Boeing's new Phantom Eye

[Hacker15e]

And why the USAF wants to field the GBU-39 Smart SMALL bomb.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/sdb.htm

From what I have read, they can change the explosive charge in the bomb to make the KABOOM more of a kabang and take out Apartment 10E and not disturb 10D or 10F.. except maybe the red smear that oozes out from under the door.

I dropped GBU-39s in Afghanistan in 2007...it's been fielded for quite some time all ready.

 

[jynxyjoe]

I dropped GBU-39s in Afghanistan in 2007...it's been fielded for quite some time all ready.

Yeah, the damn things were put out before the ESD testing was done on them. Turns out the detonator would go boom off the ESD gun. Thankfully that's been fixed.

Or so I heard.

 

[Donny Boy]

You all may now rest! MikeD has spoken and the situation is now in hand!









BTW Mike, i'm still waiting on that PM about getting into ARFF for my bro! :]

 

[Minuteman]

So Darryl Davis, President, Boeing Phantom Works says in the video:

Such air aircraft would immediately eliminate the current need to base aircraft in-theatre, thereby eliminating the need for global basing and global supply chain.

Initially I was scratching my head at that... how could a 150 kt aircraft not be based in-theatre? But, if you assume the 150 kt figure is CAS, that works out to about 345 KTAS at 65,000 ft. In zero-wind it can take a day to travel 8,000+ nm, loiter for two-to-eight days, then return home.

It you need a remote observation platform with continuous coverage or an ad hoc ground communications relay, it's ideal. Or, it could be the preceding "eyes" for a more aggressive concept:

Called Prompt Global Strike, the new weapon is designed to carry out tasks like picking off Osama bin Laden in a cave, if the right one could be found [hah!]; taking out a North Korean missile while it is being rolled to the launch pad; or destroying an Iranian nuclear site [this is from April 2010] — all without crossing the nuclear threshold. In theory, the weapon will hurl a conventional warhead of enormous weight at high speed and with pinpoint accuracy, generating the localized destructive power of a nuclear warhead.

 

[Bandit_Driver]

I wonder how easy it is to shoot down though. It looks like it would be a sitting duck for an SA-#

 

[Orange Anchor]

I wonder how easy it is to shoot down though. It looks like it would be a sitting duck for an SA-#

First you have to have the guns. And yes, it is generally acknowledged they are defenseless ducks for almost any modern ADA.

 

[Hacker15e]

I wonder how easy it is to shoot down though. It looks like it would be a sitting duck for an SA-#

All of these unmanned systems assume a permissive environment.

 

[pdxcfi]

Pepe le d'bag!

Maybe it wasn't clear enough, so let me post it one more time :

"Rear Admiral John Stufflebeem, deputy director of operations for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the B-52s were carpet bombing targets all over the country, including Taliban forces in the north."

Which part of this statement is unclear or leading to any kind of confusion regarding carpet bombing in Afghanistan ?

Now please back to topic, this is not the place for a sterile discussion over who did what.