The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: rangerrebew on April 30, 2017, 08:59:15 am
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Navy, Air Force Are Exploring Concepts for a Next-Generation 6th Generation Fighter to Come After the F-35
Kris Osborn
Friday at 11:27 PM
The Pentagon's 6th Generation Fighter may be stealthy and will likely have next-generation computers, electronic warfare technology, speed, weapons and sensors
Fighter jets in 20-years may likely contain the next-generation of stealth technoology, electronic warfare, sophisticated computer processing and algorithms, increased autonomy, hypersonic weapons and so-called "smart-skins" where sensors are built into the side of the aircraft itself.
http://www.scout.com/military/warrior/story/1641046-air-force-navy-advance-new-6th-gen-fighter
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I can see a fighter of the future having a crew of two, linked to and controlling a series of drones, some for recon/surveillance of air and other targets, some for attack/air superiority purposes. The fighter may not even actually be in combat itself if the 'drone cloud' is managed properly and is enough to counter the threats it faces, however onboard AIs would help control drones closer to the target and more seamlessly respond to threats uploaded to the control network by drones and longer range radars/other fighters. Information sharing between fighters and their drones and from fighter to tighter would allow transfer of threat data as they shifted into the 'zone' of adjacent fighters and uploading of threat information and assessment to more centralized data centers giving a more comprehensive picture of the conflict space.
Stealth, speed, maneuverability, are of course factors as well, along with ECM hardening and offensive ECM capability which could be tasked to drones.
Just mho, and I'm probably behind the times.
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I can see a fighter of the future having a crew of two, linked to and controlling a series of drones, some for recon/surveillance of air and other targets, some for attack/air superiority purposes. The fighter may not even actually be in combat itself if the 'drone cloud' is managed properly and is enough to counter the threats it faces, however onboard AIs would help control drones closer to the target and more seamlessly respond to threats uploaded to the control network by drones and longer range radars/other fighters. Information sharing between fighters and their drones and from fighter to tighter would allow transfer of threat data as they shifted into the 'zone' of adjacent fighters and uploading of threat information and assessment to more centralized data centers giving a more comprehensive picture of the conflict space.
Stealth, speed, maneuverability, are of course factors as well, along with ECM hardening and offensive ECM capability which could be tasked to drones.
Just mho, and I'm probably behind the times.
Well, I have to wonder if the days of manned air superiority aircraft are numbered. Unmanned aircraft can do everything manned ones can, and don't have the limitations on maneuver imposed by the realities of the limits of the human body. If you upgrade your "drones" to fully-functional UCAVs and move the pilots/controllers to a drone director aircraft, perhaps similar to the TACAMO aircraft but tailored to the UCAV management mission, you can completely change the way air superiority is approached.
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I can see a fighter of the future having a crew of two, linked to and controlling a series of drones,
I can also see a tank column sending aerial drones ahead to spot a potential ambush (and possibly guide fire and/or unmanned ground sniffers scan for IED's along the road and detonate them. All without them having to stop.
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Well, I have to wonder if the days of manned air superiority aircraft are numbered.
China knows they can't match us in fighters, this is why they build interceptors designed to hit AWACS and refueling planes. They know these are weak points in any combat we might engage in over there.
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The F-22 is what they really want. It could have one plane hang back illuminating the enemy with radar while several forward ones unseen by the enemy allowed their missiles to be guided by the radar of the one way back.
This is what they can do with drones. Let the stealth drones go into combat using the radar (via satellite link?) of the manned craft (I guess it doesn't necessarily need to be manned either) to drop their bombs and fire their missiles. Then they can all be refueled in the air on the way back. Heck, this whole mission can be done without a human getting off the ground.
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Well, I have to wonder if the days of manned air superiority aircraft are numbered. Unmanned aircraft can do everything manned ones can, and don't have the limitations on maneuver imposed by the realities of the limits of the human body. If you upgrade your "drones" to fully-functional UCAVs and move the pilots/controllers to a drone director aircraft, perhaps similar to the TACAMO aircraft but tailored to the UCAV management mission, you can completely change the way air superiority is approached.
Transmit times of the control inputs is what currently limits unmanned aircraft. Like you said, having an aircraft controlling them in the immediate vicinity would mitigate the lull or delay in the transmission.
Granted, it's only a few seconds right now, but in a fight, those seconds matter.