Navy details a huge unmanned aerial vehicle program

[The Straight Story]

Navy details a huge unmanned aerial vehicle program

From CongressDaily
The Navy Wednesday gave a large audience of defense contractors details on what might be a multibillion dollar contract for an unmanned air reconnaissance system that would require scores of sophisticated flying drones, an array of high-technology sensors and communications systems and the associated ground control and data-receiving stations.

snip

The Navy program requires a large unmanned aircraft capable of flying 2,000 nautical miles each way. It must remain at its destination for at least 24 hours while surveying large areas of open ocean or coastal areas with state-of-the-art sensors that relay intelligence to both land-based command posts half a world away and to Navy task forces operating nearby, Massenburg and the other officials explained. BAMS also might fill in as a communications relay asset, they said.

snip

That clearly would require dozens of aircraft and associated systems that might cost more than $50 million each.

And the officials stressed that the program has attracted interest from at least nine foreign nations, which might increase the size of the contract.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=34109&dcn=todaysnews

[Sammy Pepys]

1. This has been going on for a couple of years now...

Lots of contractors out there have been working on software platforms and such for programs like these for a few years now.

[acmejack]

4. Have you seen the RFP?

A blimp can do that if you can wait a couple of days for it to get there.
edit, point being P3 replacement or E2 or just evolution?

[acmejack]

5. I guess that it would be classified

Especially nowadays!

[MadHound]

2. Coming soon to a sky near you

We're already having UAVs do patrols on the Mexican border<http://flag.blackened.net/pipermail/infoshop-news/2004-March/003601.html>, and there are several hints out there that these UAVs are doing flights over the US. It's only a matter of time before these sorts of missions become "routine" and we'll simply continue to slide down that slope towards a fascist police state.

[MercutioATC]

3. UAV+Metalstorm= One hell of a military package.

www.metalstorm.com