Well we might see revival of STOVL aircraft as new UCAV designs mature.
DARPA and the USN planned to have Tern, a prop tailsitter demonstrator, flying by late 2018. But the USN took over the program and has gone quiet since then.
The USN is now also looking to field larger drones and cranes that can launch and catch drones, so there might be possibilities there too.
But the most interesting and mature design is probably the UTAP-22, which is essentially an upgraded BQM-167A, meaning it’s a proven platform.
Production is said to start this year, and Kratos has been given approval to export them to close allies.
This system could VTOL an aircraft that can fly out 1600 miles at 50,000 feet and Mach 0.9 with a small but deadly payload.
This means that any ship with even a small helipad can launch and recover these for as little as $2 million a piece.
Possible payloads would include:
– 1 SDB + 4 Hellfires
– 6 Hellfires
– 1 AMRAAM + 4 Stingers
– 2 Sidewinders + 4 Stingers
– 16 Stingers
– 2 R-73 + 2 R-60
– 7 R-60
I mention the Russian missiles because India has already shown interesting to buy the Avenger UCAV, and is also looking to find a way to increase its naval force projection.
With their current need to update their forces to balance Pakistan and China, they’d be a strong potential user of such aircraft.
They could also be launched close to border area’s for example, anywhere a truck can reach really.