Air Force Wants New Drone

From the best technology-military blog Danger Room, comes the story of the Air Force’s desire to replace the Reaper with a new “hunter-killer” drone. MQ-9 Reaper first deployed to Iraq in the fall of 2007. It looks like the Air Force wants some of the $500 million budgeted for drone aircraft.

yojoe (in drone mode) out

US Navy: Carrier Air Wing To Be Unmanned By 2025

The Carrier Air Wing (CVW) in the U.S. Navy currently consists of:

• • • 3 squadrons of F/A-18 Hornets
      1 Marine Corps squadron of F/A-18 Hornets
      1 squadron of EA-6B Prowlers
      1 squadron of S-3B Vikings
      1 squadron of E-2C Hawkeyes
      1 detachment of C-2 Greyhounds
      1 squadron of SH-60F and HH-60H Seahawks

By the year 2025 the CVW will include a squadron of UAV, dubbed the Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS). The UCAS will replace the F/A-18s. This will extend the range and loitering ability of the CVW.

The U.S. Navy’s program to determine the airframe to replace the F/A-18 is the F/A-XX program. This program underscores both the Navy and Marine Corps’s intensified interest in the future of unmanned air systems.

Unmanned Aircraft: $500 Million In FY2008 Global War On Terror Supplemental Budget

Aviation Week is reporting that there is more than $500 million requested, in the FY2008 Global War on Terror supplemental budget request, for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Readers of Dreadnaught are aware of the increasing role of unmanned aircraft.

DoD Plan For Unmanned Vehicles Over The Next 25 Years

MQ-9 Reaper to Deploy to Iraq

Army Awards New Contract for Remote Weapon System to Kongsberg

MQ-9 Reaper to Deploy to Iraq

Reaper to deploy to Iraq. The MQ-9 Reaper will arrive some time in the fall of 2007. Here are some of the characteristics of the Reaper:

Speed: 300 mph

Ceiling: 50,000 feet

Endurance: 14 hours of flight time when fully loaded

Armament: 14 Hellfire missiles – or 4 Hellfire missiles and (2) 500-pound JDAMS

yojoe