Reports Flight Global:
I worked on a version of the A-10 in my military industrial complex days. That plane is still the number one friend of ground forces in combat, robots will only make it better and cheaper over all.DARPA's solicitation, dated 29 January, seeks both purpose-built unmanned systems for close air support, as well as unmanned versions of manned fighters, including the "QF-4, QF-16 and UA-10". The QF-4 and QF-16 designates target drone versions of the original fighters, while the UA-10 is presumably a reference to an unmanned version of the A-10.
DARPA has set different performance requirements for unmanned versions. An unmanned variant of the A-10 would have to demonstrate comparable endurance to the manned version, while a purpose-built UAS would have to equal the persistence of the MQ-1 or MQ-9.
1 comment:
I'm a big proponent of unmanned systems, but I'll bet beancounters take over after UMS proliferate and start to count pennies on this equipment. The $2M lethal drone may soon be call expensive after they forget it replaced the $20M fighter-bomber.
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