US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

strehl said:

Because Merry Christmas.

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Jeff Head said:

Rest in Peace, General Schwarzkopf! You were a great American, and you knew how to fight and win a war. God bless you and yours...and may your loved ones be comforted in your passing, sure in the knowledge that you will all be reunited one day.

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Italian delivery marks end of General Atomics RQ-1 production

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has delivered its final batch of unarmed RQ-1s to the Italian Air Force, marking the last delivery of the iconic Predator A after two decades of production.

Assembly of the remotely-piloted aircraft officially ended in 2011 upon final delivery of an armed MQ-1 Predator to the US air force, which has since switched to buying the heavier MQ-9, known as the Reaper or “Predator B”.

A spokeswoman for the company says the last Italian aircraft were delivered on the Predator XP assembly line, which is an improved, export-ready derivative of the classic pusher-propeller Predator with the same downward “V” tail and basic airframe.

General Atomics says Italy now operates 15 of its unmanned aircraft, but would not reveal how many of each type at the customer’s request. It took delivery of its first RQ-1 in 2004, and has also procured six MQ-9s that were recently approved by the US government to carry weapons.

That suggests a total of nine Italian RQ-1s, which are used for intelligence gathering. The aircraft are particularly active over the Mediterranean Sea and in support of NATO operations.

The manufacturer says the last RQ-1 exited the production line in Poway, California, in September or October. Testing is completed at another site in the Palmdale region.

“Amassing over 2.1 million cumulative flight hours and featuring the highest mission-capable rate of any aircraft in the US air force’s inventory, Predators will continue to keep warfighters safe by equipping them with unparalleled situational awareness for many years to come,” says General Atomics aircraft systems division president Frank Pace.

USAF operates almost 100 MQ-9s and 150 MQ-1s, and is ramping up production of the latter to meet enduring operational demands for surveillance and strike. The service disclosed to Flightglobal in August that it intends to begin retiring the MQ-1 in 2018.

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Air Force Brat said:

Sad to hear of the brothers passing? in this picture he is a wearing a Seiko on his left arm and a "buluva" on his right arm??? One in Mil time, another in ??

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Small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates could greatly increase their effectiveness if they had their own unmanned air systems (UASs) to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other capabilities at long range around the clock. Current state-of-the-art UASs, however, lack the ability to take off and land from confined spaces in rough seas and achieve efficient long-duration flight. Tern, a joint program between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR), seeks to provide these and other previously unattainable capabilities. As part of Tern’s ongoing progress toward that goal, DARPA has awarded Phase 3 of Tern to a team led by the Northrop Grumman Corporation.

The first two phases of Tern successfully focused on preliminary design and risk reduction. In Phase 3, DARPA plans to build a full-scale demonstrator system of a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS designed to use forward-deployed small ships as mobile launch and recovery sites. Initial ground-based testing, if successful, would lead to an at-sea demonstration of takeoff, transition to and from horizontal flight, and landing—all from a test platform with a deck size similar to that of a destroyer or other small surface-combat vessel. “The design we have in mind for the Tern demonstrator could greatly increase the effectiveness of any host ship by augmenting awareness, reach and connectivity,” said Dan Patt, DARPA program manager. “We continue to make progress toward our goal to develop breakthrough technologies that would enable persistent ISR and strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world at a fraction of current deployment costs, time and effort.”

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