NEW DOD TOYS ON THE WAY

Months ago, I heard Slots Bennett carry on about the security threat China poses to the United States and I thought correctly that this is just more hysteria from the PNAC crowd. Because it would be futile to engage in land warfare with an army that can be about as large as our total population, we would be forced to rely on nuclear weapons.

I didn't count on the ingenuity of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). We are developing unmanned aircraft that are far more sophisticated than our current drones.

The Boeing Joint Unmanned Combat Air System X-45 is an unmanned combat air vehicle being developed for strike missions such as Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD), electronic warfare and associated operations.

The Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) program began being managed by DARPA, but was handed over to a joint US Navy and Air Force office in October 2005. The two principle systems being developed under the first phase of the program, the Spiral 0 phase, are the Boeing X-45 and the Northrop Grumman X-47. The J-UCAS program combines the programs previously conducted under the DARPA, USAF and Boeing X-45 UCAV program and the DARPA, USN and Northrop Grumman X-47 UCAV-N program.


X-45A
In 1999 Boeing was awarded a demonstration phase contract by DARPA and the USAF. Under the contract, Boeing Phantom Works completed two X-45A demonstrator air vehicles. The roll out ceremony of the first vehicle was in September 2001. The first flight was completed in May 2002.

X-45C
Boeing planned the development and construction of two UCAV prototype air vehicles, X-45B, a larger air vehicle than the X-45A with an integrated avionics system, increased weapon delivery
capacity and increased operating range and altitude.

In early 2003, DARPA announced the cancellation of the X-45B and the approval for the development of a larger and improved UCAV system, comprising the X-45C air vehicle, mission control, support and simulation systems.

The X-45C has a larger payload performance (2,041kg), persistence and range envelope than the X-45B. The X-45C has a similar fuselage design to that of the X-45B but with a new wing design that gives the X-45C its distinctive arrowhead shaped profile. Boeing began assembly of the first of three X-45C demonstrators in June 2004 and first flight will be in early 2007, to be followed by a two-year operational assessment.

I can see this program evolving into "smart" unmanned planes at the cost of 100s of billions of dollars, enriching the districts of many Congressmen. Despite the niftiness of this idea, the generalized version of the programs would greatly reduce the disincentive of going to war because of the killed and wounded. Apparently the DOD has been working on a long range plan to take "the Human out of the Loop":

Project Alpha, a U.S. Joint Forces Command rapid idea analysis group, is in the midst of a study focusing on the concept of developing and employing robots that would be capable of replacing humans to perform many, if not most combat functions on the battlefield.

The study, appropriately titled, “Unmanned Effects: Taking the Human out of the Loop,” suggests that by as early as 2025, the presence of autonomous robots, networked and integrated, on the battlefield might not be the exception, but, in fact, the norm.