different league. Odds are that Northrop will get the contract. no necessarily so, but since they built the demonstrator and it is performing so well...it is a very strong likelihood.

I do not believe the PLAN will field anything comparable to the capabilities of these aircraft in the same time frame. I do not believe their current UCAV demonstrator is slated for launching off of the Liaoning anytime soon...if at all. The US will have these aboard the Ford class and Nimitz class carriers in the 2020 time frame. I do not expect the PLAN to field anything like it in that time frame...but time will tell.

navyreco said:

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That is one very nice looking aircraft.

I can imagine it working very well on any CATOBAR carrier (like the Sao Paulo) or on STOBAR carreirs as well.

However, it is yet to be seen if it will be suitable for a STOVL type carrier like what the Italians and Spanish operate. I have no doubts it can get off the ramp...but those carriers do not have arresting systems to trap the aircraft and I would be interested in knowing what its Short Landing specs are.

For those carriers...and there will be more and more of them (Koreans, Japanese, Australia, etc), the F-35B seems a more likely fit if they want fixed wing aircraft operating off of them

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Jeff Head said:

The X-47B has made many landings on terra firma...on fixed earth airfields. It is true that beginning May 4th they added a trap wire to the landings on land...but it was still on land and that is all just building up to the real test for what the aircraft is designed to do.

The catapault takeoff from the USS Bush was historic. It was the first cat launch from a carrier at sea for this type of, and this sophisticated of a UCAV. Now, in the next couple of weeks, they will add the more dicey trap landing on the moving carrier at sea. That will also be historic.

The US, with its Preadtors, Reapers, Global Hawks, and numerous other deployed and combat tested UAVs has made literally many thousands of landings on fixed airfields over the last ten+ years...probably tens of thousands at this point.

But now this more sophisticated system is being designed for dedicated carrier use, as a part of the airwing. and that will be a huge difference.

Not that we have not made ship launches (including off of carriers) of other, smaller and much less sophisticated UAVs. We have.

But the X-47B, which is a full scale technology demonstrator of the follow on production project is in a completely different league. Odds are that Northrop will get the contract. no necessarily so, but since they built the demonstrator and it is performing so well...it is a very strong likelihood.

I do not believe the PLAN will field anything comparable to the capabilities of these aircraft in the same time frame. I do not believe their current UCAV demonstrator is slated for launching off of the Liaoning anytime soon...if at all. The US will have these aboard the Ford class and Nimitz class carriers in the 2020 time frame. I do not expect the PLAN to field anything like it in that time frame...but time will tell.

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That is one very nice looking aircraft.

I can imagine it working very well on any CATOBAR carrier (like the Sao Paulo) or on STOBAR carreirs as well.

However, it is yet to be seen if it will be suitable for a STOVL type carrier like what the Italians and Spanish operate. I have no doubts it can get off the ramp...but those carriers do not have arresting systems to trap the aircraft and I would be interested in knowing what its Short Landing specs are.

For those carriers...and there will be more and more of them (Koreans, Japanese, Australia, etc), the F-35B seems a more likely fit if they want fixed wing aircraft operating off of them

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Without arresting gear that won't be happening, however it could launch and recover to a land base just as the ucav did, always an option, or to someone else's catobar???? Brat

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Air Force Brat said:

Without arresting gear that won't be happening, however it could launch and recover to a land base just as the ucav did, always an option, or to someone else's catobar???? Brat

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Yea Brat but.. that X-47B has a tailhook and eventually shall make arrested landings at sea. The X-47B has made arrested landings ashore.

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Air Force Brat said:

Without arresting gear that won't be happening, however it could launch and recover to a land base just as the ucav did, always an option, or to someone else's catobar???? Brat

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The Air Force has attempted to divest itself of the Global Hawk because the U-2 has much higher caliber equipment and produces better results, so while I am happy you guys are happy I have a real concern with UCAVs on a number of levels. I don't have the same concern for manned aircraft that are armed as I do for these "killing machines", even if all they do is spy on the American Public, that is reprehensible, and the opportunity for abuse by Big Government is not nebulous it is in fact inevitable, with the IRS stifleing free speech and serving their political masters and overseeing Health Care "Enforcement" what a crock, so while it is a technological marvel it is also "Pandora's box", once the genie is out of the bottle, "look out"... Brat

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

bd popeye said:

Yea Brat but.. that X-47B has a tailhook and eventually shall make arrested landings at sea. The X-47B has made arrested landings ashore.

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You're right pappy, but don't forget ZING!-----SPLAAAT!-------don't stand in front of that infernal thang! Ehhh! Ehhh! Ehhh!

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

bd popeye said:

Yea Brat but.. that X-47B has a tailhook and eventually shall make arrested landings at sea. The X-47B has made arrested landings ashore.

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The problem will be precision landing onboard the carrier during inclement weather, a problem it will also share with F-35 due to the reduced radar signature really hindering the current radar-based autoland and air traffic management systems onboard the carriers. The USN and USAF are working on Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), which is a all-weather landing system using GPS signals. The system is supposed to be extremely accurate; less than 1m horizontal and vertical resolutions, which is better than the current civilian CAT III ILS standards.

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

I don't think the reduced RCS of the F-35C will be a problem when landing on a carrier, simply because with wheels and hook down, as well as undercarriage doors open the RCS will shoot up to nearly the same as a Hornet.