Skunk Works has much more than the RQ-170

"Alton "Al" Romig, the new chief of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works"

"On the subject of UAVs, Romig allowed that Skunk Works has much more than the RQ-170 in its classified product stable. "There's a whole large collection of classified programmes (within Lockheed) in the area of small UAVs," Romig said. A major effort at Skunk Works is now underway to make UAVs more autonomous. Internal demonstrations have proven that a single operator can control more than two UAVs simultaneously. "How large that number can get is unclear," he said."

Source


For him to say a large collection of classified small UAV's within just Lockheed really says something. Imagine what Boeing Phantom Works, and Northrup's classified aircraft have too.

reply to post by Laxpla





The line that bothers me is how many they can control with one person. This could level any battlefield odds.

Originally posted by Subjective Truth
reply to post by Laxpla

 

The line that bothers me is how many they can control with one person. This could level any battlefield odds.

but if you could find out where the person was controlling loads of drones from and drop a missile on his head you could seriously rebalance a conflict so it does run a risk unless they are in cheyenne mountain next to the stargate

reply to post by Maxatoria


Not so sure about stargates. It was a good movie.



But could you imagine war being fought with one person controlling 100s of these things.

I wouldn't be surprised that Lockheed has many more projects they are working on.
After reading this book, I really do believe our military is at least 25 years ahead of what we have now. Probably more to be honest. It really is a great book. Ben R. Rich even hints at intelligent alien life.By the way he was the director of skunk works for a number years from the development of the F-117 Stealth Fighter to the SR- 71 Blackbird. Definitely check it out.

Originally posted by Subjective Truth
reply to post by Maxatoria

 

Not so sure about stargates.

It was a good movie.



But could you imagine war being fought with one person controlling 100s of these things.

you got the movie reference

there would still need to be some sort of control method and if you can neutralize that then the drones are just going to run around waiting for new instructions until they run out of fuel and there lies the weakness of a remote control system but i'd assume there would probably be 5-10 different communication systems in such a device that it would be hard to jam it and with distributed control points as well you'd never shut them down

Lakers, I'm actually going to order that book tonight! Its something right up my alley.

I can only imagine what in 100-200 years happens, Its just going to be one guy at the computer controlling the military, vs another guy at the enemy's computer controlling there military.

reply to post by Subjective Truth


It's only level if someone else has similar technology. That's what levels the playing field. Let's face it, the battlefield is going to be about as level as the White Mountains for the forseeable future.

Mini combat drones that fight by ramming.

Or drone missiles that a pilot flies into the target like a ship.

Combat drones with one shot lasers that get close and fire a high power chemical laser at point blank range

A drone with a EMP bomb that only needs to fly within say 50 feet and fries the enemy plane and knocks out its electronics taking it out of the sky. .

There are so many things that you could do with a drone

Well,just because they said something doesn't make it true.
i could say i have a f18 but i could be lying