Scott Kenny
ACCESS: USAP
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The CVW "Regaining the High Ground at Sea" report by Clark, et al talks about the USN carrier wing having 3 different UAVs: MQ-25 for refueling, a rotary wing aircraft like the Marines are testing (MUX), and a ridiculously multirole drone that Clark et al want to do IAMD, ISR&T, Strike, SUW, ASW, and EMW. (I will note that they back off and make the EMW drone the same airframe but permanently assigned as EMW.) 18x normal and 6x EMW drones, 12x MQ-25s, 2x MUX, 11x H-60s, 6x E-2Ds, ~10x F-35Cs, ~10x F/A-XX.
The shape they use for their examples is X-47B, which may work but is too small for the needed load for the strike and maybe EMW missions, IMO.
I think that the X-47B size would be acceptable for Integrated Air and Missile Defense, IAMD, which I am reading as "BARCAP plus" and "high endurance spear carrier." But it's only got 5200lbs of payload. Should be able to carry at least 4x if not 6x AMRAAM-sized missiles. A UCAV big enough for the other missions could likely carry as many as 18x AMRAAM-sized weapons.
ISR&T means using all the sensors needed for both air intercept and strike. Multiple EO eyeballs, IMO, based on the OA-1K Skyraider II and the various C-130s. Possibly up to the level of the D-TARPS pod the Tomcats used to carry. But okay, we have a pair of weapons bays that we can use to hang the extra sensors.
Strike and SUW need large bays and more or less the same sensors for both missions, just an extra mode in the surface-search radar for working over water (or working over land). It also means large bays, like 2 bays each holding 2x AGM-158s, HACMs, whatever the USN high-supersonic/hypersonic cruise missile is, ASALMs, etc. ~12,000 pounds of ordnance, internal. But bays that size also mean a plane roughly the size of the (NG) ATA A-12, not the X-47B.
ASW is the one I have a hard time making fit into the airframe. ASW means sonobuoys and low altitude flight. Low altitude does not mean fuel efficiency. I don't know that the Sonobuoys would all fit into the weapons bays, even if they were angled significantly and dropping straight out holes in the bay doors. Also, noting that airdropped torpedoes are still big enough to fill most of the weapons bay. So I really think that ASW drones will not be the same LO airframe as the UCAVs.
EMW, like the Growler, is a separate airframe, jamming gear permanently installed. It may also have some bay space left to allow for ARMs etc to engage urgent targets.
The shape they use for their examples is X-47B, which may work but is too small for the needed load for the strike and maybe EMW missions, IMO.
I think that the X-47B size would be acceptable for Integrated Air and Missile Defense, IAMD, which I am reading as "BARCAP plus" and "high endurance spear carrier." But it's only got 5200lbs of payload. Should be able to carry at least 4x if not 6x AMRAAM-sized missiles. A UCAV big enough for the other missions could likely carry as many as 18x AMRAAM-sized weapons.
ISR&T means using all the sensors needed for both air intercept and strike. Multiple EO eyeballs, IMO, based on the OA-1K Skyraider II and the various C-130s. Possibly up to the level of the D-TARPS pod the Tomcats used to carry. But okay, we have a pair of weapons bays that we can use to hang the extra sensors.
Strike and SUW need large bays and more or less the same sensors for both missions, just an extra mode in the surface-search radar for working over water (or working over land). It also means large bays, like 2 bays each holding 2x AGM-158s, HACMs, whatever the USN high-supersonic/hypersonic cruise missile is, ASALMs, etc. ~12,000 pounds of ordnance, internal. But bays that size also mean a plane roughly the size of the (NG) ATA A-12, not the X-47B.
ASW is the one I have a hard time making fit into the airframe. ASW means sonobuoys and low altitude flight. Low altitude does not mean fuel efficiency. I don't know that the Sonobuoys would all fit into the weapons bays, even if they were angled significantly and dropping straight out holes in the bay doors. Also, noting that airdropped torpedoes are still big enough to fill most of the weapons bay. So I really think that ASW drones will not be the same LO airframe as the UCAVs.
EMW, like the Growler, is a separate airframe, jamming gear permanently installed. It may also have some bay space left to allow for ARMs etc to engage urgent targets.
