U.S. Navy photo by Erik Hildebrandt/Released
David Axe, Daily Beast: Pentagon Kills Its Killer Drone Fleet
The U.S. military spent billions developing an armed drone that could take off from an aircraft carrier. But now, the Pentagon says it doesn’t want that kind of flying robot at all.
Cutting-edge killer drones will not be flying over the world’s oceans any time soon. The Defense Department’s budget proposal for 2017, released on Feb. 9, terminates an on-again, off-again program dating back to the late 1990s that aimed to develop a bomb-hauling robotic jet capable of launching from and landing on the U.S. Navy’s aircraft carriers.
The decision to cancel the so-called Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike is reflected in the Defense Department’s 2017 budget proposal, released on Feb. 9. The proposal shows a combined $818 million in funding for the UCLASS killer drone program in 2015 and 2016 and, abruptly, no money at all in 2017.
Instead, there’s a new budget line for 2017—a meager $89 million for a so-called “Carrier Based Aerial Refueling System.” In other words: Goodbye, drone death from above. Hello, flying robot gas stations.
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More News On The Pentagon Killing The US Navy's Armed Drone Fleet Program
Pentagon Shuts Down Killer Drone Fleet -- Ubergizmo
Rep. Forbes Decries Cuts To Carrier Wings, Cruisers & UCLASS In Navy 2017 Budget -- Breaking Defense
Exposed: Behind the U.S. Navy's Killer Drone Strategy Shift -- Dave Majumdar, National Interest
3 comments:
WNU Editor,
The origional plan saw F-22's and F-35's working with forward deployed armed stealth drones, in which the drones would act as both decoys, and forward deployed missile launchers.
Too few F-22's, an F-35 that has no legs and is still a decade away from combat,
So on to Plan C, Arsenal Planes working with networked F-22's and forward deployed stealth drones acting as sacrificial tankers to give the F-35 the legs it lacks.
I don't buy it. I think there feigning future enemies. Imagine an Arsenal ship, where you load in your drones in a modular fashion, stored 200 deep, they unfold and pop to deck, a la, pez dispenser. No 4000 strong crew. I can't imagine they would be so short sided at this late date to not be mass producing, some variable of what is known.
The wingspan on the UCAS-D is 62.1 feet, 30.9 feet folded, weighs empty, 7 tons, 22 tons loaded.
Doesn't fit in a B-52, 747, 767, 787, C-5 or C-17 or in any way shape or form, and a B-52 can "lift" only 1 4/7ths of one.
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