The United States military has been working on a secret project to develop drone warplanes with stealth capabilities. The drone fighter planes are being developed by The Pentagon to be extremely realistic and high tech practice planes that will be used in training next generation fighter pilots in the Air Force and the Navy.
What the Air Force has also been working on is actually turning these state of the art stealth drones into realized and competent wingmen that can accompany fighter pilots into battle flying F-22 and F-35 stealth fighter planes. The Air Force has been experimenting with the drone’s software capabilities so that a switch could be thrown and the target war games drone could become an armed and unmanned part of a fighter squadron heading into battle.
If the design can be pulled off, the drones would be the world’s first robot fighters that are fully armed and capable of going into battle. They seem a very far cry from the little propeller driven drones one can now buy at Walmart.
The new stealth drone could be used as more than just target practice
Retired Air Force officer, author and military consultant, Dan Ward said that, “If we do it right, a custom built stealthy aircraft is going to have a performance envelope that’s pretty close to an actual stealth fighter.”
The Air Force began development of these stealth drones back in 2006 and were using Vietnam era F-4’s for the advanced fighters to use as training targets. They outfitted the vintage F-4’s with remote controls so that they could be realistically maneuvered during serious training exercises. By 2015, however, the Air Force had destroyed all of the old F-4’s they had and knew they had to step up their development and prototype work.
The Russians and the Chinese have been working on their own advanced stealth technology warplanes so the Air Force knew they had to develop a training aid that would simulate a stealth aircraft so that pilots and ground artillery could become accustomed to finding and destroying enemy stealth fighters.
The design for the stealth drone was actually an $11 million contest because that is all it cost The Pentagon to come up with the designs. The competition was between teams of cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. The drone only weighs about three tons and is a mere 41 feet long.
The new robotic wingmen look to accompany fighters out into battle and to fly out ahead and advise the pilots of what is out there. They could, also, carry ordinance and participate in battles if it seems that the fighters may be overwhelmed.
PHOTO CREDITS: United States Air Force / Pixabay