Gen. Michael Moseley acknowledges that he is a fan of unmanned combat air vehicles, but he does not see them replacing fighters in the air-to-air role for quite some time. However, the Air Force Chief of Staff told defense reporters, “I do see UCAVs that can penetrate a fifth-generation weapons array” in the not-too-distant future. The threat he described is that posed by an air defense system employing so-called “double-digit” surface-to-air radars and missiles. Moseley likes UCAVs because they can stay on station a long time. The only limiting factor in a UCAV’s dwell time is the oil in its engine, a restriction easily solved by adding a bigger oil reservoir, he said.
The Air Force has awarded multimillion contracts to two industry teams to design small prototype engines for the service’s future Collaborative Combat Aircraft, according to Feb. 23 announcements.
