The US Air Force plans to employ a good number of low-cost, unmanned “single-use” combat aircraft. They will be sent on missions too dangerous for manned aircraft.
The US Department of Defense representatives have they said that one of the technologies in which they will invest most in 2020 will be that of “low-cost disposable aircraft”: low cost suicide bombers.
It is a strategic choice that comes downstream of some important expense rationalizations that will also affect other fighters. For example, a marked reduction in production costs of the expensive and controversial F-35A Joint Strike Fighter (you know?) and the B-21 bombers (each of which even cost 640 million dollars)
Low cost suicide bombers: dirty work at a fair price
“Single-use” unmanned aerial vehicles will cost much less, however. The Air Force is currently funding the development of theXQ-58a Valkyrie, a versatile unmanned aircraft with a load capacity of 272 kg and a dignified range of 2800 km.
By removing the entire life support system for the pilot (no humans are needed) and the complex instruments (no one looks at them) the cost of these low cost planes (which have a flight autonomy of around 12000 hours) drops to just 3 million dollars.
Not bad, if you think an F-35 costs 89 million dollars.
Here XQ-58a Valkyrie in a video:
An "expendable" and unmanned fighter can do a lot of things: for example, it can act as a "guide dog" to armed drones. Or it can act as bait to track down targets to shoot down, it can fight on his behalf, or it can throw off enemy radars, or even block their communications.
The Air Force is confident that the new "kamikaze" robotic and economical solutions help the agency save tens of millions of dollars without losing sight of its needs.
