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| An MQ-1B Gray Eagle UAS, one of four currently in use at Fort Hood, sits on display at Robert Gray Army Airfield March 6 during a media event held to introduce the newest UAS training program at Fort Hood and mark the platform’s first daytime flight at the installation and 100 incident-free flight hours. Heather Graham-Ashley, Sentinel News Editor |
The future of the Army’s unmanned aeria1 systems program made its Fort Hood debut March 6 with its first daylight flight after years of planning and months of night flights.Interesting.
With oversight from the 21st Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat), Soldiers from Company E, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, conducted the UAS platform’s first day flight at Fort Hood.
Daylight flight was just one of the milestones the UAS met, as that day also marked 100 hours of incident-free flight hours at the installation.
It was a big day, not only for the first unit of Soldiers to train on the new UAS at Fort Hood, but also for the brigade tasked with training them and others on the Gray Eagle platform.
“We are very proud of the events going on with Gray Eagle,” Col. Neil Hersey, commander, 21st Cav. Bde., said. “This is the Army’s newest, most advanced UAS.”
This is the third unit 21st Cav. has trained, but the first that is conducting their training at Fort Hood.
No one is talking about it but you've got to wonder if Army Aviation isn't keeping an eye on the work that the Navy is doing with the X-47B.
Imagine that UAV in Army colors, flying Army missions, under Army control....
If they can have Gray Eagles then why not X-47's?
NOTE: They painted the UAV in grey, why not their helicopters?
That's a great question. It makes sense to paint planes/jets gray. I have never figured out why helicopters don't get the same treatment.
ReplyDeleteI'd imagine it has something to do with operating altitudes, and the era/role that the Apaches were designed in/for.
DeleteYour average large UAV is going to be spending their time at much higher altitude than your average combat helicopter. All of their expected foes (terrorist and insurgent forces) are going to be on the ground, looking up, so the grey paint job helps them blend in with with the sky.
Your average Apache was designed to be down in the weeds, hunting tanks, and at the time they were designed their main threats were going to be mobile AA, SAMs and Russian fighters. The former was going to be seeing the Apache at very low level, pretty much between the trees and hills of Central Europe, and the latter was going to be looking down on the same. Hence the green paint job.
Why it hasn't changed? Couldn't tell you for sure, though I'd wager it has something to do with institutional pride - they don't want to look like the Marine AH-1s.
No the US Army is not looking at the X-47 which is a fighter sized aircraft with a fighter sized jet engine. The MQ-1C has a max take off weight of 3,600lbs and has a 165hp engine. The X-47B is about 45,000lbs and is powered by an F100 with 16,000lbs of dry thrust. Essentially one is akin to a Cessna and the other an F-16.
ReplyDeletei said they were keeping an eye on the work being done. i'm well aware of the differences but i'm also aware of the similarities. quite honestly they're both geared to do the same type of work, the main difference being that one is magnitudes more survivable than the other.
Deletebesides. the gray eagle opens the door to a bigger UAV being procured. the prohibition was on manned aircraft. unmanned is a 'grey' area that so far the army is winning in.
The Army isn't stupid enough to want to operate fighter planes. Look what happened the last time they decided on a new twin engine transport in large part because the USAF wouldn't give them enough C-130 sorties. First the USAF discovers it has a need for those planes as well, joins the program, then takes it over promising to operate all those transports for the Army, then promptly cancels the entire program.
ReplyDeleteThe Army knows nobody is going to take away dollars and force structure from the USAF and transfer that to the Army so trying to operate unmanned fighters in direct competition with the USAF (and USN/USMC) is a non starter on myriad levels.
Sol they're also very different aircraft. One is a cheap slow bird you can only use in permissive environments and the other is 10 to 15 times heavier and is essentially an unmanned low observable fighter. Such aircraft don't operate alone but within a system of systems like an air force. A Predator operates where there is no threat or the threats have been dealt with by an air force.