The US Air Force Command, under the Skyborg program, has signed a contract with four companies to supply relatively inexpensive drones that will become unmanned wingmen for F-22 and F-35 fighters, which will significantly expand their combat capabilities.
The Pentagon has been talking about such slave drones for almost 10 years. True, we managed to do something during this time - in particular, to create deck unmanned tankers for the Navy. However, the bulk of the UAVs continue to perform support functions for surveillance, reconnaissance and targeted air support. Among them are the famous General Atomics Predator and Reaper .
It is assumed that the slave drones will fly under the control of artificial intelligence in conjunction with the crews of manned fighters. The US Air Force relies heavily on them, as they cost significantly less than the expensive F-22 and F-35. Under the terms of the program, the drones will be equipped with modern weapons systems.
The Skyborg project was attended by Boeing, General Atomics, Northrop Grumman and Kratos, which already have experience in the development of subsonic jet drones: a deck unmanned tanker and a drone for the Australian Air Force, the Triton maritime patrol drone, the X-47 and XQ-58 Valkyrie UAVs .
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