Slowly but surely uncrewed systems are teaming with high end crewed platforms. A high-low mix is emerging on air, land and sea. ⬇️
Slowly but surely uncrewed systems are teaming with high end crewed platforms. A high-low mix is emerging on air, land and sea. ⬇️
We’ll focus today on the air domain – watch this space for future land & sea posts. The War Zone has two interesting articles on the fast developing high end uncrewed systems the West is developing to leverage in service high end platforms – one to supply fuel, the other to supply intelligence.
The MQ-25 Stingray is an uncrewed tanker being developed for the US Navy with a view to enable extension of range and remove the need for legacy crewed tankers to undertake refuelling for carrier based aircraft:
“Navy officials continue to be outspoken in their support of the MQ-25 program, which they see as offering critical range extension for current and future aircraft embarked on the service’s carriers. The Navy also wants the Stingrays so it can stop flying crewed F/A-18F Super Hornets in the tanker role, which makes up a significant number of their sorties while deployed, helping free up those aircraft for other missions and reducing the wear and tear on those airframes.”
This key enabler represents a potentially lower cost way to extend range and support crewed platforms undertake strike missions in the Indo-Pacific. The limited number of tankers makes them highly valued targets for an opponent in any combat context.
The second TWZ article of note covers Lockheed Martin’s confirmation that the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone was employed to support the Operation Absolute Resolve – the US mission to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Limited information is in the public domain about these intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms:
“The U.S. Air Force only officially acknowledged the Sentinel’s existence in 2009, two years after it was first spotted in Afghanistan and had been dubbed the “Beast of Kandahar.” … RQ-170s likely also played a role in relation to the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last year, where they could have provided direct overhead coverage and intelligence for post-mission bomb damage assessments.”
Of course it isn’t just the United States ‘getting after’ teaming and introduction of uncrewed systems into the force in being. Last year the RAAF demonstrated a mission that teamed uncrewed MQ-28 Ghost Bats with an E7-A Wedgetail to conduct a strike on an airborne target.
The Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat is the first military combat aircraft designed and developed in over 50 years. Boeing is building a production facility at Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct near Toowoomba, delivering a sovereign capability to manufacture a relatively affordable way to scale our Air Force’s capability and better leverage in service crewed platforms.
Uncrewed systems, local manufacturing and design – a good fit for a 21st century Arsenal of Democracy!
📷 via Boeing, articles mentioned are in the comments.