| Tango01 | 05 Feb 2014 10:39 p.m. PST |
"Britain partially lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding its Taranis unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) program Wednesday by confirming a first flight last year and releasing pictures in flight of the demonstrator. The UK Defence Ministry and Taranis program leader BAE Systems said the flight, which took place in August, lasted for about 15 minutes and "surpassed all expectations." The release of news on UCAV's progress follows the British and French governments' announcement Friday that they are continuing cooperation on examining the feasibility of developing a joint UCAV…" link Full article here
link Amicalement
Armand |
| Mako11 | 06 Feb 2014 1:04 a.m. PST |
"…surpassed all expectations". Yep, they usually do, when you publish a press release. Never good to do one to point out abject failures, unless they belong to someone else. It's when they don't that you wonder. Still, glad to hear it seems to be progressing well. |
 Doms Decals  | 06 Feb 2014 2:48 a.m. PST |
It's always nice seeing the press release from a top secret project…. |
| Mako11 | 06 Feb 2014 3:14 a.m. PST |
There is that. Perhaps if they'd labeled it "Double Top Secret", "Ultra Secret", or "Super Duper, we really mean it this time, Top Secret"……… |
troopwo  | 06 Feb 2014 8:29 a.m. PST |
Someone been finding wax covered feathers all over the lawn of their council estates again? |
| Lion in the Stars | 06 Feb 2014 10:44 a.m. PST |
@Troopwo: probably. I'm surprised that the Taranis UCAV is so small, though. Hawk trainers are not exactly big jets, and internal weapons carriage for stealth makes for an even bigger bird (compare the F35 to an F16) |
| MetalMutt | 06 Feb 2014 12:14 p.m. PST |
I hope that the decision to share technology with another country works rather more equitably than it did when we shared our knowledge on supersonic flight with the Americans in the late 40s! Interesting looking 'plane and hard to imagine that deploying such technology is 25 years away? Looks really quite viable in that video. Given that we now know that the F117 flew (as "Have Blue" prototype form) in 1977 and at least semi operational by 1984 and fully operational by GW1 in 1991 that time frame seems a little protracted. |
| captain canada | 06 Feb 2014 6:26 p.m. PST |
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| Tango01 | 06 Feb 2014 9:45 p.m. PST |
Britain's deadly superdrone makes first test flight: Taranis
Full article and video here.
link
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| Lion in the Stars | 07 Feb 2014 11:30 a.m. PST |
2x 2000lb bombs? Ok, that's pretty decent, IF it can carry a number of weapons up to that weight. The F117 could only carry 2 weapons, period, which isn't exactly desirable. Personally, I think the minimum weapons load for a primarily ground-attack bird is 2x AMRAAMs/AIM9X/ASRAAMs, 2x HARM, and 2x 2000lb bombs with the capability to carry 3x 1000lb or 6x 500lb in place of the 2000lbers. So I think the F35 is a little under-armed, unless you can stuff both a HARM and a 1000lb bomb into the bays. |
 Legion 4  | 08 Feb 2014 10:23 a.m. PST |
Well I hope besides the US and the UK, and other NATO allies make a joint drone Task Force to patrol the skies over places like the 'stan, Pakistan, etc. … to keep eyes on that region. So next time someone like the Taliban, AQ, Jihadists types, etc. does something "interesting but yet questionable" … They will suffer "Death from Above". I think Drone Tech will be the best[only] solution in the short run to attrite those who will do harm to the US/West/NATO … |
| Mako11 | 08 Feb 2014 2:41 p.m. PST |
They were just talking about this in the news today. Apparently, since we have no agreements with Iraq, and it looks like none with Afghanistan either, we'll lose our drone bases to mount strikes on Pakistan, soon. Perhaps we need to negotiate with Russia to combat the Islamists, and/or to develop some long-range, aircraft carrier capable drones to keep them over Pakistan, when needed. Better still would be to get Pakistan to do something about their "little problem", and/or we take decisive action to do it ourselves, like someone promised to do a while back, but I don't hold out much hope of the latter occurring. |
| Legion 4 | 08 Feb 2014 5:57 p.m. PST |
We'll find a way to have long range drone flights over the Paks and the 'stan long before they will do anything about the problem of fanatical islamists in the region. Affiliated Taliban and AQ types are holding a US business consultant and the only US POW in Pakistan … And they don't seem to be able to help us with those situations either … |
| Tango01 | 08 Feb 2014 9:18 p.m. PST |
"…But BAE Systems still considers Taranis' first flight, which reportedly took place in Australia, a major triumph. "The findings from the aircraft's flight prove that the U.K. has developed a significant lead in understanding unmanned aircraft which could strike with precision over a long range whilst remaining undetected," the company boasted. The Ministry of Defense hasn't decided yet whether to develop a fully combat-capable drone based on Taranis. The Royal Air Force is flat broke, after all, and can't even afford to hold on to all of its brand-new Typhoon manned fighters, to say nothing of introducing an exotic new drone warplane. London may even combine its drone efforts with Paris. But if Taranis does proceed, expect the follow-on version to be much bigger—probably with a wingspan of 50 or 60 feet, which seems to be a sweet spot for drone developers needing to balance speed, range, agility and payload…"
Full article here.
medium.com/p/7f1b5a4e8ddc Amicalement
Armand |
worries about not losing his rules stuff.
