Lockheed Martin's Famed Skunk Works Division Reveals New Attack Drone Design

Here's Lockheed's New Stealthy Attack Drone Design -- Killer Apps/Foreign Policy

It's not every day that you get to see a new stealth jet unveiled, but today Lockheed Martin's famed Skunk Works division posted these artist's renderings of its bid for the Navy's next attack jet at its booth at the Navy League's annual Sea Air Space conference just outside of Washington.

Remember, the Navy is trying to field a fleet of stealthy, unmanned fighter-sized jets that can launch from an aircraft carrier, fly through enemy air defenses and do everything from bomb targets to spy on them under a program called Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike or UCLASS.

Last summer, Lockheed showed us a very unrevealing drawing of what it said would be its UCLASS bid, nicknamed the Sea Ghost. These pictures offer a far better look at the jet.

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My Comment: Expected sometime in 2018 - 2020, it's fact sheet is simple .... faster, more stealthy, multiple capabilities, and far more deadlier.

Drones Will Only Get More Advanced

Capt. James Engdahl is director of the X-47B Project, which develops drones for the U.S. military. (CBS News)

Navy Official: Drones Will Only Get More Advanced -- CBS

(CBS News) The technology behind drones is developing rapidly. Today, drones used to attack targets are flown by remote control by pilots on the ground. But a new generation has no pilot at all. They can be completely guided by computer.

A new type of vehicle being developed by the Navy looks like stealth bomber and could probably carry 4,000 pounds of weapons, but there's no pilot in the cockpit. Navy Capt. Jaime Engdahl is director of what's called the X-47B Project.

"It is an autonomous vehicle so it's flying itself ... It's a very unique aircraft," Engdahl said.

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My Comment: And Capt. James Engdahl is right. We are at the cusp of a new age in drones and drone warfare.

US Navy Prepares For Their UAV Fleet

Navy Preps For X-47B Cats, Traps On Carrier -- Aviation Week

The U.S. Navy is making strides in achieving its lofty objective of fielding up to six unmanned aerial vehicles on an aircraft carrier deck in 2020, though the path is fraught with technology and funding challenges.

The service hopes to field 4-6 yet-to-be-built Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) aircraft on a deck by the turn of the next decade, a goal that service officials admit is ambitious. But the potential strategic gain far outweighs the pitfalls. The marriage of the physical reach of aircraft carriers, which do not require host nation approval for operations, with unmanned surveillance technologies—especially when coupled with a stealthy design—will give the Navy a major advantage as the Pentagon shifts its attention from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Pacific region.

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My Comment: The US Navy was originally behind in the development and use of UAVs .... it is clear that they are making great stride to catch up. The only thing that is stopping/delaying them is that the technology needs to be continually developed .... and .... more importantly .... the money.

Drones On Lasers?

Doubling The Threat: Drones + Lasers? -- Time

The unfolding revolution wrought by unmanned aerial vehicles has freed a number of military missions from the tyranny of human endurance. Plinking terrorists no longer requires an aircraft with oxygen flowing into the cockpit, parachutes or other gear necessary to ensure a pilot’s survival.

But another limit still exists.

When MQ-1 Predators are armed, they head off into the wild blue yonder with a lone pair of Hellfire missiles under their wings. It’s a double-barreled shotgun you can’t reload.

But folks at General Atomics are getting increasingly excited by the HELLADS — the High Energy Liquid Laser Defense System. It is designed to shrink a flying laser into a package small enough to cram onto an aircraft.

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My Comment: I am skeptical that it will work .... but then again .... I could be totally wrong.

The Next Generation Of Drones?

Air Force May Be Developing Stealth Drones in Secret -- Danger Room

The Air Force’s multi-billion-dollar drone fleets may have helped against the insurgents of Iraq and Afghanistan. But in a fight against a real military like China’s, the relatively defenseless unmanned aerial vehicles would get shot down in a second. So once again, the air will belong to traditional, manned bombers and fighters able to survive the sophisticated air defenses.

At least that’s the Air Force’s official position. Secretly, however, the flying branch could be working on at least two new high-tech UAVs optimized for the most intensive future air wars. Ace aviation reporter Bill Sweetman has gathered evidence of new stealth drones under development by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman — the latter potentially armed, and both drawing on classified funds. If these robots are real, the Air Force’s drone era is not only not ending — it’s barely begun.

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My Comment: I concur with this analysis .... the Air Force’s drone era is not only not ending — it’s barely begun. This also probably explains why the U.S. military just shrugged their shoulders when the Iranians claimed that they had captured a drone .... as far as the U.S. is concerned .... this is all old technology.

The Growing Role And Evolution Of Drones

An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) sits in a shelter at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, after a mission on November 10, 2008. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the Reaper can carry up to 3,750 pounds of laser-guided bombs and missiles.

A Dangerous New World Of Drones -- Peter Bergen and Jennifer Rowland, Special to CNN

Washington (CNN) -- A decade ago, the United States had a virtual monopoly on drones.

Not anymore. According to data compiled by the New America Foundation, more than 70 countries now own some type of drone, though just a small number of those nations possess armed drone aircraft.

The explosion in drone technology promises to change the way nations conduct war and threatens to begin a new arms race as governments scramble to counterbalance their adversaries.

Late last month, China announced that it would use surveillance drones to monitor a group of uninhabited islands in the South China Sea that are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.

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My Comment: Pandora's Box is now open when it comes to drones .... and there is nothing that we can do to put it back in. The only question that still remains to be answered is .... how deadly and how autonomous will these militarized drones be in the future.

Chinese Scientists Unveil Mind-Controlled Drone

Think Hard To Fly: Chinese Scientists Unveil Mind-Controlled Drone -- RT

Chinese researchers have unveiled a system that allows users to control drones with their thoughts. The technology was designed to help handicapped people, but could have ample applications in other fields as well.

A video posted to YouTube by researchers at Zhejiang University shows how the system, called Flybuddy2, works. And it appears that you don’t have to be a nuclear scientist to build one. All you need is an EEG headset with a Bluetooth connection to a laptop – plus a quadrotor Parrot AR Drone linked to the computer.

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My Comment: Impressive.

The Drone Revolution’s Next Phase

Northrop Grumman X-47B. Photo: Jared Soares/Wired.com

Stealthy, Tiny, Deadly, Global: The Drone Revolution’s Next Phase -- Danger Room

Today's unmanned robotic planes only seem advanced. A decade after the CIA and the Air Force tucked a Hellfire missile under the wing of a Predator drone, much hasn't actually changed: pilots in air-conditioned boxes remotely control much of the armed drone fleet; the robo-planes are easy for an enemy to spot; the weapons they fire weigh about the same; as much as they love the skies, they take refuge on dry land; and they're built around traditional airframes like planes and helicopters. Yawn.

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My Comment: An brief summary on what is in the pipeline for drone development.

Drone Swarms

Swarm: Boeing engineers and researchers from Johns Hopkins University successfully tested their swarm technology on two ScanEagle drones in Oregon. Seen here is a ScanEagle

Bugs In The Sky: Boeing Showcases Hard-To-Detect Drones That Behave Like A 'Swarm Of Insects' -- Daily Mail

* Drone development could lead to lower costs and less risk in military warfare
* Research suggests that the mechanics of insects can be reverse-engineered to design smaller machines to scout battlefields
* Boeing reveals new drone at Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show

Boeing engineers have successfully demonstrated new technology that enables drones to function like a 'swarm of insects' where they can communicate and carry out tasks in mid-air.

In June, engineers and researchers from Johns Hopkins University tested their technology on two ScanEagle drones in Oregon, Boeing revealed.

The drone development could lead to lower costs and less risk in military welfare, Boeing said in a statement.

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My Comment: Impressive tech .... I can only imagine what will be flying around in 5, 10, or 20 years.

A New Generation Of Deadly Unmanned Weapons

Wikipedia

Drone Warfare: A New Generation Of Deadly Unmanned Weapons -- The Guardian

Business is booming at the vast base in Nevada, where tomorrow's Top Guns are learning to target terrorists from afar.

The electronic cavern is dark, save for the glow of consoles, and Lt Col Mike Weaver surveys his apprentice warriors with satisfaction as they project American might halfway around the world. One crew – two young men in flight suits seated before half a dozen screens – prepares to fire missiles from a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) at a boatload of suspected insurgents in Afghanistan. Another crew circles a suspicious bulge by a roadside in Iraq and feeds co-ordinates to ground troops. Another tracks what appears to be a vehicle in Yemen.

"There's not a lot of time for emotion here. There's a war going on and we have a job to do," says Weaver, a veteran F15 fighter pilot.

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My Comment: If there were no drones .... would Al Qaeda still be operating in Pakistan's tribal areas? I would so no because special ops and fighter bombers will be used instead .... but the risk factor for civilian and military casualties will be higher .... as well as the political backlash when something goes wrong. So yes .... drones have a future for the simple reason being that they are effective, and they minimize military casualties. But what is remarkable about drones is that we are only a few years in this new era of warfare .... one can only imagine what we will be having 10, 20, 30 years from now.

Here Comes The New 'And Armed' Tiny Drones

Armed Quadrotors Are Coming -- Popular Mechanics

For now, tiny drones carrying guns are just the stuff of video games. But U.S. military researchers are building such sinister devices in their labs.

A camouflage quadrotor armed with a machine gun zips around a test range, destroying targets and setting dummies ablaze.

By now, most of the nearly 11 million people who've seen the YouTube video know it's a fake. There's no armed Russian quadrotor drone; the video is a bit of CGI trickery, a viral advertisement for the next Call of Duty game. But real-life weaponized quadrotors may be a lot closer than you think, thanks to a project undertaken by Marine Corps Maj. Derek Snyder at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif.

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My Comment: I know that the above video is a fake .... used to market a video game .... but it gives a good idea on what can happen on future battle fields.

Drones Of The Future

Maple Seed Drones Will Swarm The Future -- TPM

Imagine a cheap, tiny, hovering aerial drone capable of being launched with the flick of a person’s wrist and able to provide manipulable 360-degree surveillance views.

It’s real, it’s inspired by maple seeds, and the company behind it, Lockheed Martin, envisions a future in which swarms of the new drones can be deployed at a fraction of the cost and with greater capabilities than drones being used today by the military and other agencies.

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My Comment: Impressive.

The Future Of War: Unmanned Drone Attacks And Shape-Shifting Robot

Pakistanis hold up a burning mock drone aircraft during a May rally against drone attacks in Peshawar. In 2009, the Brookings Institution estimated that unmanned drone attacks were killing about 10 civilians for every 1 insurgent in Pakistan. K. Pervez/Reuters

Unmanned Drone Attacks And Shape-Shifting Robots: War's Remote-Control Future -- Christian Science Monitor

The Pentagon already includes unmanned drone attacks in its arsenal. Next up: housefly-sized surveillance craft, shape-changing 'chemical robots,' and tracking agents sprayed from the sky. What does it mean to have soldiers so far removed from the battlefield?

In the shadow of a heavily fortified enemy building, US commanders call in a chemical robot, or what looks like a blob. They give it a simple instruction: Penetrate a crack in the building and find out what's inside. Like an ice sculpture or the liquid metal assassin in "Terminator 2," the device changes shape, slips through the opening, then reassumes its original form to look around. It uses sensors woven into its fabric to sample the area for biological agents. If needed, it can seep into the cracks of a bomb to defuse it.

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My Comment: This CSM report is a comprehensive one. For those who are interested on what are the future of drones/war/weapon systems/etc., read it all.

Is Global Drone Warfare Possible?

An Air Force "hunter-killer" drone, the Reaper, takes off on a training mission at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada

The Scary Prospect Of Global Drone Warfare -- David Cortright, CNN

Drone technology is spreading rapidly. As many as 50 countries are developing or purchasing these systems, including China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran.

Even non-state actors are involved. Hezbollah reportedly has deployed an Iranian-designed drone. Iran is developing a new drone aircraft with a range of more than 600 miles. These systems are used mostly for surveillance, but it is not difficult to equip the aircraft with missiles and bombs. Recently in Massachusetts, a man was arrested for plotting to place explosives on a drone aircraft and fly it into the Pentagon or the Capitol building. Private contractors are getting into the business as well. We now have companies offering drones-for-hire.

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My Comment: I am sure that one day we will be reading about one drone shooting down another drone .... but (in my opinion) that is far into the future.

More News On The Army's "Switchblade" Drone

Designed as a tube launched weapon, the Switchblade system comprises a miniature air vehicle that launches from a small tube that can be carried in a backpack and operated by a single soldier. Flying quietly at high speed the Switchblade delivers its onboard explosive payload with precision while minimizing collateral damage. Photo: Aerovironment

'The Switchblade': U.S. Army Unveils Its Latest Weapon To Kill Militants - Tiny Kamikaze Drones -- Daily Mail

* New drones weigh less than 2kg and launch from tube
* Wings fold out as it flies into air and then dive bombs
* Operators can order drone to lock on to human target
It quietly hovers before dive-bombing and blowing up a human target.

This ‘kamikaze’ drone - small enough to fit inside a soldier’s backpack and dubbed the ‘Switchblade’ - will soon be available for use by the U.S. Army.

The impressive robotic craft weighs less than 2kg and launches from a tube before its wings fold out as it flies into the air, reported AFP.

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My Comment: This weapon is going to inflict pain on the enemy.

Drones Are The Future Of Air Power

Flight Of The Drones: Why The Future Of Air Power Belongs To Unmanned Systems -- The Economist

ON SEPTEMBER 30th Anwar al-Awlaki and several of his al-Qaeda colleagues stopped their pickup truck on a remote, dusty road deep inside Yemen’s interior. He can have had only a split second to realise what was about to happen. But the missile strike that killed al-Qaeda’s most effective propagandist was no real surprise. It was just the latest example of the way America’s armed Predator and Reaper drones are changing the terms of combat with the country’s enemies, leaving them able to run but with nowhere to hide.

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My Comment: While the above graph projects continued US dominance in drone numbers .... what it ignores is the quality and effectiveness of these drones .... a factor that I suspect the US is years ahead of anyone else.

Drones Are Getting "Smarter"

Building a 'Soft Biometric' Profile Progeny Systems Corporation via Danger Room

Army Tracking Plan: Drones That Never Forget a Face -- The Danger Room

Perhaps the idea of spy drones already makes your nervous. Maybe you’re uncomfortable with the notion of an unblinking, robotic eye in the sky that can watch your every move. If so, you may want to click away now. Because if the Army has its way, drones won’t just be able to look at what you do. They’ll be able to recognize your face — and track you, based on how you look. If the military machines assemble enough information, they might just be able to peer into your heart.

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Update: Army Developing Drones That Can Recognize Your Face From a Distance -- Popular Science

My Comment: This is probably one of the reasons why Bin Laden never (or rarely) left his compound in Pakistan. He was probably afraid that he would be spotted and tracked by such surveillance platforms.

When Will Our Killer Drones Become Autonomous?

MQ-1 Predator Drone, Weaponized and Awaiting Command Over Afghanistan USAF

Killer Drones: When Will Our Weaponized Robots Become Autonomous? -- Popular Science

America’s drone fleet has become an increasingly relied-upon wing of its counter-insurgency strategy and plays a key role in its geopolitical policy, particularly in Pakistan where unmanned aircraft routinely venture into sovereign territory and deliver lethal payloads to targets on the ground. But the Washington Post asks: just exactly how far away are we from real “killer robots.” The answer, in this morning’s piece of recommended reading, is: we’re already there.

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My Comment: Apparently more sooner than later. Read the entire Popular Science post.

Future War: Drones That Talk To Each Other And Coordinate An Attack

Source: Georgia Tech Research Institute. Alberto Cuadra and Peter Finn/The Washington Post. Published on September 19, 2011, 10:39 p.m.

A Future For Drones: Automated Killing -- Washington Post

One afternoon last fall at Fort Benning, Ga., two model-size planes took off, climbed to 800 and 1,000 feet, and began criss-crossing the military base in search of an orange, green and blue tarp.

The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on any control.

After 20 minutes, one of the aircraft, carrying a computer that processed images from an onboard camera, zeroed in on the tarp and contacted the second plane, which flew nearby and used its own sensors to examine the colorful object. Then one of the aircraft signaled to an unmanned car on the ground so it could take a final, close-up look.

Target confirmed.

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My Comment: We are still a long way from developing weapon platforms that will make human commanders and their political bosses comfortable to sign-off on. But with warfare becoming increasingly influence by rules of engagement and law-fare, I expect these systems (or some of them) will be developed to give senior officials and politicians "cover" in the event that something goes wrong.

Getting Ready For The Drone Swarm

ScanEagle Two ScanEagle drones, like the one pictured here, and a Procerus Unicorn drone joined forces to search a ground area in a test of UAV swarms. Boeing

In Boeing Demonstration, Different Autonomous Drones Swarm Together For Reconnaissance Missions -- Popular Science

Commanding an army of drones is one thing; letting drones command themselves is something else entirely, especially when they have very little in common. Boeing recently tested a swarm network to help disparate drones work together, sending two types of unmanned aerial vehicles on a reconnaissance mission over eastern Oregon.



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My Comment: Forget about reconnaissance .... when they start to attack as a swarm .... that is when they will get my attention.