The Heron TP drone comes with a double wingspan, which has been developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It is a Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for all-weather strategic missions. The armed Heron TP drones are an upgraded version of the original Heron...
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this is huge project India deploying armed israeli drones in ladakh and line of control.
this is,separate to the 3 billion deal.for armed reaper drones
India standoff weapons strike and surveillance is going thru the roof
some thing every day
this is open stuff there must be more top secret deployment we don't even know about
ladakh issue has indian military overdrive for fighting s future war with unmanned precision strike weapons from long ranges
Aoa, being serious for a bit, is it not time we build an air defense drone, we could use the f-86 saber as template or my personal favorite build a single engines version of the f-15 that is capable of short take off and landing, has a radar, IRST and can carry- 4-6 pl-10e or maybe sd-10 if we can accommodate a larger engine We would call it the “Pathan. the Pathan would be
-50 -60% the size of the original f-15 but would only have one engine
- the engine can be a larger thrust ducted fans these could take it close to Mach 0.9 here a small engine would be used to power the system and charge batteries giving it a 6-8 hour flight time. The skin can be made of balsa with a carbon fiber skin . A lighter skin can be used if the sonic shockwave is not to be contended with.
-we design a high by pass jet engine capable of propelling this to Mach 1.5 the body would have to be aluminum alloy . All the engineering universities in paksitan can be given the parts of the engine as a project for budding engineers as a final project see what comes out ?
- the unit will need to be able to carry a payload of 1500-2000 kg this includes the radar, sensors fuel and wepons.
This could be operated in the following modes
- autonomous with IFF , here the awacs or other fighter designate targets and the Pathan prosecutes on its own
- guided from the ground would reduce the range to 1000 kms
- semi guided , ground flies into position designates a target and the Pathan takes on the final prosecution
so here is where this could be very useful.
- it could fly high and conduct bvr operations without ever the need to go hot and cold , it could direct other a2a weapons fired by manned PAF assets
- it would provide a tactical picture
- it would be low cost and would force the other side to waste expensive ammunition on the pathan
- it would be a nightmare for IAF drones
Thoughts
k
