Chinese Navy Mission Reveals Secret Drone
The circumstances of the pilotless plane’s revelation could offer hints about its role. Early this month, the Chinese navy sailed 11 warships through international waters between two Japanese islands. The two-week deployment — a new, semi-annual tradition for the rapidly-expanding Chinese navy — was probably meant as a display of strength, and included target practice for the ships’ crews.
It just so happens, a drone is an excellent way to spot targets for long-range gunfire and missiles — especially for a navy that lacks the ultra-high-tech satellites the U.S. Navy takes for granted. And what could be more impressive for foreign audiences than “accidentally” letting the Japanese photograph the new UAV in action?
For all that, the Chinese ‘bot could be fairly dated technology. Considering where the drone was spotted — at sea, and above warships — and its apparent size, it’s probably a rough analogue to the U.S. Navy’s RQ-2 Pioneer. During its heyday in 1991, that drone helped the battleship USS Missouri aim its massive, 16-inch guns at Iraqi shore targets. Today, the Pioneer has been superseded in American service by far more sophisticated ship-launched drones.
Which is to say: yes, the Chinese have a new UAV, and it’s pretty cool. But publicly launching a flying robot from the deck of a warship for the first time just means the People’s Liberation Army Navy is finally catching up to the where the U.S. Navy was … 20 years ago.
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Navy Stealth Plane - News
Details of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle — gleaned entirely from a snapshot (.pdf) taken by a Japanese navy patrol plane last week — are sketchy, at best. But the new UAV certainly represents a step forward in China's development of American-style spy
While a stealth ship with a perforated layer on its outer hull may seem like an odd idea today, modern triangular-shaped stealth aircraft probably appeared just as untenable 50 years ago. For more from Peter, follow him on Twitter @petepachal.
NEW DELHI, June 23 (UPI) -- Lockheed indicated it could still be in the running for an $11 billion fighter jet sale to India despite the government rejecting its F-16 aircraft. Lockheed Martin's stealth F-35 Lightning II, still in the development stage
That's why the only radar-killing planes in the Pentagon inventory belong to the Navy — and why, until the forthcoming F-35C, the Navy has never bought a stealth fighter. Nowhere is that philosophical difference more apparent than in the Pentagon's
The JSS extends efficiencies to new CMS deployments on future naval ships including the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers providing the Royal Navy with a cost effective long term support solution.
China, Russia Could Make U.S. Stealth Tech Obsolete - Jim ...
(.Pdf), published last week.
That could come as a big shock to the U.S. Air Force, which has bet its future on radar-dodging technology, to the tune of half-a-trillion dollars over the next 30 years. The Navy, on the other hand, might have reason to say, “I told you so.”
That is, if Watts’ prediction comes true — and that’s a big “if,” the analyst admits.
“In recent years there has been speculation that ongoing advances in radar detection and tracking will, in the near future, obviate the ability of all-aspect, low-observable aircraft such as the B-2, F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter , aka JSF, to survive inside denied airspace,” Watts writes, referring to America’s stealth bombers and fighter jets.
Stealth-killing advances include VHF and UHF radars being developed by Russia and China, and a “passive-detection” system devised by Czech researchers. The latter “uses radar, television, cellular phone and other available signals of opportunity reflected off stealthy aircraft to find and track them,” Watts explains.
These new detection systems could reverse a 30-year trend that has seen the U.S. Air Force gain an increasing advantage over enemy defenses. That phenomenon began with the introduction of the F-117 stealth fighter in the late 1980s, followed by the addition of the stealthy B-2 (pictured) in the ’90s and, more recently, the F-22.
So far, the Air Force has only ever fielded a few hundred stealth aircraft, requiring it to constantly upgrade some nonstealthy fighters. But the flying branch plans to purchase more than 1,700 F-35s (at more than $100 million a pop) from Lockheed Martin in coming decades, plus up to 100 new stealth bombers . In that sense, the stealth era is only now truly dawning — just as effective counter-measures are nearly ready, Watts points out.
In that sense, the Air Force’s stealth gamble could turn into very, very long odds.
Comparatively, the Navy has played it safe. At the same time the Air Force was investing its research and development dollars in stealth, the Navy has taken a different approach to defeating enemy defenses. Where the Air Force plans to slip past radars, the Navy means to jam them with electronic noisemakers or destroy them with radar-seeking missiles. That’s why the only radar-killing planes in the Pentagon inventory belong to the Navy — and why, until the forthcoming F-35C, the Navy has never bought a stealth fighter.
Navy Stealth Plane - Bookshelf
Stealth Warplanes
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DEFENSE & ARMED FORCES: Secretary Cheney Cancels Al 2 Stealth Plane Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney Jan. 7 canceled the Navy A-12 Stealth attack-plane ...Alpha Bravo Delta Guide to Stealth Warfare
The Navy has engaged in stealth aircraft development projects since the end of the Second World War. The most recent of these, the AX, would have seen the ...The Naval Institute guide to the ships and aircraft of the U.S. fleet
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Navy stealth plane
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