Lockheed Martin’s “flying wing” design for an unmanned carrier-launched aircraft has the “inherent” stealth the US Navy needs to operate in future high-threat environments, says the company during an interview with Flightglobal.
“Stealth is something that has to be designed into the [aircraft]. That’s one of the advantages that we believe we have,” says Bob Ruszkowski, Lockheed’s capture director for the navy’s unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS) programme.
Ruszkowski says Lockheed has been stressing to the navy the importance of getting the initial design “right”, saying improvements in capability may not be viable if the service doesn’t “start out with the right shape of the aircraft.”
[...]
Ruszkowski says Lockheed’s design [...] will draw from the stealth and computer technology the company developed for its RQ-170 stealth UAV and its F-35C Joint Strike Fighter.
“It’s a flying wing configuration and inherently stealthy with good endurance characteristics,” he says. “You need to have inherent, broad-band stealth characteristics to ensure you can have persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to be effective in future scenarios.”
Ruszkowski adds that Lockheed’s aircraft will also have an open systems architecture, that will make integrating new technology easier. And the flying wing design requires less complex manufacturing and tooling, he says.
link.
No comments:
Post a Comment