2,500 mile range with 300 lbs and a 24 endurance. The Special Forces are taking delivery of 20 of them in a joint program with DARPA. The Danger Room has a nice little run down on the status of the program.
IMNSHO, the recon helicopter that the US Army is having fits over ought to be something derived from the above: the initial cost of the Hummingbird was $50 million for the prototype versus $300 million for the canceled ARH-70. Cut out the weight of the potential passengers and you get something very close to what the Hummingbird can do. The Hummingbird also has a far, far greater range than the ARH-70 was to have: 2,500 miles vs a mere 162 miles.
Also, if there are any attempts at direct replacements for the Apache or Cobra, something like this, albeit with a much bigger payload, ought to be considered.
PS No comparisons to this, please:
I knew you were thinking it.
"knew you were thinking it."
ReplyDeleteBut what is it?
A Hunter-Killer drone from Terminator 3. A largely forgettable film (compared to the other two) that still had some nifty killer robots in the end. Too bad the stunt physics and computer hacking dementia of Hollywood is just THAT bad.
ReplyDeleteAh. Yeah, I skipped T3: the Interminating.
ReplyDeleteI waited until it was on cable. heh, TIVO and the ability to skip the boring parts make the movie much, much faster.
ReplyDelete