The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft,

a reply to: MKMoniker

And even if it sees them it won't direct weapons to them. It also detects them at what is still sort range when talking about offensive missile launch ranges.

when you do not need to load the plane with equipment for the pilot
then you have a lighter and more maneuverable aircraft.

Thus is the case with the Dark Sword drone in China.

Dark Sword drone

Will it outdo a F-22 ??? not yet...but one has to admit removing
all the human requirements such as oxygen, etc etc, it
gives the aircraft some advantages.

Dark Sword video

At some point a next generation dark sword could be multi-mach,
and be flown by something on par with the rat brain flying a plane
thru a thunderstorm simulation.

Rat brain flies F22-sim thru thunderstorm

a reply to: Ex_MislTech

No UAVs are currently capable of air to air combat. The lag time is to great.

a reply to: boomer135

Yeah, the usual bunch of white and black-world first-strike assests. As advanced as the F-22 and the F-35 are, I always got the sense that tactically they were more of a second-wave "clean up system".

As opposed to the true first-wave systems like whatever replaced the F-117, whatever its companion is/was, whatever the follow-on to Tacit Blue was, the RQ-180, and what's going to replace the B-2.

Basically, go back to the first rounds of stealth development and an air-superiority fighter and a strike fighter were distant back-burner priorities compared to the true VLO strike/wild weasel platforms: the F-117, its companion, The B-2, and the A-12, as well as the intelligence-gathering/battlefield surveillance platforms like the Tacit Blue and the AARS/Quartz. I'd be shocked if the USAFs priorities have changed at all since then.

No UAVs are currently capable of air to air combat. The lag time is to great.

Is that with current communication tech or is the new Laser comms they are working on a way to negate that lag?

a reply to: Blackfinger

That's with current comms. They're about six years from the first attempt at true air to air with a UAV. There's currently about a one second lag time between control input on the ground unit, and control movement on the aircraft.

They're developing something similar to virtual reality for air to air. That will increase the amount of information to the ground unit and increase response time for the air unit.

awesome plane but i look forward to the day when no such thing exists.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Blackfinger

That's with current comms. They're about six years from the first attempt at true air to air with a UAV. There's currently about a one second lag time between control input on the ground unit, and control movement on the aircraft.

They're developing something similar to virtual reality for air to air. That will increase the amount of information to the ground unit and increase response time for the air unit.

Well lets not forget that the X-45 or 47 (cant remember which one) flew in formation and was completely automated. They detected a threat, discussed with eachother who had the correct weapons to destroy it, how much fuel was remaining, etc. And all this happened in a matter of seconds. then one of them peeled off and dropped a bomb on the target. After rejoining they spotted another target, did the same thing, and the lead jet went over and took it out. Then they flew home and landed.

All this was autonomous without the aid of a pilot on the ground.

a reply to: boomer135

There at the point where they can hit ground targets, but there are too many variables for air to air still.

Ok it was the X-45A. Heres the wiki entry:

On February 4, 2005, on their 50th flight, the two X-45As took off into a patrol pattern and were then alerted to the presence of a target. The X-45As then autonomously determined which vehicle held the optimum position, weapons (notional), and fuel load to properly attack the target. After making that decision, one of the X-45As changed course and the pilot-operator allowed it to attack the simulated antiaircraft emplacement. Following a successful strike, another simulated threat, this time disguised, emerged and was subsequently destroyed by the second X-45A.[2] This demonstrated the ability of these vehicles to work autonomously as a team and manage their resources, as well as to engage previously-undetected targets, which is significantly harder than following a predetermined attack path.

After the completion of the flight test program, both X-45As were sent to museums, one to the National Air and Space Museum, and the other to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where it was inducted on November 13, 2006.[1][3]

a reply to: boomer135

Reading that, this was all I could think of...

www.youtube.com...