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The Inside Scoop on Predators; Pretty Amazing Stuff
Topic Started: Jun 9 2006, 11:52 AM (144 Views)
QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/06/0...btsc/index.html

It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
I want one.

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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justme
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HOLY CARP!!!
Now that's scary.
"Men sway more towards hussies." G-D3
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QuirtEvans
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I Owe It All To John D'Oh
Nobody's Sock
Jun 9 2006, 02:55 PM
I want one.

The real question is, how would you like it delivered? It appears that some ways are decidedly unfavorable. :)

And does the Second Amendment protect the right to own a Predator drone? :lol:
It would be unwise to underestimate what large groups of ill-informed people acting together can achieve. -- John D'Oh, January 14, 2010.
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Nobody's Sock
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Fulla-Carp
I'll take my UPS Ground. It's cheapest.

I don't know about no second ammendment Quirt, but I've done got my 2 targets alloted already for my 2 Hellfires.

They should have been nicer to doggy.
"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
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George K
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Finally
One of my partner's sons works for Boeing. It seems that the predator was something that the military was only slightly interested in in the 1980s. Finally someone got them to take a look at it, and they were impressed. The implementation of it as being a weapons, rather than reconnaisance, platform is relatively new, and that's what has increased its profile.

One of the really interesting things about it is that, if it loses the link with home, it's programmed to turn and come back to its base - on its own, with no guidance. It'll land itself (as most airliners today can, BTW).

Here's what my partner's son is working on now (and remember, if this is what they will tell us, imagine what they've really got.

Posted Image

New wings for warfare
By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter


KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES
A plastic mock-up of the unmanned X-45C bomber exhibits a flat profile, no windows and, where the cockpit should be, a hole for engine air intake. Boeing is competing against Northrop Grumman for a Defense Department contract.

Boeing displayed its vision of the future of air warfare Tuesday, a batlike model of a small fighter craft that exudes silent menace.

Sitting in a parking lot inside Boeing's research complex across from the Museum of Flight, the craft has a 49-foot wingspan and measures 39 feet from nose tip to tail. Smart bombs hang down below the wings.

But it has no windows. And its profile is flat, four feet from top to bottom. At the front, where the cockpit should be, there's a gaping hole for engine air intake. The Boeing-designed X-45 is unmanned.

The airplane is "piloted" by someone watching a computer screen in a fortified trailer that can be deployed near a war zone. "This is fly by mouse," said Dave Koopersmith, X-45 vice president and program manager. The aircraft's sensors identify and approach targets autonomously. The remote pilot gives consent to strike with a mouse click.

More than 300 Boeing employees in the Puget Sound region are working on the $1.2 billion program, originally run by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The military already is using unmanned aircraft to deadly effect. An unmanned Predator, made by Northrop Grumman, is reported to have killed a high-ranking al-Qaida commander in Pakistan last week.

Yet there are serious questions as to the long-term funding of the next-generation X-45-type unmanned aircraft. Richard Aboulafia, industry analyst with the Teal Group, called the program "the worst-funded good idea in decades" and said it's unclear if the budget to produce combat versions will be there.

Boeing originally built two smaller concept models, the X-45As, which passed flight tests and successfully bombed targets. On display Tuesday was a plastic mock-up of the X-45C, a larger model under construction in St. Louis.

Where the Predator is slow and low-flying, a relatively easy target from the ground, the new Boeing jet has the speed and altitude of a manned fighter plane, albeit with greater range.

Flying at Mach 0.8 at an altitude of 40,000 feet, the X-45 will have a range of up to 1,500 miles, compared with about 600 miles for a Boeing-built F-18 manned fighter jet.

Posted Image

And while the Predator carries a couple of small missiles, the X-45 can carry two 2,000-pound smart bombs or eight small-diameter bombs.
Its mission includes long-range, pre-emptive strikes against enemy air defenses. "One requirement is being able to knock down the door on the first day of the war," Koopersmith said.

That's the type of mission that puts military pilots in harm's way. The Pentagon wants unmanned aircraft in all shapes and sizes to cut down casualties — and to cut costs.

Koopersmith said no pricing data are available, but "historically, we price it by the pound." The X-45 has an empty weight of 18,000 pounds, 10 percent lighter than the small single-seater manned fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-16.
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