Boeing’s autonomous fighter jet could arrive next year

engadget ^ | February 27th, 2019 | Rachel England

[Mariner]

Boeing has unveiled an autonomous fighter jet which is expected to take to the skies in 2020. The aircraft is designed to fly alongside crewed jets during combat, performing early warning tests, intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The aircraft, called the Boeing Airpower Teaming System, will help mitigate some of the risk involved in combat situations -- without a human pilot, the jet will be able to fly for longer periods, withstand higher g-force and process more information at a given time. It's the first combat aircraft to be developed within Australia in decades.

Boeing has not revealed the costs involved in the project, but claims the jets will cost a "fraction" of a manned fighter. It plans on selling the aircraft to customers around the world, modifying it as requested. The US military will no doubt be interested, given its own work with autonomous combat jets – in 2017 it revealed a similar craft that's designed to act as an unmanned wingman, part of the Loyal Wingman program that aims to have autonomous jets in the sky by 2030. Source: Reuters, Boeing

[Mariner]

Through it's an/apg-81 multifunction radar, the F-35 can integrate 2-4 of these units into it's combat avionics systems.

Allowing the pilot the luxury of simply looking at a avatar for the target and pulling the trigger.

Literally look and shoot. The combat system will then allocate the target to one of its' assets and track until removed.

This will be a reality NLT 2030. Probably sooner.

[Mariner]

This article draws the conceptual picture...

https://warontherocks.com/2018/02/loyal-wingman-flocking-swarming-new-models-distributed-airpower/

[DoughtyOne]

It plans on selling the aircraft to customers around the world, modifying it as requested.

No doubt facilitating still more reverse engineering by China, possibly others.

Our nation has no concept of national security and top secret any longer.

[SauronOfMordor]

Hopefully nobody sneaks in a hack so an enemy can remotely disable or take it over.

[LegendHasIt]

[Mariner]

“Our nation has no concept of national security and top secret any longer. “

I so agree.

The laws are there, but the executive has not been willing to adequately prosecute.

For decades.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks Mariner.

It’s just a shame what passes for national intelligence these days.

[skimbell]

From the article...

"It's the first combat aircraft to be developed within Australia in decades..."

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I should have known better, as I did catch that at one point, but thinking about a number of other things at the same time, I failed to fall back on that factoid when I posted.

I appreciate the correction.

It is also true, that our corporations seem to have no responsibility or loyalty to our nation.

The same comments still do apply, but this isn’t completely under our nation’s control as I intimated with my comments.

We do have some leverage if these corporations wish to continue to do business with us though.

[PIF]

The scarce F-22 uses the (SABR) AN/APG-77;
The troubled F-35 uses the (SABR) AN/APG-81 (like you said);
The old but new again B-52 will use the SABR-Global Strike (version number not known) upgrade in progress.
The B2s use AN/APQ-181

The B-1B fleet will get a version also.
Tankers will likely get a version of SABR as well.

Its far more likely that B-52s will host drone fighters than the 22 or the 35. Controlling drone is easier with a 6 man crew than 1 or 2 man crews.

More info here
http://thedrive.com/the-war-zone/26651/northrop-grumman-is-vying-to-give-b-52-bomber-a-game-changing-new-radar

[Yo-Yo]

Our nation has no concept of national security and top secret any longer.

But it's not being designed in our nation. It's being designed in Australia, with non-U.S. technology, precisely so that it can be sold around the world and circumvent U.S. foreign military sales laws.

[DoughtyOne]

Yes. Another poster pointed that out. Here’s my response to that person.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3731265/posts?page=9#9

[Grimmy]

— without a human pilot, the jet will be able to be hacked and turned against its escorting crewed fighter by any enemy with a modicum of electronic warfare capability.

[Mariner]

“without a human pilot, the jet will be able to be hacked “

An asserted “fact” not in evidence.

[grania]

Murphy’s (among others) Principle: What can go wrong, given enough time, will go wrong.

[Mariner]

If you have to control each drone individually, each action, you may as well have a pilot.

Nay, the F-35 computer will control high-level actions while AI controls the minutia of flying with the control craft and staying in communication.

[Grimmy]

An asserted “fact” not in evidence.

*******************************************

Not blatantly public... yet.

[gibsonguy]

I have read more than once that human pilots actually limit fighter jet design. They can actually design jets with much more turn, dive and climb ability but humans cannot withstand the g-force they would be generate.

[Paal Gulli]

without a human pilot, the jet will be able to be hacked and turned against its escorting crewed fighter by any enemy with a modicum of electronic warfare capability.

Without a human pilot the a/c can maneuver as radically as any AA missile, we can build autonomous fighter a/c faster than we can grow skilled fighter pilots, and when autonomous a/c get shot down, no one cries at the funeral.

[867V309]

Without a human pilot the a/c can maneuver as radically as any AA missile, we can build autonomous fighter a/c faster than we can grow skilled fighter pilots, and when autonomous a/c get shot down, no one cries at the funeral.

and by far, the most expensive part of a piloted aircraft is the pilot. do the math.