Message posted by Skeet (Member since 06/29/2022) on March 13, 2023 at 9:49:49 PST:
"The major program of relevance to CLAS is currently the Integrated Sensor Is Structure (ISIS) program. The goal of ISIS is “to develop a stratospheric airship based autonomous unmanned sensor with years of persistence in surveillance and tracking of air and ground targets. It will have the capability to track the most advanced cruise missiles at 600 km and dismounted enemy combatants at 300 km." "The LOBSTAR program built on the S-CLAS concept. ... The aim of LOBSTAR was to develop a low-frequency antenna array large enough to detect slow moving targets masked by heavy jungle foliage and incorporate this antenna into the primary wing structure of an aircraft, such as SensorCraft." "The multifunction capability of the new, wraparound These two paragraphs describe some of the capabilities that are being developed, and may become operational, in the 2015-2020 timeframe." The ISR capabilities highlighted above sound unbelievable. Having load-bearing antennas built into the airframe has so many benefits; bigger antennas, reduced weight and better integration into LO/stealth design. There would likely be hints on how the CLAS has been designed visually looking at the wing so no wonder the RQ-180 has been been kept out of the public eye. The paint-job/skin on the B-21 has almost certainly been designed to obfuscate the tech underneath. Fascinating document. Thanks for sharing, Smythers.
radars will ensure they can perform as sensor, precision targeting system and a directed energy weapon, so the small unmanned aircraft do not need to carry missiles or bombs.
In Reply to: Conformal Load Bearing Antenna Programs posted by Smythers on March 12, 2023 at 5:53:24 PST:
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