The U.S. Air Force recently announced that its “cooperative combat aircraft”, in addition to being used for aerial refueling and cargo transportation, can also work closely with the B-21 “Raider” stealth bomber to conduct joint operations.
The Cooperative Combat Aircraft will be an advanced unmanned aerial vehicle with a high degree of autonomy and is part of the U.S. Air Force’s larger Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.
It is reported that “next generation air superiority” also includes the development of sixth-generation stealth fighters as well as new weapons, sensors, network and combat management capabilities, advanced jet engines, etc.
Screenshot of the “War Zone” column report on the US “Power” website
Wei Dongxu, Military Observer of China Central Radio and Television Station Global Information BroadcastingAnalysts believe that the most significant feature of the “cooperative combat aircraft” is intelligence, and in the future combat environment it will mainly undertake tasks such as support, information transmission, and electronic warfare.
• Can support manned air combat platforms: such as aerial fuel replenishment, etc., which can maximize the combat distance and radius of stealth fighters and stealth bombers.
• Can carry out information transmission: Integrate all intelligent combat platforms such as early warning satellites and stealth bombers to distribute combat instructions.
• Can carry out electronic jamming operations in the air: such as interfering with the opponent’s radar and opening up a safer channel for the combat platform.
The picture simulates different “cooperative combat aircraft” and F-35 joint operations (picture from the US “Power” website)
However, it also has many shortcomings. Wei Dongxu further analyzed that this kind of intelligent drone faces very complex technical problems during the development process.
• First of all, the production of finished products and research and development costs cannot be too expensive, otherwise it will affect the procurement and use of the US military.
• In addition, there are still many technical problems to ensure that the intelligence of the “cooperative combat aircraft” reaches actual combat standards.
• Therefore, the US military must find a balance between “smart” and “cheap.”
Material source丨Global Information Broadcasting “Global News Eye”
Main station reporter丨Wei Dongxu
Editor丨Fan MengLinwei
Signing review丨Jia Yanning Liu Yiyao Return to Sohu to see more
Editor:
Statement: The views in this article represent only the author’s own. Sohu is an information publishing platform. Sohu only provides information storage space services.
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2023-09-10 12:33:00
