Posted on 01/01/2018 8:21:42 AM PST by shove_it
The movies were right: Gremlins are real.
Or at least they will be if DARPA -- the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- has anything to say about it. As we learned this week from our friends at the Navy Times , DARPA is moving ahead on its effort to create a fleet of flying aircraft carriers, which it calls the "Gremlins" program, with demonstration flights scheduled to begin sometime next year.
What are Gremlins? We've been watching this particular hush-hush DARPA project for more than two years now . In a nutshell, it calls for the creation of a new class of small, reusable drones that can be launched midair from a C-130 air transport, disperse to surveil (or, depending on the payload, attack) targets as much as 300 miles away, then return to their flying airbase to dock for refueling and rearming.
Basically, Gremlins will be flying, warlike Roombas, but supersized -- big enough to carry 60 pounds of payload each.
What are Gremlins for ? According to our friends at Scout Warrior , who've also been following this project closely, one key objective of the Gremlins is to extend the range at which U.S. air forces can operate in a contested environment characterized by an adversary employing A2/AD (anti-access/aerial-denial) tactics. These include the use of cruise missiles to keep aircraft carriers at bay, forcing airplanes to fly long distances to reach their targets, and surface-to-air missiles, which make it hazardous for nonstealthy aircraft to get too close to hostile territory by air...
(Excerpt) Read more at nasdaq.com ...
errr, make that USAF AIRCRAFT CARRIER.
......deplore em on the southern border
Aweigh. But what do I know? I was ‘t in the Navy.
Awesome. Making bad guys go boom with better technology and less loss of American lives.
Deplore=deploy
Exactly my first thought!
;-)
Once again “The Herk” to the rescue! MAGA!
By “AWAY” I meant bye bye USN Aircraft Carriers.
I think DARPA is a good thing. But, the Air Force track record on the B2 is on my mind. At around 2 Billion each and only 18 of them still even close to operational (we never really know) I just think this flying aircraft carrier is non sense and the money could be spent better elsewhere.
Sounds like they’re reading too many comic books and manga.
Not a bad idea at all but as usual they attach a ridiculous name to the project.
The future of combat will be unmanned and standoff weapons, autonomous and remotely piloted.
I don’t trust DARPA much though: huge budget, scatterbrained scientists with zero military experience, and not a great track record of useful products.
I think Gremlins or Goblins was the name for the small fighters that were carried, deployed from, and recovered by US navy dirigibles before WWII. The dirigible was in effect a flying aircraft carrier.
Was an interesting program, very advanced for it’s time.
the navy used to launch and retrieve aircraft from derrigibles
Imagine the crater that thing would make if it lost power.
see ‘sky captain and the world or tomorrow” the brits got there first
AVENGERS, coming to fruition!!!!!
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