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autoevolution 21 Feb 2021, 15:53 UTC ·
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In the first decade of February, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, better known as DARPA, announced the start of the design phase of a program it calls LongShot. Three companies were selected for this stage, namely General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. 1 photo
LongShot s goal is to come with an air-launched unmanned weapons system that could use a multitude of air-to-air weapons, but also come with increased range. In essence, these drones are to become what manned aircraft are today, capable of getting deep inside enemy territory and strike.
As per the requirements of the project, the ones that were made public at least, the new drone should be capable of multi-modal propulsion, but also capable of being deployed from the existing fighter aircraft and bombers.
Early conceptual renderings of DARPA’s new LongShot attack drone show what looks like a stealthy platform.
Hiding above advanced enemy air defenses to launch secret attacks, identifying enemy ground and air targets while remaining undetected, transmitting and using AI-generated dogfighting skills to engage and destroy enemy fighter jets with a new generation of air-to-air missiles are all missions the Air Force may likely perform with its newly emerging LongShot air-attack drone.
Early conceptual renderings of DARPA’s new LongShot attack drone show what looks like a stealthy platform, an apparent intent that introduces an entirely new sphere of warzone targeting, surveillance, and attack possibilities. This is particularly true due to its “long-range” technology, as it changes the tactical equation regarding where air-to-air and air-to-ground strikes can strike.
By
Theresa Hitchens on February 15, 2021 at 3:14 PM
DARPA’s LongShot drone, Northrop Grumman concept art
WASHINGTON: DARPA plans to flight test a prototype of a novel air-launched drone one designed to launch its own high-speed air-to-air missiles as soon as the first half of 2024.
LongShot is conceived as an autonomous, air-launched uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) that can serve as a sort of mothership, launching its own air-to-air missiles once in range of enemy aircraft.
DARPA has tapped General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to provide preliminary designs under Phase 1 of its new LongShot program. LongShot aims to demonstrate a drone that would be launched by fighters or bombers flying at stand-off ranges, autonomously fly into enemy airspace, and then launch its own air-to-air missiles to take down enemy aircraft.
(MENAFN - Asia Times) Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman is wasting no time in this competition.
Just two days after DARPA named it as one of three competitors for the LongShot contract, the company released an image of its concept for an air-launched unmanned aircraft system (UAS), Aviation Week reported .Â
Imagine an unmanned aircraft, speeding ahead of its launch aircraft, that itself can fire multiple air-to-air intercept missiles that can seek out and destroy.
No pilots to risk, just a throw-away UAS, that can potentially avoid enemy radar and return to base unharmed, to be used again.
That s the thing about unmanned systems, they lack the romanticism of the past.