Posted on 04/04/2025 3:31:01 PM PDT by Macho MAGA Man
You didn’t advocate for an autonomous platform, no - but the point is that if you don’t want someone spotting your drone based off the radio link that it *has* to have, and perhaps doing something about it, you either have to have it trailing a fiberoptic cable, which severely limits its range and means it can be easily tracked back later or it will be noticed when the cable falls into someone’s field of view, or you have to let the thing fly autonomously.
The OA-1K, without the COIN sensors, costs less than a wrecked but rebuildable P-51 Mustang does these days. Base airframe costs $1.7M. If you want to compare new costs, it’s a little more difficult as the P-51 is no longer produced in any form, but it can be scaled by looking at something that is. The L-4 WW2 observation plane was a Piper Cub and cost the government $2500 during the war; today the cheapest Cub you can get new is a kit that starts at $129,000. The factory will ‘help’ you build it for an additional $70,000. So, call it $200K. This gives you an effective multiplier of about 80 to grossly adjust a WW2 aircraft price to modern day. A P-51D cost the government $50,000 at the end of the war to fly away; the flyaway cost today would therefore be more like $4,000,000. So, no, this is not a more expensive P-51.
I did not know that.
Setting that aside for a moment, it seems to me we are seeing mission creep for this propeller airplane.
Proponents of the craft have been promoting this son-of-crop duster for observation and light attack in low-threat environments.
Now a case is being made for its use in environments where the bad guys are gratuitously shooting down high-tech drones, arguing unmanned drones are too expensive to lose.
What about the pilot in the OA-1K? Will the risk-adverse military actually send a piloted crop-duster with light machine guns and light munitions to avoid losing an unmanned drone?
At best, this aircraft in military livery is suited for human-caused threat environments that approach zero; from what I read it is good at suppressing forest fires which in itself is dangerous.
It’s not mission creep. Low threat environments include light MANPADS - which absolutely are more capable against a slow drone flying in an empty sky at a high altitude in a straight line than they are against something wandering around at treetop height against a high IR backdrop. You can use a little $25 handheld detector to tell you there’s a drone watching you, then you use the MANPADS’ electrronics pack to help you find the drone loitering at altitude and you can figure out what happens next.
MANPADS proliferation is absolutely a thing that has happened, even worse now after the fall of Afghanistan, the fall of Syria and the Ukraine war.
Saw this on airandspaceforces.com
This is not a small aircraft it is nearly as large as the A10 without the huge maintenance train it needs and can operate from grass,dirt and even truck paths.
Modern PGM such as the laser guided 70 mm rockets that absolutely devastate anything this side of a main battle tank means the 30mm cannon is obsolete. Rockets pods hold 19 each of these little monsters. The M261 weighs 87lbs empty. Hydra 70 mm are 13-30lbs each so a pod is designed to hang on a 500lb nominal station
Moving up to hydra big bbrother the Zuni which yeah why not laser guide a 5inch 50lb artillery shell warhead, you get four to a 105lb pod with 100-130lb missiles it’s like having 12x 5 inch gun shells orbiting overhead if you stuck 3 pods under the center line we just gave Ukriane 4000 of them.
Hellfires smack MBT to the afterlife and you can quad pack them on any pylon that takes 500lbs. Note that the inner two pylons on this bird are specifically designed to take 50 cal or 20mm gun pods you can bank on those being the 3 barrel gattling 50 cals or the 6 barrel 20mm with drums of 2000/1200 rounds each. Half the speed of the A10 means more rounds on target during a straffing run. This bird should be a stone cold killer.
Throw some cluster munitions in the mix those run 500lb each, need a building smacked 1000lb jdam X2 under the fuselage
“THE AIRCRAFT”
“Sky Warden isn’t really like anything else in the aircraft stack it’s supposed to replace. It has a crew of two compared to the Draco’s four, and its 18-meter wingspan dwarfs that of an F-16. With chunky tires built for primitive airfields and a NASCAR-style roll cage to protect the crew, “it’s structurally just a tank,” said John Totty, a former Army and Air Force pilot who has helped with developmental test and demonstration flights. “It’s a phenomenal airplane that will take a tremendous amount of punishment.”
Similar in size to the A-10, the beloved close air support platform that is sometimes criticized for flying too slow, Sky Warden is even slower: Its top speed of 213 knots is about half that of the A-10. But its tailwheel design is well suited to austere environments, keeping the aircraft’s nose up during landings to ensure the prop stays clear of grass or other obstacles.”
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/article/armed-and-dangerous/
Mini hellfire
Laser guided 70mm the Canadians have a multiple dart solid rod warhead that punches MBT armor in their 70mm tubes. Splits up just before impact and puts 5 rod perpetrators right in the guts of a MBT with all the pyrophoric goodness of rod perpetrators.
The laser guided ones got a range boost and top attack mode too, armor is thin on tops here again meaning the 30mm cannon is a relic, you get more engagements with two 19 round pods than a full drums of 30mm
https://breakingdefense.com/2021/08/apkws-upgrade-extends-range-by-30-percent-bae/
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