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Area 51 Has A Huge New Hangar Facility That Points To A Drone Swarm Future
The Drive ^ | September 25, 2020 | Tyler Rogoway

Posted on 09/27/2020 11:10:35 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

The Air Force's flight test center at the Nevada Test and Training Range continues to grow...the facility has grown dramatically since 2000, including the addition of a massive and mysterious hangar built at the base's southern end...an even larger extension to an existing hangar facility that is quite peculiar in nature points to the possibility that the age of large swarms of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) has finally arrived.

For a year, construction has been underway in a section of the southern ramp area at the base, near where the original A-12 Oxcart hangars still stand. Four more modern hangars that are divided into two separate buildings, with each bay measuring roughly 90 feet wide, and are understood to be known as hangars 20-23, has been the recipient of a highly curious series of modifications.

[snip]...it seems that this revamped facility is not meant for a small number of large tactical aircraft, but instead, it seems to have been remodeled to support a fleet of smaller tactical aircraft, ones that are designed to fly together in a collective swarm on missions.

[snip]...the arrangement would allow for a large group on drones to park outside of the view of satellites and out of the weather on one side, with the hangars in the center working as pass-through servicing bays for preparing them for another flight, and then moving them to the other side to await a launch en-masse on their next mission. Upon return, they would be parked on the other side once again and await servicing and staging for reuse. Just learning how to best stage, launch, and recover a large number of semi-autonomous jet-powered unmanned systems together will surely be a focus of any such program.


(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Nevada
KEYWORDS: area51; defense; drone; swarm; ucav
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Upon return, they would be parked on the other side once again and await servicing and staging for reuse.

So the drones are not going to crash into their target, à la that Gerard Butler movie, but will be large enough to carry ordnance and afterwards return to the hangers?

But for maximum firepower wouldn't you want to have massive amounts of ordnance flying alongside or in formation with your little drones? Or are these drones going to run the gamut from small drones to fighter-size drones to bomber-size drones?

Or are these drones seen as some kind of new powerful laser attack platform? That'd be something!

But leaving science fiction aside and getting back to physically flying alongside the ordnance... Why do that? Just make your cruise missiles smart, then the ordnance wouldn't need the drone to babysit it and/or crunch the numbers for it, and the missile becomes the drone.

Sorry... just trying to grasp the concept here and understand the role of a swarm of drones that don't deliberately fly into the target themselves. But I do get this part of it: a swarm of drones sounds and looks super cool.

21 posted on 09/27/2020 11:50:34 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

22 posted on 09/27/2020 11:54:29 AM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: frank ballenger
Factory defect, QA rejected this assembly and they dumped it here.

Compare to salvage fusing of a nuclear weapon.

They hope to salvage at least some destructive effect...

23 posted on 09/27/2020 11:54:38 AM PDT by null and void (Democrats donate to bail money. Republicans donate to scholarships. ~ throwthebumsout)
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To: newfreep

this was set in europe

they dont have robust access to guns there

the ones she did accidentally find sucked, so it was realistic


24 posted on 09/27/2020 12:00:57 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: LibWhacker
All the questions you ask are fair...and I'm sure being accounted for. These drone programs have all latched onto the descriptor "attritable." I'm not sure where "attritable" ends and "expendable" starts. They are targeting low-cost drones at less than $1 million each. Tomahawk cruise missiles cost just under $1 million each. So maybe the drones can lower the cost of warfare by bringing the delivery system home for re-use. Or you can field a lot more of them than cruise missiles.

Most importantly, do you want the dragon to eat us?


25 posted on 09/27/2020 12:04:37 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

I was thinking about diving into custom drone building with my own programming. I would be interested in swarm code.

So much fun stuff out there and the cost is so cheap to research on your own now. Need a bigger office for a bigger work bench. Love the Raspberry Pi.


26 posted on 09/27/2020 12:14:45 PM PDT by DEPcom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Angry Drones. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.


27 posted on 09/27/2020 12:32:57 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: Secret Agent Man

28 posted on 09/27/2020 12:40:10 PM PDT by newfreep (The Communist/DNC VOTER FRAUD is Trump's ONLY opponent in 2020 election.)
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To: aquila48

Prey is one of the scariest books ever written.


29 posted on 09/27/2020 12:58:59 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again,")
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To: discostu

The red arrows and bold words have me believing.


30 posted on 09/27/2020 1:05:03 PM PDT by maddog55 (Only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it.)
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To: maddog55

It’s all about the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. Unless the judge is blind.


31 posted on 09/27/2020 1:08:24 PM PDT by discostu (Like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Offerings:
The Night A Mysterious Drone Swarm Descended On Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant
The mysterious case of mass drone incursions over America's most powerful nuclear power plant that only resulted in more questions and no changes.
By Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick July 29, 2020

The Army Has Unveiled Its Plan For Swarms Of Electronic Warfare Enabled Air-Launched Drones
The drones will be able to scout ahead, act as decoys, and launch electronic warfare and other strikes directly against threats they find.
By Joseph Trevithick August 16, 2020

Mysterious Drone Incursions Have Occurred Over U.S. THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile Battery In Guam
It's yet another reminder of just how vulnerable highly strategic assets, even air defense systems, are to low-end drones.
By Tyler Rogoway and Joseph Trevithick September 14, 2020

Australia’s Loyal Wingman Drone It’s Developing With Boeing Has Been Photographed In The Wild
A photographer spotted the Airpower Teaming System vehicle at an airfield somewhere in Queensland, ahead of its first flight.
By Thomas Newdick August 18, 2020

Now Russia Wants Its First Okhotnik Combat Drone In Service By 2024
Deliveries of first heavy unmanned combat air vehicle will herald a new era for Russian combat airpower and potential for a “loyal wingman” for the Su-57.
By Thomas Newdick August 4, 2020

Drug Cartel Now Assassinates Its Enemies With Bomb-Toting Drones
The tactic has become widespread on battlefields overseas and now appears to be proliferating to organized crime.
By Joseph Trevithick August 28, 2020

OT:
U.S. Confirms China Has Launched What Could Be Its Version Of The X-37B Spaceplane
The reusable experimental spacecraft was launched into space on a secret mission from Inner Mongolia earlier today. By Thomas Newdick September 4, 2020

OT:
The Mysterious Cold War Case Of Unidentified Aircraft Descending On Loring Air Force Base
When it comes to cases involving unidentified flying objects, few are as well documented or involve as many people as what occurred at Loring in 1975.
By Brett Tingley August 27, 2020

OT:
Air Force Wants New Ideas To Help Make It Easier For Female Fighter Pilots To Pee In Flight
The service says that women aviators are deliberately not hydrating to avoid having to go, which creates all sorts of serious risks.
By Joseph Trevithick August 24, 2020

32 posted on 09/27/2020 1:22:16 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

What if they have thousands of mosquito-size hangers?


33 posted on 09/27/2020 1:59:20 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (Trump is solving the world's problems only to distract us from Russia.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
just continuing to think a little about this...

Drones will save pilot lives. So drones will earn "their pay," right there, though I don't know if pilots themselves will feel that way, relegated to desk work.

J/K, I can't conceive of a day good pilots aren't going to be needed.

Today's drones can be flown by a teamster with a joystick and monitor from thousands of miles away.

Highly skilled real pilots appear poised to advance to bigger and better things.

Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a Jupiter or Mars

Nooo, we don't want to be eaten by that old dragon! So that may be what swarming really brings to the table for us: To hold the Chinese tyrant at bay and put the fear of God in him.

34 posted on 09/27/2020 2:05:48 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: UnwashedPeasant
LOL...I found the secret mosquito drone air base. Maintenance hangers everywhere!


35 posted on 09/27/2020 2:23:13 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

That’s quite the status thimble...


36 posted on 09/27/2020 3:03:29 PM PDT by null and void (Democrats donate to bail money. Republicans donate to scholarships. ~ throwthebumsout)
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To: fella
”Prey is one of the scariest books ever written.

Yes it is and with gene editing technology evolving exponentially there will be scary times in our future. I believe that the ChiComs are trying to creat superhuman soldiers and scientists as well as animals enhanced with human genetics right now.

37 posted on 09/27/2020 3:27:56 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck ("Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither.")
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To: wildcard_redneck
The ChiComs have made some progress with extra-muscular dogs. I'd be surprised if similar experiments are not underway on the one million Uighers in re-education camps in western China.


38 posted on 09/27/2020 3:52:30 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom ("And oft conducted by historic truth, We tread the long extent of backward time.")
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To: ronnie raygun
Video clip. This will interest you

The Prof sounds like one of those who were against the A-Bomb development, let alone the dropping of it. I suspect it will end the same way.

39 posted on 09/27/2020 5:00:16 PM PDT by Oatka
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Meanwhile, in China . . .
40 posted on 09/27/2020 5:16:36 PM PDT by Oatka
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