Americas UAV's

planeman, i was thinking purely about UAVs such as the predator, global hawk and killer bee and not about micro UAVs and UCAVs but nice answer anyway.

originally posted by Murcielago

The 2 helicopters on the right of this picture look very nice. I dont know about there statistics but if they were fast, silent, flew low to avoid radar and had a decent sized range then they would be very useful, or they could work as airfield defence maybe. If 10 or so of these caught the enemy off guard say at a meal time or when they were doing drill then would be deadly. They would need to have an ultra secure signal to stop the enemy overriding american commands and maybe they would need a self destruct device in case they were captured or misfunctioned while over enemy airspace. These planes would have been very useful over fallujah so long as they are fast and quiet . I think these have great potential and i hope that potential isnt wasted. If the US millitary dont want them then i'll have a couple if there going cheap.

Justin

Originally posted by justin_barton3
planeman, i was thinking purely about UAVs such as the predator, global hawk and killer bee and not about micro UAVs and UCAVs but nice answer anyway.

Cool. I think there may be some confusion here though. The KillerBee is a small tactical UAV and is closer to micro-UAVs - it has a 6ft wingspan. By comparrison the Predator has a 49ft wingspan. The two vehicles are not really in the same class and cannot do eachother's job with any degree of resource efficiency.

Better picture of KillerBee:


In order to help put the capability differences into perspective, I've draughted this crude illustration. I don't have specific performance stats for the KillerBee so I used the STEC-Sentry which has about the same wingspan and role (but is older so may be less well performing):

HALE= High Altitude Long Endurance
MALE= Medium Altitude Long Endurance (Note that the Predator has exceptional range from base (due to sat-comms) and endurance)
TUAV= Tactical UAV

Micro-UAVs vary from TUAV roles at medium altitude to line of sight ranged roles.


[edit on 16-3-2006 by planeman]

Originally posted by planeman
The two vehicles are not really in the same class and cannot do eachother's job with any degree of resource efficiency.

Better picture of KillerBee:


[edit on 16-3-2006 by planeman]

nice picture. My apologies i thought that they were in the same class and did the same job.

Going back to CH1466's idea of a UCAV as a short range high speed UAV. Does anyone know if there are any UCAV's that have been/are being modified to a recce role? or if there are any specifically designed high speed UAVs or are they all low speed, long range.(not intrested in MUAV's)

Justin

[edit on 16-3-2006 by justin_barton3]