Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems — the shared Air Force and Navy program to develop a killer drone — has been cancelled, Inside Defense is reporting. “Instead, the Defense Department will begin work this year on a next-generation long-range strike aircraft, accelerating its bomber modernization plans by nearly two decades in an effort to quickly enhance the Air Forces effectiveness across the Asia-Pacific region.“
J-UCAS was supposed to produce an armed drone that could knock out enemy air defenses, conduct surveillance, jam enemy radars. On the side, it might do some strike missions. But it would mainly pave the way for manned aircraft.
This new project would focus more directly on taking the enemy out, Inside Defense says.
“The action to accelerate work on a new bomber tracks closely with a recommendation last fall for a new, long-range strike aircraft program made by Andrew Marshall, the Pentagons director of net assessment, who called for developing capabilities necessary to deter China.“
That means striking at targets thousands of miles from any U.S. bases, Robert Work, with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, noted in a recent presentation. “Reach the combination of range and persistence is especially important in the Pacific theater of operations.“
“U.S. Strategic Command, which has responsibility for an evolving concept dubbed ‘global strike,’ strongly advocated the need for a new bomber” to obtain that reach, according to Inside Defense.
Here’s how Globalsecurity.org describes the concept:
The new capabilities ensure that the Air Force can strike a variety of targets, including hardened or deeply buried targets (HDBTs) as required in non-permissive environments… Capabilities should provide the ability to operate at extended distances from the theater of conflict with an effective and flexible payload (e.g., nuclear and conventional precision/non-precision munitions). Desired attributes for GS capabilities are responsiveness, persistence, survivability (including lethal self-protection), lethality, connectivity, and affordability… A new/modernized bomber aircraft may satisfy the proposed capability. Currently, all milestones for the program are tentative, but for planning purposes, a development effort could start as early as 2006 with an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in 2015 and Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2020.
At first glance, it sounds like an updated version of Cold War doctrine — with this new plane standing in for ICBMs or for the B-52 fleet (which, incidentally, j just got cut in half). But this time around, those global strikers could still wind up being robotic, Inside Defense notes.
Three capabilities are expected to be essential for the Next Generation Long Range Strike Aircraft program: the ability to remain airborne for many, many hours; the means to fly very long distances; and the ability to carry significant numbers of bombs. The importance of these factors is expected to make the case for an unmanned system.
For the last several years, Pentagon fringe-science arm Darpa has been working on a program somewhat along these lines. The Falcon, or Force Application and Launch from the Continental United States, project aims to fire a bunker-busting bomb into near-space, and then send it crashing into a target more than 3,000 miles away, at four times the speed of sound.
This acceleration of development on an unmanned bomber/strike vehicle is more than a little disturbing. It speaks volumes. It says to me that the Defense community has recieved recent news that shows China becoming a threat to National Security. I’m seeing a new Cold War. Not good.
Murdoc, the two arent mutually exclusive. The X-45 was merely a testbed… and ‘x’ craft.
The real money lies in building a huge UCAV with the stealthiness of a B-2 and bombload of a B-52.
With several smaller, cheaper, expendible AQ-45C UCAVs for SEAD.
M:
Remarkably, no. From Inside Defense: “Sources said the plans for a new long-range strike aircraft puts to rest a proposal floated by proponents of the F-22 to configure a variant of that aircraft as a regional bomber.“
nms
Maybe the program as it is didnt have a place in the USAF?
Or maybe, just maybe, the USAF isnt going to lay out their whole plan to us just yet?
I do believe they know their needs better than any of us civies really can and can make the decisions that count.
Murdoc, i think on certain topics, you and I are almost polar opposites… haha
Battleships, DD(X), F-22As, etc.
PS: did you ever get those news links i sent you?
What about the F/B-23
From the Pics that Northrop has released it looks like a far better canidate then the F/B-22.
I also am confused…I though the AF was really pushing for unmanned systems.?
How many projects have been initialized and then get trashed? Even there were unexpected events such as need for budget of Iraq related equipments, it seems to be that the congress is wasting tax money trashing many projects. Why not get rid of some C-130s which McCain wants in every park?
P:
Congress didn’t trash this project; the Pentagon did. And McCain didn’t say he wanted a C-130 is every park; he said that what the Air Force was trying to pull.
nms
What, no one’s hyperventilating about SkyNet, yet?
The USAF seems to be doing more nibbling around the edges of exoatmospheric combat ops. Too bad they weren’t given their head to keep pushing X-15 higher and faster. We might’ve actually made it offplanet on a permanent, if small scale, basis by now.
Good Morning Folks,
The DoD and the Pengagon are still in a “Cold War” mode. This is not unlike cancelling the CV United States after the keel had been layed down. It took the Krean War to show the folly of this thinking.
The amusing thing about this is that UCAVS are the future of air power. And will prevail over the manned mission.
If Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld can quote himself and tell the Generals and Admirals that “..we have to fight the wars we have and not the ones we want to.” But saying such to a Spc. National Guard guy and to the “Perfumed Princess and Princes of the Pentagon” (thanks Hack) are two different things.
With in the jargon of the military, it is said that Rumsfeld doesn’t have the “Brass Balls” it take to stare down the Generals and Admirals.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Mr. Skinner,
For once I agree with you, 100%.
The only manned bomber concept I can defend is an interim B-52 replacement which would utilize an existing airframe and be put into production sooner rather than later.
Thier is only a certian amount of money to go around and with todays JDAM’s and some of the new SDB, curise missles, and the glide bombs makes large bombers that can tote the bomb load = 15 UCAV or 10X F/B 22. Why buy 15 UCAV’s that have limited range and less loiter when you can buy 1 heavy bomber that can match everything the UCAV has plus has long range or extra long loiter times.
The Cold War air force set up for short to mid range strike with a backup of long range was ideal for fighting the Soviets in Europe from our local EU air bases. Todays threats are diverse spread out all over the world and the big one China is going to require long range stike craft. In the future we will have more and more small dispersed targets like say a terrorist camp in mid africa or even central asia a long range bomber will make it alot easier to handle, short range platforms will need tankered across to the region then fly out of a regional base (making a ally have to actually participate in the strike and not just sit back and say how can we stop the US we didnt even know they flew over, plausable deniability)not to mention telegraphing our move big time across numerous bases is not good.
Not saying strike fighters are dead just that the big bomber has eclipsed it for now especially with todays requirements and poliltics. The long range bomber used as either loitering artilery or long range strikers thier day has come again. And remember even the B-2 and its 2bill price tag is not so bad when considering that is equal to 10 $200mill F/B-22 thats a wash until you include the savings in pilots and personel, and of course the extra ability. The catch one big bomber cant be in 10places at once cruise missles and glide bombs help a little but only so much.
And I am with Murdoc the Carriers going non-nuclear is one of those ideas that are just WTF ideas. The only thing I can think of is maybe this is some tards idea to help get the Euro’s Brit and France to go with larger carriers by co-opting in their developement by US coming down and joing in. Which is scary can anyone imagine if we were dependent on France as a quarter of our carrier support.
I dont know all of this may just be bluffing and money moving that will in the end be totally different anyway.
Cold war like…I dont think so.
Would you prefer we build a bunch of small UCAS’for the purpose of small countries and terrorist. Then what happens if you go to war with a bigger player like China?
By the way…The Pentagon nor the USAF have said this will be manned…In fact, its much more probable that it will be unmanned.
BTW, the inside defense article needs an account to view it…So heres a site that you can read it with out paying.
http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,85361,00.html?Etopstories.RSS
Gentlemen, what you need here is an aircraft that has the STEALTH, RANGE, ENDURANCE, SURVIVABILTY, AND PAYLOAD(WEAPONS CAPABILITY) OF latest nuclear submarines. An aircraft that can land or take off VTOL from any open field, or water surface. One that can carry over 100 tons (thats a LOT of cruise missles/UCAVs) An aircraft that needs no refueling, no ground crews, no hangers. One that can be sent over oceans, over contininents; which can then linger, undetected, IN THEATER. One that virtually cannot be taken down by ground fire, radar or infra red missle attack. An aircraft, that while relatively slow (say, 100–150 mph) nevertheless can fly without radar, infra red, even accousic signature. In short STEALTHY.
An aircraft that can double as a troop transport, carrying up to 200 fully equiped personnel. And put these down, ready-to=fight, on site, without need of any “strip“
One that is DO-ABLE, right now, and has been done before. Do-able now, and at costs comparable to say, C-17 each.
Gentlemen, I give you: THE MODERN, CARBON FIBER, RIGID, SOLAR POWERED, AMPHIBIOUS,.…. AIRSHIP!
Am I serious? oh, yes. DARPA “WALRUS” is a tiny fraction of what these can be, if they will abandon “hybrid” idea that still requires runway.
AIRSHIPS.….don’t you just love it?
How much did J-UCAS make by not having to produce any drones I wonder?
Well, that was pretty and all…But I think ya lied a bit there Campbell.
The Walrus is not a light-then-air Airship, its a Heavier-then-air Airship, meaning without engines its going nowhere, and engines use fuel, as well as produce heat. And they would need a hanger to do major clean-ups & overhauls…but for the better part of there life they shouldn’t need one.
They can be shot down by triple, regardless if its stealthy…but as far as I know the WALRUS isn’t going to be stealthy…i might be wrong on that one though. Also (to the best of my knowledge) it is not have solar panels on it, so it wont be powered by the sun.
I think your taking the best traits from two separate Airships…and combining them into one.
Meaning: WALRUS & HAA
Ah, no…you’ll note; I wrote “what they CAN be”…not what they are touting. You are correct, “walrus” is NOT Lighter-than-Air, nor solar; and, given their entrenched, stupid stranglehold on using fabrics or laminates for hull materials, yeah, they’d still need a hanger. It is typical the(airship)-world-is-flat-and-this-is-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it-before stuff.
(Clue: if it looks like a blimp and “flies” like a blimp and wallows around in the sky like a blimp, it’s probably.….a blimp. And worth about seventeen cents on a good day, and if it still needs a runway (WALRUS AND EVERY OTHER “HYBRID”), it’s worth less than that.
taken down with triple? nah. first you gots to SEE em, then you gots to put enough into em to bring em down, and you can only do that if they sit still and LET you.……
Interestingly, BAE just unveiled a UCAV dubbed “CORAX.” At the same time, Jane’s reports “the UK has terminated plans for a future manned combat aircraft and is working closely with the US on ‘Project Churchill’,” which focuses on the “the joint, airborne command and control of pilotless combat air vehicles from 2015 onwards”.
So… U.S. cancels a UCAV programm and announces plans for a new bomber. Meanwhile, the U.K. cancels a new-manned plane, announces a UCAV program and indicates its will be working closely with the U.S. in the arena of unmanned flight.
Could it be that budget pressures and politics are pushing the U.S. and U.K. to cooperate and share development costs of new aircraft?
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