Boeing’s Phantom Eye is an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) that serves as an eye in the sky for surveillance, disaster relief, search and rescue, and a multitude of other uses.
Boeing’s Phantom Eye unmanned aerial vehicle made its first flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on June 1, 2012.
BBC News: Pentagon considers on-demand disposable satellites
Squads of disposable mini-satellites able to provide reconnaissance to soldiers at the “press of a button” are being considered by the US military.
It says the satellites should cost $500,000 (£318,500) apiece.
Very amazing video, who are they marketing this to? (with the video)
It is a tech demonstrator at the moment like the X-47B and Taranis.
How about doing something drastic?
Go back to the drawing board for the F-35A and F-35C.
It would be like the Super Hornet program.
Keep the forward section and design a new aircraft behind the cockpit while keeping as much of the systems like landing gears, actuators as possible.
Istres, France, January 20th, 2012 – The nEUROn, European UCAV technology demonstrator, has been officially presented to the representatives of the six participating countries by Mr. Charles Edelstenne, Chairman & CEO of Dassault Aviation.
LM’s 6th gen concept seems similar to the YF-23 😉
To answer the threadstarter. Japan is quietly working on ATD-X (Mitsubishi F-3) as a F15J replacement after repeated attempts to purchase the F-22. The F-35 will replace F4EJ in service.
Lockheed reveals 6th-gen fighter concept
Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division has revealed a conceptual next-generation fighter design that offers the first hints of an ambitious, long-term technology strategy for the new class of tactical aircraft that will emerge after 2030.
Dassault Neuron assembly. First flight expected early-mid 2012.
http://photos.dassault-aviation.com/galerie/VoirDoc.do?mode=DocLies&leMot=536871584&lang=en (The pictures)
http://tv.dassault-aviation.com/web/c-2/v-709/nEUROn_-_2011_Paris_Airshow.html (Video of assembly starts from 00:00:50)
Internal layout
http://youtu.be/O3naYhi-lCU (0:58)
Air and space combat is ever evolving. If an adversary has AWACs or datalinks, anti AWACs missiles, electronic warfare, tactics etc will be developed to negate that advantage.
The same thing will happen with satelite datalinks or space based sensors. The USAF is developing the Boeing YAL-1 which can intercept ASAT weapons and be used against low earth orbit satellites as well.
Cost of space access might change due to reusable orbital vehicles. There are stealthy low observable satellites that can maneuver or deploy countermeasures. Future warfare might involve low cost satellite launches in the event of war just to increase capacity, capability and provide decoys. Multiple low cost sats and terrestrial sensors might operate in a mesh to prevent single point failure.
I think UCAV/UCAS will play to their advantages. Un-manned, low cost, high endurance, stealthy. e.g. the X-37, X-41, Falcon HTV are unmanned systems which do not have to be man-rated which leads to much lower cost.
A UCAV/UCAS might not need to have the same kinematic performance, supercruise, super maneuverability or be multirole like a 5G fighter. They might operate like stealthy non-emitting aerial “SAM” ISR platforms flying racetrack patterns and using swarm combat. An aircraft in the killzone of an AIM-120D, AIM-9X is the same whether it is a 5G fighter or UCAS.
The U.S. Navy is delivering two maritime helicopters to the Royal Thai Navy as part of the first Foreign Military Sale of the MH-60 aircraft. The helicopters began the first leg of their journey to Thailand with a “fly off” on August 8 from Lockheed Martin’s facility in Owego, N.Y. They flew to the Port of Baltimore in Maryland, where they will eventually depart for Thailand.