MILITARY US AIR FORCE 2030
limited timeframe between announcement
and contract award shows the Air Force
considers hypersonic weapons are ready to
transition to operational service. It’s worth
noting that hypersonic weapons have been
in research and development for decades.
The Air Force announcement stressed the
need for rapid fielding of the winning bid.
In addition to using hypersonic weapons,
airpower will need to defend against them.
Progress in hypersonic weapon technology
is also being made by potential adversaries
of the United States, a fact underlined on
June 22, when the House Armed Service
Committee boosted funding in the FY2018
Defense Authorization Bill for three defensive
programmes to counter hypersonic threats.Autonomy
Using directed energy and hypersonic
weapons means the Air Force of 2030 will
also need autonomous systems that integrate
with both manned and unmanned aircraft,
to prevent their pilots, whether on board
or remote, being overwhelmed with data.
Brigadier General Grynkewich said “Autonomy
could drastically reduce human workload
when executing complex tasks in future
operations. For example, autonomy will allow
a network to reconfigure on its own, in real
time, in response to adversary jamming.”
Grynkewich thinks the often-repeated
accusation that the Air Force, run by fighter
pilots, is hostile to autonomy, undercutting the
authority of whoever is sitting in the cockpit,
is inaccurate: “The Air Force has been usingautonomy for years. When I was flying F-16s,
autonomy was at the point when, two miles
away from the enemy, I could fire a heat-
seeking missile at an autonomous wingman
on a kamikaze mission. Rather, in a networked
future, autonomy will mean the ability for an
element – manned or unmanned – to operate
on its own without connection to the rest of
the network.”
Using autonomy to adapt the response of
automatic systems on board an aircraft – based
on the intent and capabilities of the pilot on
a moment-to-moment basis – is the goal of
James Christenson, portfolio manager for theResearch and development funding is contained in the Air Force FY2018 budget request for the Next
Generation Air Dominance programme. This is a concept shot of Boeing’s F-X which could be a possible
contender. BoeingThis Lockheed Martin computer-
generated image shows a laser
striking an unmanned air vehicle,
one of many in a swarm. Just one
use for a directed energy weapon.
Lockheed MartinThis Lockheed Martin image shows operators using a communications and battle management system to detect, track and identify drone threats, before calling
upon a laser weapon system to defeat the threat. Another scenario showing the application of directed energy weapons. Lockheed Martin