Report: U.S. Carriers Need New Lethal Unmanned Aircraft, New Fighter to Stay Relevant
By: Sam LaGrone
March 5, 2019 5:50 PM • Updated: March 5, 2019 9:25 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C. — To keep U.S. carriers relevant into the 21st century, the Navy needs to restart development of a lethal unmanned aircraft to fly from carrier decks, according to a new study on the future of the carrier air wing.
The Navy’s current air wing is composed of aircraft that don’t have the effective combat radius required to fight a far-flung island campaign in the Western Pacific, concluded the Regaining the High Ground at Sea: Transforming the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Air Wing for Great Power Competition study from Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. In order to keep the carrier safe from a growing range of guided-missile threats, a carrier might need to stay as far away as 1,000 nautical miles. That’s about 400 nautical miles more than the effective combat radius of the emerging F-35C Lighting II Joint Strike Fighter and 500 more than for the current crop of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
https://news.usni.org/2019/03/05/report-u-s-carriers-need-new-lethal-unmanned-aircraft-new-fighter-to-stay-relevant
