Message posted by Jim Bob on September 02, 2004 at 14:54:45 PST:

Thud's posting on "Poobah's Pup" is substantially correct. The only thing that should be clarified is the type of aircraft. I did a Google search and the only thing I found was a document from TextOre that referred to it as a Cessna 172. On this point, I believe this document to be an incorrect report and source.

The AvWeek article from August 23rd referred to "Poobah's Pup," the UAV surrogate, as a Cessna 208B Caravan. This is likely to be the case for several important reasons. A Cessna 172 is piston powered aircraft with a service ceiling of 13,500 ft. The hot August temperatures and the elevated terrain would severely limit a 172.

A Cessna 208 is a turboprop with a 25,000 ft. service ceiling. It can fly faster and higher than a 172. It also has a fairly large baggage compartment located below the fuselage. This is probably ideal for the 88 lb. combination electronic/communication-intelligence collecting payload used in the experiment. In regard to altitude, speed and size,the 208 is probably capable of more closely simulating performance similiar to that of the MQ-9(Pradator B)UAV.

According to AvWeek, the L-3 Communication's 208B, "Poobah's Pup," flew out of "Tonapah airport" and operated in the the northwest corner of the Nellis test range. It was used to demonstrate deep penetration of enemy airspace while working with more distantly positioned (150 miles) manned assets such as the RC-135 Rivet Joint, the Navy EP-3, the E-8 Joint-STARS, the E-3 AWACS and the U-2. This all falls under the concept of network concentric collaborative targeting (NCCT).

I did hear that it was also spotted, on at least one occaision, at Nellis.

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