Message posted by Andreas Parsch on June 23, 2002 at 12:59:26 PST:

Certainly two very interesting snippets. Especially the Boeing UAV:

"[...] It is scheduled for production sometime
in 2003. It is remotely controlled and is
intended to replace piloted vehicles all together.
Rumor has it the bird can do at least Mach 2.5
and out-maneuver anything currently flyable
except perhaps a helicopter."

High speed, high manoeuverability to replace everything with a man[*] in it - Wow! This sounds like not very short of a "wonder weapon" ... and best of all, it will be ready for production next year!

[*] or woman ;-)

I'm sorry, but statements like this make the little skeptic inside me run in circles screaming ;-). If an U(C)AV with these properties did really already exist, the "white" Boeing(!) X-45 and Northrop-Grumman X-47 UCAV programs would be an incredible waste of time and money! I know there have been some "white-world cover for black programs" stories, but this case would push the limits a bit, IMHO.

The LockMart "X2000", OTOH, looks _a lot_ more realistic. Especially because its progress status (wind tunnel tests) is plausible.

Regards
Andreas

In Reply to: New UAV/UCAV concepts posted by Magoo on June 22, 2002 at 23:36:30 PST:

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