April 30, 2004
UAV on bombing runs
The Department of Defense has a long term vision that within 25 years, they would like something in the neighborhood of 25-40% of the vehicles that they use to be robotic. This increases something that they refer to as the tooth-to-tail ratio. Anyway, though it is a very long way off from being combat ready, it does represent a very interesting development. Here, the Boeing UAV drops a small bomb on a practice target.
Posted by elkaim at April 30, 2004 8:18 PMUnder human supervision but without human piloting, a prototype of the Boeing Co.'s X-45 took off from the desert base, opened its bomb bay doors, dropped a 250-pound Small Smart Bomb and then landed.
The inert bomb struck within inches of the truck it was supposed to hit, Boeing said, adding that had the bomb contained explosives, the target would have been destroyed.