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U-2 Thread

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Flyaway

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As the U-2 remains one of my favourite military aircraft I thought I would start a dedicated thread for it. As well as it being one of the more venerable models of aircraft still flying.

U-2 Avionics Upgrade Paves Way For Command And Control Role | Aviation Week Network

Far from being retired, the storied U-2 is being upgraded into the U.S. Air Force’s first fully open mission systems compliant fleet.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com
 
FighterJock

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Only a few years ago there was talk of retiring the U-2 and replacing it with the Global Hawk, now with the future upgrades it looks as if the U-2 could be like the B-52 and go on until the 2030s-2040s
 
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FlightGlobal (Flight International) story on the upgrade:
www.flightglobal.com

U-2 to get avionics, mission computer update

Lockheed Martin recently secured a $50 million US Air Force contract to update the venerable U-2 spy plane. The project involves three elements: a new avionics suite, a new mission computer, and modern cockpit displays, says Lockheed. Source: Lockheed Martin The U-2S spyplane Designed to the...
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com
 
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Flyaway said:
I hope people don’t mind me posting this as I watched it the other day, and thought it was quite interesting about the U-2.

Click to expand...

I watched it when it was first aired on Forces Tv, and it contained a lot of information that I never new about the U-2 before.
 
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Maybe it’s just me but I was surprised to see the paint peeling off some of the U-2s in it. Doesn’t the paint perform some kind of small ‘stealth’ function?
 
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Flyaway said:
Maybe it’s just me but I was surprised to see the paint peeling off some of the U-2s in it. Doesn’t the paint perform some kind of small ‘stealth’ function?
Click to expand...

I had known about the previous attempts to add stealth technology to the U-2 shortly after the Garry Powers shoot down by adding metal string covered in Radar Absorbent Material, but it failed, could this be a modern attempt?
 
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With all the RB-57D and U-2 shot down over China, Cuba (plus of course the Gary Power aircraft) - I was wondering if the Soviets examined their cameras and sensors ? Did they got any tech advances out of them ?
 
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This upgrading of the U-2 makes financial and time sense. The Powers U-2 apparently crashed like a glider. I recall a photo published by the Russians that showed it on the ground with structural breaks at the usual/expected places.
 
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The usual "naked provocation." I'm sure Cuba had similar thoughts during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Meanwhile, the US has to make sure that our current new Cold War enemy number one gets a good look from to time.
 
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China complains on the U-2 overflight to not look embarrassed by USN carrier tempering their macho attitude toward Taiwan (3 differents military exercice on the same time) trawling around.
European nations that have lost WWII that day in Munich should be there also. Forefront.
 
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FighterJock said:
Any ideas as to how the Air Force updated the software during the flight? Sounds like it was over some form of network enabled hardware. :confused:
Click to expand...

Clearly the U-2 have a datalink. That takes care of it.

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The bigger implications especially nowadays is that It will allow digital countermeasure or updates to weapon software to be deployed In flight. Missiles etc, can be manufactured with just basic testing algorithm without any target tracking or countermeasure algorithm etc. ESM aircraft may analyze, develop and actually patch Jammer aircraft's jammer software with real-time developed technique.
 
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stealthflanker said:
FighterJock said:
Any ideas as to how the Air Force updated the software during the flight? Sounds like it was over some form of network enabled hardware. :confused:
Click to expand...

Clearly the U-2 have a datalink. That takes care of it.

------------

The bigger implications especially nowadays is that It will allow digital countermeasure or updates to weapon software to be deployed In flight. Missiles etc, can be manufactured with just basic testing algorithm without any target tracking or countermeasure algorithm etc. ESM aircraft may analyze, develop and actually patch Jammer aircraft's jammer software with real-time developed technique.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info stealthflanker. One further question, is the datalink system Link16 by any chance? That is the only datalink that I currently know about.
 
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The Global Hawk and I suspect other unmanned systems have such a link. But China cannot know...
 
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Flyaway said:
As the U-2 remains one of my favourite military aircraft I thought I would start a dedicated thread for it. As well as it being one of the more venerable models of aircraft still flying.

U-2 Avionics Upgrade Paves Way For Command And Control Role | Aviation Week Network

Far from being retired, the storied U-2 is being upgraded into the U.S. Air Force’s first fully open mission systems compliant fleet.
aviationweek.com aviationweek.com
Click to expand...

I can add some old photos I took/had taken many moons ago...
 

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Artuµ was created by the U-2 Federal Laboratory, which in October successfully updated the plane′s software while it was flying — a first for the U.S. military. The event was made possible by deploying Kubernetes, an open-source, containerized method for automating software updates.
Artuμ is based on a gaming algorithm known as µZero, which has been used to beat human players in chess and Go, Roper explained in an op-ed on Popular Mechanics. The U-2 lab specially trained the AI co-pilot to manipulate the U-2′s sensor suite during “over half a million” computer-simulated missions, according to the Air Force.
“With no pilot override, ARTUµ made final calls on devoting the radar to missile hunting versus self-protection,” Roper wrote.
Click to expand...
www.defensenews.com

Artoo, take the wheel: U-2 spy plane flies for the first time with an AI co-pilot

The AI entity Artuμ controlled the U-2's sensors and helped find enemy missile launchers during a training flight.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com
 

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