DARPA Starts its Novel UAV within the LongShot Program

They say that with the help of DARPA’s drone program, drones will be capable of launching their own air-to-air rockets! Wondering whether it can be real? Check here!

This article may become a pretty good finding for individuals who have already heard about the design of the new drone project by DARPA but desire to get truly remarkable data on what is this all about. So, this article clarifies the following things:

· About the technical potential of DARPA’s air-launched unmanned vehicle;

· Benefits of the drone program within the LongShot Program (and several details about the program itself).

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When designing something, engineers mainly focus on creating devices (and vehicles) that require minimum or zero human interference. Tesla Will Release a Completely Unmanned Vehicle , Airport in Florida has Implemented Autonomous UV Disinfection Robot ... The list of “autonomous” achievements is truly rich! This time, let’s get acquainted with one more unmanned solution!

UAV in the LongShot Program

DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the US) is designing an air-launched autonomous vehicle that looks like a drone. This system can guide air-to-air weaponry, as an integral part of the LongShot initiative.

DARPA signed an agreement with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and General Atomics to prepare solutions for a sky-borne air-to-air combat drone platform within the LongShot.

DARPA officially announced the agreement in February 2021. The financial side of the contract is confidential. However, we know that DARPA has been cherishing their intentions for the LongShot program since 2020. They asked for the sum from the Pentagon's budget for 2021. According to the Pentagon, they have invested approximately twenty million US Dollars in some defense solution. So, we may assume that it was about DARPA's project.

This sum will help to perform primary work, involving the design and optimization of the drone's demonstration system.

Technically, a more powerful manned aircraft will fire the autonomous drone. Then, the last will move to some location and conduct a number of aerial threats using their own weaponry. Among many other advantages, such a process will help to increase the diapason of the launch system and minimize the susceptibility to air defenses as well as enemy aircraft.

One more positive thing about this system is that the likelihood of people being injured will be reduced to a minimum because this is considered a fully autonomous vehicle.

Significant Benefits of the New UAV

After declaring the contract in February, DARPA also reported that while designing the new UAV, they accentuated on developing the features that will optimize distance for destructing, the efficiency of the objective, and some other bonuses.

According to Lt. Col. Paul Calhoun, DARPA program manager, this year they decided to slightly modify the final concept: within the LongShot program, they plan to get not just a traditional defense drone but create an autonomous air-based system that can use already existing as well as potential air-to-air weaponry to execute air combat missions.

DARPA's UAV will help to get rid of ordinary phased weapon optimizations by giving optional methods of delivering combat function. As the engineering team comments, the greatest accent of the program is to reduce piloted fighters from getting harmed. These fighters will keep their distance from hostile threats while the unmanned vehicles will move forward to bombard first.

Among DARPA's ambitious plans, they state that, within the LongShot program, the engineering team is going to construct and launch a demo version of a wholescale air-launched platform. This will enable the customers to observe the system's regulated flight features before, during, and after activating weapons.

What else is great about DARPA's UAV? The last will not only suggest a method to hit targets from a longer range, but it will blast missiles far closer to the goals. Taking into account that missile distances and tech specs keep improving yearly, the engineers find it essential to optimize the diapason and agility. Additionally, they should find out how to enhance autonomous flying systems to resist such achievements.

Though this was not specifically identified in DARPA's representation of the solution, the UAV will make it possible for a single launching aircraft to work from more than three (!) vectors at once. This makes it a challenge for rivals to stay alive during an attack.

When users locate air-to-air missiles closer to the opponent, it, in a matter of seconds, decreases reaction time, optimizes flight energy, and enhances the likelihood of kill. Sounds brilliant, agree?

As far as the UAV within the LongShot program is considered an ulterior construction that is difficult to track from the very beginning and can be easily directed towards the target location via an outside platform, there is a low probability of hijacking data links. Moreover, that guarantees a greater chance of the system productively reflecting threats.

Implementing a specific data link (with no LPD/LPI), for instance, quite a widespread Link 16 waveform, that moves into "only take" mode during a certain moment in the flight, the engineering team managed to make the system get "calm" in a less complicated method in the electromagnetic spectrum. As far as this drone possesses extremely reliable networking features, it doesn't require having any sophisticated sensors to detect as well as hit targets.

On the concept drawings, they may see a droppable panel, which hides the internal weaponry of the LongShot program until the launch time. That makes it possible to keep the autonomous vehicle in its most discreet regime until the last minute.