100th F-22 Raptor delivered to U.S. Air Force
 

That seems like a fast delivery schedule.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070829/law072.html?.v=101

Thanks for the link ... I didn't even know the first one had
been delivered.

I hope they don't crash one taking pictures of it like they
did that beautiful high altitude spy plane.

Its that Joint Strike Fighter F-35 Lightning II which I find suspect. Development has been going on for too many years compaired to the F-22. I'm beginning to think that its a cover for some other program(s). The navy's DSRV, of which there are only two, was also a cover. That $500 hammer thing.

It is longer because it's 3 aircraft vs 1. The V/STOL design also eats considerable time. THe only thing the same between these 3 aircraft is the engine and parts of the frame, and even these are different due to nozzel design, etc.

-S

Their not wasting any time on the F/22 are they?

Bah! F22s are for mere human beings.

Meet the Reaper. :arrgh!:

At 220mph it could be an easy target if up against anyone with shoulder launched Stingers for example :hmm:

Well, A UCAV like the Reaper is expendable.
It is hardly more expensive than a normal missile and has a good chance of coming back.
If it doesnt, well, that's just another few bucks down the drain, but nothing to worry about.
IIRC, the prototype Reapers were almost all lost during the trials.
UAV units have a high loss rate.
But keep in mind Reaper is still a remotely piloted aircraft, not a robot.
There's still a pilot flying those things and firing the missiles, but he's somewhere safe.
Also, for high intensity conflict with a real enemy, this thing is not really suitable, but for zapping muslim fanatics from a distance, it is just fine.
But I allready imagined the future.
Many companies are working on autonomous combat robots, wether flying or ground.
Put them in an automated base which services and supplies them, maybe even manufactures at least munitions, if not whole robots, and you have the ultimate land mine.
A remote killing device with a range of hundreds of kilometers.

Im suprised there isn't a remotely piloted rocket aircraft.
A little like a remotely piloted tomahawk missile with survelance equipment and missiles attached. :hmm:
~200mph is very, very slow.

200 MPH is actually very fast for an aircraft designed to loiter.

That is a big no. The problem being that no one knows you are there - it flies outside of stinger range at 10K feet, and no noise transfers to the ground from the alt. Couple this with the fact that it is near impossible to spot from the alt, and I think one would be hard pressed to ever know it was there.

Fair enough.......but an enemy with radar and more sophisticated SAM weaponry, not to mention signal jamming capabilities would probably have more success aginst it ? :hmm:
Don't get me wrong here....I'm just playing devils advocate :up:

I'm sure. But then again, Saddam couldn't shoot them down much either. I have a video feed on one being fired on - and the missile missed.

-S

Here we go - Iraqi terrorists fire 4 Sams at predator - all miss. 5th also misses. Predator doesn't miss.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6b5_1183143383

-S

Poetic justice :rock: ....you can run but you can't hide :lol:

Prahaps, but planes where doing 200mph back in the 1920s!

I hear ya - but those planes weren't designed to loiter. Most were point A to B or racing versions. This tiny predator stays up there for 8 hours straight! The monster GLobal Hawk can stay on station for 24 hours - not including transit time.

-S

They might have a hard time of shooting down a little drone right now ...

but in just ten more years and a whole lot of money (is 5 billion dollars from heron trade enough?) they could shoot down a whole satellite.

All they have to do is take out one with a mobile launcher and run.

You can see a satellite with the naked eye ... what can modern electronics do?

Does that sound too James Bondish?

Im suprised no terrorists have made a cruise missile yet.
I am 99% sure I could make a simple pulse jet missile with a fair payload and range in a year with a budget of less than $ half million with out buying anything that would cause suspicion. :hmm:

Presumably meaning a missile along the lines of the Fieseler 103?
Trouble is, the Fi 103 was a lot more complicated than people generally realise, it had numerous gyroscopes and pressure chambers inside it as part of its autopilot system. And even then, the cheapness of its construction materials often led to notorious innacuracy.

Typically the cause of this was the pulse jet burning holes through the side of the tailpipe, effectively vectoring the thrust enough to overcome the autopilot's abilities to make enough corrections to keep it on course. Which is why several of them hit my home town on Christmas Eve 1944, when they were actually aimed at another town around thirty miles away! That's quite a big miss.

Any missile of this nature would certainly need an autopilot too, and that is not cheap to do. If it was, they'd have done it. Not to mention the fact that something like that would be easily countered by standing air patrols, in fact you'd probably be doing an air force a favour by launching them, as it would be good target practice for their pilots.

:D Chock

"Rocket" no, jet yes it was called LIghtning bug. :-?

Lighting bug was a modified jet powed target drone used in Vietnam they were used for recon, locating SAM sites, acting as decoys althogh none were armed and they were automus for the most part. :rock: