Perhaps the most remarkable idea to emerge in the wake of the Afghan campaign is the proposal to use the Boeing (Palmdale, CA) X-45 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) as the airframe for a new generation of support-jamming aircraft. The X-45A demonstrator is an 8,000-lb. empty-weight vehicle that can carry 2,690 lb. of fuel and a 1,500-lb. payload. It will be used as a proof-of-concept vehicle for the larger, production UCAV derived from the X-45B. The X-45B is a scaled-up X-45A airframe, with an empty weight of 14,000 ;b., carrying 5,400 lb. of fuel and a 2,000-lb. payload ― with an intended gross weight above 19,000 lb. The UCAV is about two-thirds the size of a F-16C. The current X-45A/B demonstration program, which achieved first flight on May 22, 2002, had until recently aimed to field a semi-autonomous, highly survivable, stealthy UCAV to be used initially for very high-risk missions such as the suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD). SEAD/DEAD-tasked UCAVs would operate initially individually, and later in mutually supporting packs, under remote control from either a large, manned command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C~3ISR) aircraft ― such as an AWACS, 1STARS, or the future Multi-Mission Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) ― or a distant ground station. Carrying two internal 1,000-lb. GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or twelve internal 250-lb. Small Diameter Bombs, the stealthy UCAVs would penetrate contested airspace to engage and destroy opposing air-defense elements, either in pre-emptive strikes or reactive engagements.
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