Posted on 04/18/2004 5:30:09 PM PDT by Brian Mosely
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A robotic plane deliberately dropped a bomb near a truck at Edwards Air Force Base on Sunday, marking another step forward for technology the U.S. military hopes will one day replace human pilots on dangerous combat missions.
Under human supervision but without human piloting, a prototype of the Boeing Co.'s X-45 took off from the desert base, opened its bomb bay doors, dropped a 250-pound Small Smart Bomb and then landed.
The inert bomb struck within inches of the truck it was supposed to hit, Boeing said, adding that had the bomb contained explosives, the target would have been destroyed.
"It's absolutely a huge step forward for us. It shows the capability of an unmanned airplane to carry weapons," said Rob Horton, Boeing's chief operator for the mission. "From the video, you see the weapon going down and a huge cloud of dust and the truck shaking around."
The X-45A was preprogrammed with the target coordinates and used the satellite-based Global Positioning System to adjust its course.
Horton, who was sitting 80 miles from the target, authorized the drone to drop the bomb, which was released from 35,000 feet as the plane flew at 442 mph.
The military sees such aircraft taking part in its most dangerous missions, such as bombing enemy radar and surface-to-air missile batteries, in order to clear the path for human pilots.
The Y-shaped, tailless plane has a 34-foot wingspan and weighs 8,000 pounds empty. It is the first drone designed specifically to carry weapons into combat.
Other robotic planes, including the Predator spy drone currently being used in Afghanistan, have been modified to carry weapons.
Boeing hopes to build hundreds of the X-45 planes, which would cost $10 million to $15 million each.
AP-ES-04-18-04 1928EDT
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...
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.
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
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