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Kratos's Hypersonic Aussie "Drone"

One pace forward - Two Valkyries in Florida to train with an Experimental Squadron along with Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat and General Atomics’ MQ-20 Avenger, potentially operating with Skyborg.



US Navy joining the USAF in experimenting with the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie. Both services have bought a pair of Valkyries each.

The service's decision to retire its first XQ-58A, which had completed just three flights in its career, and send it to a museum in 2021, also highlighted the low-cost focus of its design. At the time, an Air Force spokesperson told Aviation Week that the drone was never intended to receive “extensive upgrades or repairs."

The Valkyrie's exact current unit cost is unclear. Data Kratos released last year indicated that the individual price point would be around $4 million if 50 were produced annually, but the company has said in the past that could possibly get it below $2 million for production runs of 100 airframes or more.

The Pentagon announced that the Navy had finalized a deal to buy the pair of XQ-58As in a daily contracting notice on December 30, 2022. The contract, which came through Naval Air Systems Command's (NAVAIR) Naval Air Warfare Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and is valued at $15,515,343, covers the production and delivery of the drones, as well as unspecified "sensor and weapon system payloads."

The uncrewed aircraft will be used to "accomplish the penetrating affordable autonomous collaborative killer – portfolio objectives," according to the notice. This will include "non-recurring engineering [services], system/subsystem integration, installation, testing, ground and flight operations, logistics, and maintenance for the UAS as well as government-owned, contractor-operated operations for flight test and demonstration events at government test ranges," it continues. This work is supposed to be completed within the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30.


The price makes this reusable platform in the same range as the Tomahawk and other long range PGMs.
 
My rambling skull. In one of the other threads I got to wondering about whether or not the Ukrainians, if they end up with F16s, might not be looking for a fair number of two seaters in the mix. The WSO/Backseater could potentially be a non-flying trade - a UAV manager focused on UAVs, drones and weapons on board.

Which got me to wondering about the Aussies' two seat F18 Growlers with their Loyal Wingman programme.
It also got me taking another look at the F15EX which the US Air Force and the Israeli Air Force want.
The Growler's SEAD role is self-explanatory but the F15 as a bomb truck following in the wake of the F35s didn't make as much sense to me.

On the other hand the F15 is a two seater. The F35 doesn't have a two seat variant. It will take some doing to fly an F35, see and report everything you find with your God's Eye view, and manage a mixed swarm of manned aircraft, UAVs, decoys, drones and cruise missiles.

You could put up a big 737 sized sub-sonic target with a platoon of targeters - or you could fly smaller MUMT with the manager riding shotgun in their own supersonic transport.

F-15E_takes_on_fuel_from_KC-10.jpg
200925-F-GZ700-0371.JPG
 
The WSO/Backseater could potentially be a non-flying trade - a UAV manager focused on UAVs, drones and weapons on board.
By virtue of the back-seater flying regularly, they would need aircrew medicals and therefore be a "flying trade".

Air Battle Managers (AEC specialty) on AWACS aircraft, while not what most would call an aircrew trade, also do aircrew medicals. Technically they are aircrew, but not flight crew as most of them don't fly regularly.
 
By virtue of the back-seater flying regularly, they would need aircrew medicals and therefore be a "flying trade".

Air Battle Managers (AEC specialty) on AWACS aircraft, while not what most would call an aircrew trade, also do aircrew medicals. Technically they are aircrew, but not flight crew as most of them don't fly regularly.

From a Ukrainian standpoint, would the WSO have to learn how to pilot the aircraft they were riding in or would they just need to meet the medical requirements (on top of their Air Battle Management skills).

Just thinking about two things -

A renewed value in Backseaters
Fielding Backseaters as quickly as possible (possibly converting some from qualified grounds trades).
 
From a Ukrainian standpoint, would the WSO have to learn how to pilot the aircraft they were riding in or would they just need to meet the medical requirements (on top of their Air Battle Management skills).
WSOs do not learn to fly the aircraft they fly in.

Currently, WSOs are a subset of ACSO (equivalent) in the countries who use them.
 
Cruise Missiles, Targets, Drones, UCAVs and Wingmen.

LengthRangeMTOWSpeed
mkmkgkm/h
BoeingMQ-28
11.7​
3700​
BoeingMQ-25
15.5​
500​
BoeingHarpoon
4.6​
310​
691​
864​
Max
BayraktarKizililema
14.7​
930​
6000​
1100​
Max
KratosXQ-58A
9.1​
5520​
2727​
890​
Cruise
KratosUTAP-22
6.1​
2576​
932​
1124​
Max
KratosBQM-167A
6.1​
932​
1124​
Max
KongsbergNSM
3.96​
250​
400​
1138​
Max
TaurusKEPD 350
5​
>500
1400​
1173​
Max
MBDAStorm Shadow
5.1​
>560
1300​
1000​
Max
RaytheonTomahawk
6.25​
>1666
1600​
914​
Max
LocMartJASSM
4.27​
1900​
1021​
1000​
Max


USAF and Kratos continue working forward on Skyborg



The Canadian Connection - Magellan Aerospace - CRV7, CL-289 and RATO Boosters for the BQM-167s

The Iranians already exploited this ancient technology

As have the Ukrainians
 

Sunak did not go into detail about what platform or weapon system would give Ukraine long-range capabilities. While suspicion has focused on the Storm Shadow cruise missile and its roughly 250-mile range, the platform could involve a long-range 'suicide drone.' It was recently revealed that such weapons were designed via a secretive U.K. program called KINDRED.


The reported delta-wing kamikaze drone could well give Kyiv the replenishable long-range strike capability it seeks alongside the legacy Soviet-era Tu-141 “Strizh” drones that have been converted into crude cruise missiles. Ukraine also has its shadowy "Alibaba drones" that have been converted from commercial types and used to strike deep into Russia and Crimea since early last Summer. None of these types provide the precision, survivability, and heavy-hitting warhead of the Storm Shadow though.


I think @KevinB referenced this programme a week or so ago.
 
Sound like both Storm Shadow and the KINDRED system are planned.
I understood the KINDRED to be an attempt at a cheaper and perhaps longer range system than Storm Shadow - that could be supplied in greater quantities quickly -- but I also could be totally wrong.
 
Sound like both Storm Shadow and the KINDRED system are planned.
I understood the KINDRED to be an attempt at a cheaper and perhaps longer range system than Storm Shadow - that could be supplied in greater quantities quickly -- but I also could be totally wrong.

I don't think it will be long before we find out.

Mebbe Kindred is just a plaform for getting Storm Shadow off the ground and into the air..... Who knows?
 
I don't think it will be long before we find out.

Mebbe Kindred is just a plaform for getting Storm Shadow off the ground and into the air..... Who knows?
I gather that KINDRED was a cheap less stealthy version of Storm Shadow, more akin to the Iranian Suicide Drones (but actually with a precision targeting ability) - but again - that is just me looking at what has come out - and trying to read between the lines.
 
Back last year the UK withdrew from its Loyal Wingman UCAV efforts declaring that there were cheaper ways of getting the job done.
Presumably it is cheaper to increase the range of a drone, or a cruise missile, and make it intelligent than it is to build a cheaper aircraft.


The United Kingdom government has officially canceled the Mosquito program, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) that represented the first step of the Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) programme, whose goal was to build an indigenous Loyal Wingman that can operate alongside the Lockheed Martin F-35 fleet.

«The accumulation of analysis concluded that more beneficial capability and cost-effectiveness appears achievable through exploration of smaller, less costly, but still highly capable additive capabilities,» said the Ministry of Defence in a press release.



That gives me to think that the future looks more like this

MIRACH100.jpg


Or these

1676922580089.jpeg
imrs.php
cfr-063-_20the_20silent_20war-_20638_20x_20800_600x600.jpg
 
USAF starting to come to conclusions?

200 NGAD Fighters and 1000 drone wingmen.




200 NGADs is comparable to the number of F22s built and which the USAF wants to retire. It has difficulty maintaining high readiness levels apparently.



1000 drone wingmen contrasts with 1763 F35As that USAF apparently intends to buy.



And then there is a wholescale rethink on Air to Air missiles (which would have a knock on effect on GBAD and NASAMS and potentially on the CSC project - NASAMS relies on the existing AIM 9 and AIM 120 as well as the ESSM which is related to the AIM 120).




AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM)​

Long-Range Engagement Weapon (LREW)​

Peregrine Air-to-Air missile​

Modular Advanced Missile (MAM)​

Lockheed Martin’s Cuda​

Long-Range Air-to-Air Missile (LRAAM)​




 
Meanwhile Reaper may get its own swarm of smaller

Group 1 and 2 drones—essentially, ones weighing up to a few dozen pounds—would launch from MQ-9 Reapers and perhaps other medium-sized uncrewed aircraft, he said.

The overall vision is to use artificial intelligence and advanced human-machine Interfaces to allow operators to control multiple large and small drones simultaneously. That would help AFSOC troops cover more terrain and hit more targets with a variety of effects, including cyber, electronic warfare, etc.

 
More on NGAD and Drones

Concept of Operation

  • 300 F35s with 600 associated "Drones" (CCA = Collaborative Combat Aircraft) - 1 x F35 and 2x CCA per pilot.
  • 200 NGADs wtih 400 associated CCA - again 1 AC and 2x CCA per pilot.

I wonder if the F22 could be employed as an Interim NGAD?


What might a CCA look like?


Are these things "Combat Aircraft" or are they long range boosters, surface launched cruise missiles carrying submunitions?

In May 2017, the UTAP-22 received the official name Mako.[7] The aircraft costs between $2-$3 million. (Aircraft alone or with ancillary operational kit?)
U.S. Navy Awards Kratos $15.5 Million Contract For 2 XQ-58A Valkyrie UAVs
Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems Inc, Sacramento, California, is awarded a contract in the amount of $15,515.343 (cost-plus-fixed-price) for the procurement and delivery of two XQ-58A unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

The contract covers sensor and weapon system payloads to achieve portfolio goals for breakthrough affordable autonomous cooperative killers, including one-time technical services, system/subsystem integration, installation, testing, ground and flight operations, logistics and maintenance for the UAS, and government contractor-operated operations for flight tests and demonstration events at government test ranges.

So the XQ-58A Valkyrie could be in the same price range as its earlier sister the UTAP-22 Mako.

Tomahawk Cruise Missile Unit cost
  • $1.87M (FY2017)[6] (Block IV)
  • $2M (FY2022)[7] (Block V)
 
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More on NGAD and Drones

Concept of Operation

  • 300 F35s with 600 associated "Drones" (CCA = Collaborative Combat Aircraft) - 1 x F35 and 2x CCA per pilot.
  • 200 NGADs wtih 400 associated CCA - again 1 AC and 2x CCA per pilot.

I wonder if the F22 could be employed as an Interim NGAD?


What might a CCA look like?


Are these things "Combat Aircraft" or are they long range boosters, surface launched cruise missiles carrying submunitions?




So the XQ-58A Valkyrie could be in the same price range as its earlier sister the UTAP-22 Mako.

Tomahawk Cruise Missile Unit cost
  • $1.87M (FY2017)[6] (Block IV)
  • $2M (FY2022)[7] (Block V)
One of the ways I think CCA-type "wingmen" might have a big impact is on engagement ranges in air-to-air combat. The big push currently is for longer range AA missiles, many with lock-on-after-launch capability. In other words launching at extreme range without necessarily having a firm target lock from the launching platform and guiding your missile into the general location of the target where it can then lock on to the target.

If CCAs can be used as a screen to entice the enemy to launch their BVR missiles at them instead of their parent fighters, then the Allied fighters could move within range to get a firm lock with their long range missiles knowing that most of the enemy's own long range missiles have already been expended.

This might discourage attempting lock-on-after-launch attacks in case you're being suckered by drones. This could decrease the average engagement range as pilots will be wanting to wait until they get a firm lock on a confirmed target so they're not wasting their missiles. This might give further advantages to stealthy aircraft as well as those with the better sensors.

Then you add in lots of permutations once you start arming some of the CCAs because then you can't afford to ignore them. These technologies could really change the way that air combat works.
 
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