US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Stinger as we know it are incremental improvements of a series that dates back to the late 1970s early 1980s it’s self a substantially improved version of the older Redeye MANPADS that date to the late 1960s. Stinger was and is due for replacement.
Adding to your point, also keep in mind that loyal wingman type drones developed by Boeing have already flown and to the best of my knowledge neither MIUS nor Darksword has. By the time they have flown it is likely that Loyal Wingman will be in service.
I'm honestly sick of those Turkish fanboys on Pakistani defence forums. All I have seen so far is a half completed mockup (not even a fully completed one) and the Turkish fanboys are already calling this thing the greatest drone every created. We are probably at least 10 years away from supersonic UCAVs really being a thing for USAF and PLAAF.
In my opinion, both XQ-58 and Australian loyal wingman look inferior designs to GJ-11. That's probably why they are looking to pay $300 million per UCAV that accompanies B-21.
Turkey did good with the TB-2 but its essentially a large turboprop powered model plane. There is little in common between that and a supersonic drone other than they both fly in the sky remotely. They have zero experience with jet engines, so that prototype will likely remain a prototype for a long time.
I think supersonic drones will be coming sooner than you think. Up until this war there was no real need for them in the wars America was facing. If you're fighting Arabs with Kalashnikovs there's no real impetus for jet drones, you may as well use cheaper turboprops with higher loiter time. If your enemy is coming with advanced drones of their own then it becomes a different story.
There doesn't seem to be a supersonic UCAV in actively development right now. The accompanying UCAV for B-21 will be subsonic. If you expect manned fighter to be a higher end and UCAV to be cheap and attributable, then UCAV is likely to remain subsonic. At least that seems like the current direction of USAF.
What about the UK one? In my opinion, supersonic jet drones will replace subsonic ones for the same reasons supersonic fighter jets quickly surpassed subsonic jets. They're just better.
Not having a human eliminates a lot of the limiting factors of jets today - G-forces, life support, etc. Again, my speculation. It's all uncharted territory so we don't know what the picture will be in long term future.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Most drones are used for loiter missions. Overwatch and surveillance. For that mission you want endurance. Super sonic don’t offer that. Farther that mission set requires a satellite uplink requiring the drone to keep line of sight. Supersonic drones have potential missions but not replacing subsonic. Support of manned fighters and strike.
Against insurgent type forces yes. To me the Ukraine war is showing existing drones don't fair very well against modern air defences. Even the Ukrainians have already managed to shoot down an Orion now that they've started showing up.
Surveillance drones maybe, i.e. too small to target or bother wasting a missile on.