Britain's New Stealth Bomber Is Unmanned And Fully Autonomous

TBI ^ | 1-13-2013 | Robert Johnson

[blam]

Britain's New Stealth Bomber Is Unmanned And Fully Autonomous

Robert Johnson
Jan. 13, 2013, 4:38 AM

Britain's New Stealth Bomber Is Unmanned And Fully Autonomous

BAE Taranis

Britain's Air Force has been using Tornado jets as bombers for decades and is already building a fleet of new Typhoons, but BAE hopes to supplement those forces with a powerful new drone.

The Taranis, named for the Celtic god of thunder will fly faster than the speed of sound and beyond the eye of enemy radar with its single-wing stealth design, and UK officials hope to see it replace piloted planes and current unmanned drones alike.

It's a tall order, but the Taranis already has some nifty technology built into it. In the event the Taranis is spotted and efforts to bring the drone down begun, it can self-evade without input from a controller.

It can also independently identify targets and would only check back with a human controller before initiating an attack. At about $200 million the Taranis prototype isn't cheap, but the RAF believes it's a good investment.

The Telegraph:

Nigel Whitehead, group managing director of programmes at BAE Systems, which has been developing Taranis, said the new drone could change the way aircraft are used by the MoD in the future, which currently uses manned planes for combat missions.

Remote controlled drones such as Reaper are also used by the Ministry of Defence and US military to attack targets ... the Taranis is expected to provide a prototype of a new kind of bomber that will replace piloted planes and the current drones.

Replacing full-sized manned bombers with more than three decades of battle-tested experience is no small feat, and the Taranis, at least this version, isn't terribly large.

(snip)

[zot]

Heh! It might be useful against English football hooligans. I was thinking they might plan to use it against Argentina.