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Air Force focuses on future of 'smart' weapons
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Air Force focuses on future of 'smart' weapons at Eglin
The Associated Press
Posted May 28, 2002
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EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE -- Swarms of armed drones launch from a mother ship. An unmanned aircraft fires laser or microwave guns guided by radar that can see through rain, sleet, snow and foliage.
A "sleeper" weapon lands deep in enemy territory and waits until a threat emerges before taking off again to strike quickly from close range.
Air Force researchers will spend the next year examining these futuristic weapons and more as a move to improve and eventually replace the venerable but vulnerable AC-130 Spectre gunship.
The Vietnam-era plane is used primarily to support ground troops, but Air Force officials see the potential for the new weapons to take on missions performed by bombers and strike aircraft.
"They're probably not ready for prime time today, but the concepts exist in the laboratory world," said Steve Butler, director of engineering for the Air Armament Center, which develops "smart" weapons at this Florida Panhandle base.
Task Force Warlord, a name inspired by the war in Afghanistan, includes a wide cross section of the Air Force and is one of the service's first "cross-enterprise" studies. It will examine aircraft, weapons, data links, sensors and other aspects rather than focusing on just one, said Butler, who is coordinating the study.
"I find that encouraging," said Christopher Hellman, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization in Washington, D.C. "It's a very reasoned approach."
Michael O'Hanlon, a senior analyst with the Brookings Institution, agrees that upgrading the AC-130 is a good idea, but worries about the cost. He said the Spectre already has outlived predictions -- his own included -- that it would be obsolete by now.
"I'm not sure that this program needs to have any urgency about it," O'Hanlon said.
The AC-130 is an armed version of the C-130 Hercules, a four-engine, turboprop transport dating to the 1950s. Each has a 105 mm howitzer and fast-firing 40 mm or 25 mm guns. Gunships fly about 300 mph compared with a maximum of 1,500 mph for an F-16 Fighting Falcon strike fighter.
The Spectre's bulk and its need to fly low and slow make it so vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire that it usually flies only at night. A shoulder-launched missile downed a gunship from nearby Hurlburt Field shortly after dawn during the Persian Gulf War, killing all 14 crew members.
Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, created Task Force Warlord last year after getting a preview of the possibilities via live video beamed to the Pentagon from Predator surveillance drones in Afghanistan, Butler said.
Jumper and other top brass watched the CIA's unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, hunt for and attack targets with Hellfire missiles. It was the first combat test for armed Predators.
Arming Predators and linking them to gunships are ideas hatched in the UAV Battlelab, a research facility at Eglin. They caught Jumper's attention at one of Eglin's annual armament summits, Butler said.
Both went from demonstration to combat within a year. Butler said some of the ideas Task Force Warlord is examining could become reality just as fast.
Concepts proposed for the next three years include better computers and sensors and plastic or ceramic parts to reduce weight.
Among midterm ideas for 2005 through 2010 are gun shells guided by satellites or other means.
One option might be something like Lockheed Martin's experimental Low Cost Autonomous Attack System -- only 30 inches long with a wingspan of 40 inches.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locweapons28052802may28.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
The Associated Press
Posted May 28, 2002
Email this story to a friend
Printer friendly version
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE -- Swarms of armed drones launch from a mother ship. An unmanned aircraft fires laser or microwave guns guided by radar that can see through rain, sleet, snow and foliage.
A "sleeper" weapon lands deep in enemy territory and waits until a threat emerges before taking off again to strike quickly from close range.
Air Force researchers will spend the next year examining these futuristic weapons and more as a move to improve and eventually replace the venerable but vulnerable AC-130 Spectre gunship.
The Vietnam-era plane is used primarily to support ground troops, but Air Force officials see the potential for the new weapons to take on missions performed by bombers and strike aircraft.
"They're probably not ready for prime time today, but the concepts exist in the laboratory world," said Steve Butler, director of engineering for the Air Armament Center, which develops "smart" weapons at this Florida Panhandle base.
Task Force Warlord, a name inspired by the war in Afghanistan, includes a wide cross section of the Air Force and is one of the service's first "cross-enterprise" studies. It will examine aircraft, weapons, data links, sensors and other aspects rather than focusing on just one, said Butler, who is coordinating the study.
"I find that encouraging," said Christopher Hellman, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, an independent research organization in Washington, D.C. "It's a very reasoned approach."
Michael O'Hanlon, a senior analyst with the Brookings Institution, agrees that upgrading the AC-130 is a good idea, but worries about the cost. He said the Spectre already has outlived predictions -- his own included -- that it would be obsolete by now.
"I'm not sure that this program needs to have any urgency about it," O'Hanlon said.
The AC-130 is an armed version of the C-130 Hercules, a four-engine, turboprop transport dating to the 1950s. Each has a 105 mm howitzer and fast-firing 40 mm or 25 mm guns. Gunships fly about 300 mph compared with a maximum of 1,500 mph for an F-16 Fighting Falcon strike fighter.
The Spectre's bulk and its need to fly low and slow make it so vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire that it usually flies only at night. A shoulder-launched missile downed a gunship from nearby Hurlburt Field shortly after dawn during the Persian Gulf War, killing all 14 crew members.
Gen. John Jumper, Air Force chief of staff, created Task Force Warlord last year after getting a preview of the possibilities via live video beamed to the Pentagon from Predator surveillance drones in Afghanistan, Butler said.
Jumper and other top brass watched the CIA's unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, hunt for and attack targets with Hellfire missiles. It was the first combat test for armed Predators.
Arming Predators and linking them to gunships are ideas hatched in the UAV Battlelab, a research facility at Eglin. They caught Jumper's attention at one of Eglin's annual armament summits, Butler said.
Both went from demonstration to combat within a year. Butler said some of the ideas Task Force Warlord is examining could become reality just as fast.
Concepts proposed for the next three years include better computers and sensors and plastic or ceramic parts to reduce weight.
Among midterm ideas for 2005 through 2010 are gun shells guided by satellites or other means.
One option might be something like Lockheed Martin's experimental Low Cost Autonomous Attack System -- only 30 inches long with a wingspan of 40 inches.
Copyright 2002 Associated Press http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-locweapons28052802may28.story?coll=orl-home-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878