What does this means is that drones can refuel drones, that there is less need for a live pilot to be out at risk.
325lbs is about 40 gallons. They’re going to have to step it up a bit.
Pretty cool!
Remotely controlled , can be pirated..Has to fly blindly ...how to avoid a collision in air.
One step closer to Skynet.
Very cool imagery from that. There’s a lot of benefits from not having to support keeping crew members alive on aircraft. That’s a ton of weight that gets dumped. While I do think human pilots still have an edge for a lot of air superiority missions (at least for now), drones are excellent candidates for things like refueling aircraft, recon flights, persistence missions, and support roles (e.g. AWACS). There’s a lot of benefit to being able to field multiple AWACS closer to combat all working in tandem. With multiple input signals, it becomes a lot easier to defeat stealth. This will become critical during power projection against advanced adversaries in the future.
The implications of this are amazing. We could have a constant stream of fuel delivery drones in designated areas basically on standby 24x7.
In theory, this could extend beyond the military into commercial aircraft (specifically I’m thinking freight, but there could be cost savings on passenger craft if they didn’t need to take off with a full-trip’s fuel load because they could have their fuel delivered in flight).
Could also allow aircraft to be aloft indefinitely. You could have a large, long-distance specialty craft that circled the globe or a designated region, then send drones to load and offload cargo and to refuel. Could even launch the drones with some sort of terrestrial system rather than having to use their own fuel for takeoff.
But can they recharge our new electric fighter planes?
(Ducking…)
The Drone does not have an Internal Tank used to refuel the Fighter, it uses External under wing Tanks.
I assume this means the Drone can also carry Bombs and Rockets making it a multi use platform.
Bad to the Bone.
Yep... now hopefully they will insure no jihadists can hack these drones and use them as cruise missiles in a drone version of 9/11.
I hope the Super Hornet gets better gas mileage that the old C-Models because they would burn up half there fuel on the Flight Deck. I had CAG (Commander Air Group) sitting on Cat-1 on the U.S.S. George Washington CVN-73 and winds shifted by the time I locked him in for launch, there was a S-3 Viking overhead trailing a gas line.
Forget about airplanes. How about a drone that can refuel my car on the Interstate.
he test was carried out from the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois.
AKA Scott Air Force Base.