Is it Possible to Have a Stealth Carrier???

[geetrue]

http://www.defense-update.com/newsca...807_ucas_d.htm

Perhaps no stealth carrier in the near future like the new Zumwalt DD-1000 that was just approved for building, but they do have a next generation US Navy unmanned observation stealth plane being developed as we speak.

Production version could be out by 2018: X-47

Testing is scheduled to begin in late 2009 and culminate with carrier flight operations in 2013. The tests will involve shipboard operation, including catapult takeoffs, arrested landings and flight in the immediate vicinity of an aircraft carrier. The air vehicle will not carry weapons.

[Tchocky]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

PS. One thing I noticed - the F-22's are still not giving away their true potential. They are not being flown without drop tanks for instance so as not to give away their true stealthy nature. Must still be classified until a real war erupts???

I've seen plenty of pics of F22's without tanks.
Then again, they could be over the US, away from snoopy radars

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Tchocky

I've seen plenty of pics of F22's without tanks.
Then again, they could be over the US, away from snoopy radars

Me too, but the only intercept pics I have seen were with un-needed drop tanks. That thing has a 1,000 mile range with internal fuel alone. 2,000+ if you add drop tanks.

-S

[XabbaRus]

The point is with the money spent no destruction testing was carried out on a complete airframe. It is a problem that should never have happened. and needed to be fixed especially when you are getting so few.

As for Link 16 it should have been in at the beginning, other AF have it and the USAF touts its network centric ability which at the current moment it can't do. Sure it will in time but that shuldn't be the case.