It’s doubtful that any platforms dedicated to a sole purpose will survive the tight budgets of the coming years, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said last week at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. “We’re long past the point where we can have single-mission or point-mission capabilities,” said Schwartz, adding that all systems will have to be able to swing from “high-end, general-purpose applications to lower-end, irregular warfare.” Bombers with targeting pods are an example, he said. All platforms will have to become “increasingly versatile,” said Schwartz. He continued, “Your Air Force, if it means anything, means versatility.” (For examples of the versatility that targeting pods give bombers, read B-1B Uses Sniper in Combat and Novel Role for Big Bomber.)
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
