Robot Plane Drops Bomb in Successful California Test, Boeing Says

AP ^ | 4/18/04

[King Prout]

oooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

[CasearianDaoist]

Exactly. These are really just sophisticated cruise missiles - it looks like they even have "evolved versions of the same turbofans engines. Most likely they have a combination of non GPS prgrmmogramed flight (like cruise missiles,) GPS aware programmed flight, some sort of rudimentary autonomous flight and inertial guidance (at least in their payloads. I imagine that the designers and developers have at least some of the sophistication in weapon design as do readers of FR.

It would be interesting to see results of the IF signature reduction engineering work done here.

Incidentally, if this was coupled with the space borne SAR that the AF is thinking about putting up it make for a platform with very interesting features.

Now about those small, low yield nukes...

[SauronOfMordor]

Anything other than a direct hit with a 250 lb bomb would simply shake up the crew of a tank.

A direct hit with a concrete bomb can destroy a tank. I would imagine a direct hit with a 250 pound bomb will do likewise (as you point out)

There is nothing stopping the military from putting a shaped charge on a laser-guided bomb. The main difference between a gravity-propelled bomb and a rocket-propelled bomb is that one drops vertically, and the other flies horizontontally. A laser-guided bomb can hit a particular spot on a tank too, and with a much bigger warhead.

[Lokibob]

I understand you CAN do it, but why would you?

You design a mission with the correct tools. If anti-armor, you give the troops warthogs with hellfire missiles. You don't load up a B-52 with 250 lb bombs for ground support.

You can drive a screw into a wall with a hammer, but why? A screwdriver is designed to do that job.

[reluctantwarrior]

If it had flown at 50 feet then at the IP popped to release altitude, then pickled its little bomb into a window then I would be impressed.

[SauronOfMordor]

You don't load up a B-52 with 250 lb bombs for ground support.

The Air Force has been doing just that in Afghanistan and Iraq. The B-52 has some advantages: it can transport a LOT of bombs, loiter for a long time waiting for targets, and drop precision-laser-guided bombs one at a time on selected targets, with the option of the target being illuminated by a laser pointed by a grunt on the ground

And do this from an altitude that puts it well out of range of man-portable SAMs and ground fire, which were a big issue for our A-10's and copters in Iraq.

Over here is an article from an air force site about their plans for equipping large bombers with the ability to see and hit targets from high altitudes

[xrp]

The military should work on instead of robot planes.