Secret Aircraft

[Steve K]

just to make it fair, there ought to be a couple of armed drones for AAA suppression.

speaking of aerial targets, the photo below is an aerial gunnery target dart. This is used for training pilots to shoot at other aircraft without actually shooting at an aircraft. Not sure if it is still used, but it was common in the 70's and 80's time frame. It is attached to a tow aircraft by a spooled cable, and extended once over the gunnery range. Not exactly a secret aircraft, but not well known.
This photo is from the USAF museum at Dayton OH.

 

[Steve K]

speaking of semi-secret aircraft at the USAF museum in Dayton, here's a shot of the Teledyne-Ryan AQM-91A Compass Arrow. Perhaps the most amazing thing about it is that it was developed in the late 60's (assuming that the museum isn't just feeding us misinformation!!)
I may have to poke around the web and learn a little more about it.

 

[StarHalo]

Photographer Jeff Templin, in Wichita, Kansas:

"Right over the city, clear as a bell. Anyone that was looking up would have seen it. You don't usually see military or even civilian aircraft's jets that leave contrails making those kind of severe departures off of the given route.

[It was] Absolutely silent, no sound.

When I put it on my computer and processed them, I was surprised to see this triangular shape that is not like anything you typically see. It was one of ours or at least man made for sure, so unidentified yes, but alien, no."

 

[StarHalo]

The DoD has a project called "Autonomous Aerial Cargo/Utility System"

Guy in the center is directing this empty Blackhawk roping a two-ton block of concrete:

 

[EZO]

Guy in the center is directing this empty Blackhawk roping a two-ton block of concrete:

Some of the RC helicopter and quadcopter guys I know would wet their pants if they saw the above photo! :laughing:

 

[Steve K]

Guy in the center is directing this empty Blackhawk roping a two-ton block of concrete:

(image deleted)

just to show you how slow I am... my first thought was "what if that block of concrete falls on you?"
Then I realized the proper question is "what if that helicopter falls on you?".

I wonder how much training you have to have before they let you operate it? I'm assuming that you would have to already be a fully qualified helo pilot.

 

[EZO]

I wonder how much training you have to have before they let you operate it? I'm assuming that you would have to already be a fully qualified helo pilot.

You know, the fact is that any highly experienced young guy who has spent a lot of time behind the thumb operated controls of a higher end RC helicopter could probably pilot one of these things as well as or even better than an actual UH-60 Black Hawk pilot.

 

[idleprocess]

You know, the fact is that any highly experienced young guy who has spent a lot of time behind the thumb operated controls of a higher end RC helicopter could probably pilot one of these things as well as or even better than an actual UH-60 Black Hawk pilot.

One suspects that the power-to-weight ratio is a bit different on a large military utility helicopter vs one of those RC jobs that can pull multiple G's at will in almost any direction.

 

[ganymede]

Talking about 3D RC Heli flight, don't mess with this guy:

 

[EZO]

One suspects that the power-to-weight ratio is a bit different on a large military utility helicopter vs one of those RC jobs that can pull multiple G's at will in almost any direction.

"One suspects" that you are completely missing the point, my friend. No one is suggesting such wild maneuvers with a full sized aircraft; rather just the skill and dexterity of an operator who understands the remote control flight dynamics of such a vehicle.

Edit: Here's perhaps a better example of a hobbyist operating a military style helicopter in normal maneuvers expected from such a craft.

 

[orbital]

+

some more X-37B info

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...have-no-clue-what-its-actually-doing-up-there

&

http://www.af.mil/AboutUs/FactSheet...rticle/104539/x-37b-orbital-test-vehicle.aspx

 

[StarHalo]

Laser Phalanx bakes drone in flight:

 

[Steve K]

Laser Phalanx bakes drone in flight:

350 degrees for one hour?

well, it just seems like it takes a long time to get that drone to start coming apart. I wonder how far away it was at the time?

I'm guessing that this is the replacement for the Phalanx anti-missile ship protection system that used a radar guided/aimed M61 20mm gatling gun?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

Man... the difficulty of spotting a 12 inch diameter anti-ship missile from a distance, and then knocking it down with either 20mm rounds or photons seems daunting. 20mm rounds seem like they would have an immediate effect, but you have to let the missile get in range.

Maybe the Laser Phalanx is to take care of the missiles at a distance, and the 20mm Phalanx is going to be delegated to the "oh my god.. it's almost here!" missiles?

 

[idleprocess]

350 degrees for one hour?

well, it just seems like it takes a long time to get that drone to start coming apart. I wonder how far away it was at the time?

I'm guessing that this is the replacement for the Phalanx anti-missile ship protection system that used a radar guided/aimed M61 20mm gatling gun?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS

Man... the difficulty of spotting a 12 inch diameter anti-ship missile from a distance, and then knocking it down with either 20mm rounds or photons seems daunting. 20mm rounds seem like they would have an immediate effect, but you have to let the missile get in range.

Maybe the Laser Phalanx is to take care of the missiles at a distance, and the 20mm Phalanx is going to be delegated to the "oh my god.. it's almost here!" missiles?

I gather that the CIWS is being supplemented / replaced with the SeaRAM (Rolling Airframe Missile), which seems to perform better at point defense.

The demonstrations of these laser weapons are unimpressive - perhaps due to power limitations, atmospheric issues, or the desire to keep their true capabilities secret.

 

[StarHalo]

Maybe the Laser Phalanx is to take care of the missiles at a distance, and the 20mm Phalanx is going to be delegated to the "oh my god.. it's almost here!" missiles?

Drones and small boats, equipped on the USS Ponce which is somewhere in the Persian Gulf. ~30Kw of cooking power, with the goal of eventually getting it up to 100Kw.

 

[Steve K]

are there any tech details on the Laser Phalanx? i.e. chemical laser? solid state? IR?

I worked with solid state lasers a couple of decades ago <..sigh..> so this sort of stuff is always fascinating.

 

[StarHalo]

are there any tech details on the Laser Phalanx? i.e. chemical laser? solid state? IR?

Kratos solid-state IR. Uses approximately $1 of electricity to fire.

 

[StarHalo]

New Brimstone missile for use with the Reaper drone; fire-and-forget at any target within ~7 miles, can also be armed without a warhead to surgically strike individuals.

 

[Steve K]

yeah... that's gonna leave a mark....

That piece of ordnance hitting the truck doesn't look exactly like what I saw on this site:
http://brimstonemissile.com/brimstone/

Still, pretty slick. Radar guidance and semi-active laser guidance. I'm not familiar with the meaning of semi-active laser guidance. My assumption is that it was the basic laser spot tracking technique.

Who's in charge of naming missiles?? Now a drone can literally rain down hellfire and brimstone upon a target. Quite biblical.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

yeah... that's gonna leave a mark....

~ C.G.