6th gen fighter here already?

a reply to: Zaphod58

Why is that? What’s the difference between an unmanned fighter jet and a UCAV combat drone?

“NGAD right now is designing, assembling, testing in the digital world, exploring things that would have cost time and money to wait for physical world results,” Roper said during a video presentation at the Air Force Association’s Virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Tuesday. “NGAD has come so far that the full-scale flight demonstrator has already flown in the physical world. It’s broken a lot of records in the doing.”

Interesting. Broken a lot of records he says.

originally posted by: grey580

“NGAD right now is designing, assembling, testing in the digital world, exploring things that would have cost time and money to wait for physical world results,” Roper said during a video presentation at the Air Force Association’s Virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Tuesday. “NGAD has come so far that the full-scale flight demonstrator has already flown in the physical world. It’s broken a lot of records in the doing.”

Interesting. Broken a lot of records he says.

Yeah. Probably sustained Gs , time to climb, Max ceiling... who knows!

a reply to: RKWWWW

No, but they're not going to build an entire generation around that concept.

a reply to: PokeyJoe

A lot. The current UCAVs are designed to attack ground targets. Something like the Predator, that's controlled by a ground station, has a control lag of about a second between control input, reaction, and display to the pilot. So they have to input an action for the aircraft to perform, wait to see what happens, then react to that reaction. A second in air to air combat terms is life and death for the aircraft. Your only real option right now is something like Loyal Wingman, where a UAV is controlled by a fighter that's close enough to get rid of the control lag. But, there's absolutely no chance that anyone is going to spend the money developing an entire new generation of fighters based on Loyal Wingman aircraft types.

a reply to: Cynicalhope

Sweet! Nice find and thanks for posting. Now THIS is why I joined ATS!

a reply to: grey580

Most likely, based on what else he said, he's talking about things like time from design to first flight.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: PokeyJoe

A lot. The current UCAVs are designed to attack ground targets. Something like the Predator, that's controlled by a ground station, has a control lag of about a second between control input, reaction, and display to the pilot. So they have to input an action for the aircraft to perform, wait to see what happens, then react to that reaction. A second in air to air combat terms is life and death for the aircraft. Your only real option right now is something like Loyal Wingman, where a UAV is controlled by a fighter that's close enough to get rid of the control lag. But, there's absolutely no chance that anyone is going to spend the money developing an entire new generation of fighters based on Loyal Wingman aircraft types.

Hey a new use for a REO! Fly the wingman.

Was reading a new story at the War Zone about an RQ-170 sighting and saw this snippet which looked interesting.



Article:
Notoriously Shy RQ-170 Spy Drone Lands At Its Skunk Works Birthplace

a reply to: TXRabbit

It's actually past time the Reaper had a replacement in the works.

Digital Twinning and NGAD.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Any thoughts on who might have the edge on the contract?

a reply to: TXRabbit

The Boeing entry, the last one, is almost certainly going to be part of Skyborg, not the Reaper replacement. Top left is the Northrop SG-2, top right is Lockheed, bottom left is General Atomics. At a guess, GA is going to have a good shot at this one. They lost Stingray, and were pissed and determined not to lose another one.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Wow that's real interesting.

I can imagine a future where they design virtually, fabricate via 3d printing, and assemble via robotics 24 hours a day.

a reply to: grey580

We'll be there sooner than people realize.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yep. And have pilots test in a virtual cockpit to boot.

Can even train ground crew virtually as well.

Possibilities are endless.

a reply to: grey580

They're training F-35 maintenance crews on a virtual system.

vestudio.disti.com...

a reply to: TXRabbit

you know ive always wondered why they awarded the contract to just one company , like why they never said ok lets make the best damn us airforce fighter ever , and pay all the companies to work together to make the most advanced fighter the world has ever seen

a reply to: sapien82

You mean like the F-22 and F-35? Boeing and Lockheed built the F-22, and Northrop and Lockheed are building the F-35. It's not all three, but it's two of the three.

a reply to: sapien82

Like Zaph said, I've noticed the collaborative development on recent projects too.

My interest is mainly in stocks and the effect any large awarded contracts might have on their performance so I can invest strategically