its like the movie "money ball" but for the development of a military team an airforce you can store in the shed and bring it out when you need it, with almost no holding cost. No pilots to pay, no training, no wear and tear on platforms……the cost saving just go on and on. You can use one plane to develop the AI and then upgrade thousands of platforms sitting in a shed over wifi. Every plane performing at the same level, no inexperienced pilots.
How will China perform grey zone warfare against a drone? China: your plane shot down our plane ADF: yeah, sorry about that, its programmed to defend itself……… can you explain what your pilot did?
Don’t have time to watch it all now but so far so good.
I would say manned 7th gen fighter are a waste of time. Manned aircraft will be useful, just not in fighter form. You want the aircraft with humans in to be the least discoverable as possible. So a single seat small b2/b21 would be much better. Then it can be supported by less stealthy drones as the fighter back up. The stealth manned aircraft is there as a decision maker, should the link from drones to base is lost through jamming. If the link between manned and unmanned is lost the the ai would manurer them into close enough range for alternative data transmission. Ultimately there will be a day when the ai will auto attack. It’s almost inevitable.
2Hrs! Wow! But enjoyed every minute. I'm still surprised at Australia's reluctance regarding light carriers. A Queen Elizabeth or CVX carrier would seem to be an outright necessity to an island nation.
Scaling up the ghost bat is a good idea, but I suspect that it would then have to compete with American drone platforms, which by the next half dozen years will likely be in mass production and offer lower cost. It's still arguably more important to maintain Australian production and technical expertise, but the lower cost may be enough for political classes to toss the upscaling program aside It wouldn't be a shame if Australia were to lose this potential indigenous capability
Australia's very restrictive Rules of Engagement – forcing human launch of weapons and making armed drones impossible – will probably completely waste this plane…. it'll only ever be ab ISR platform.
Ghost Bat letting our small air force/military punch above it's weight despite our small population is huge. Exciting times: we should take advantage of our highly technical and rich population, in collaboration with our allies. I'm also aware of similar projects the Navy is doing with drone boat swarms 🙂
The interesting thing will be the use of Terahertz comms, which the THz Gap has now recently seen a huge leap forward. Will allow for incredibly high bandwidth and incredibly low latency for LOS data links, and in a way that near-peer adversaries simply don't have the EWAR capabilities to disrupt right now.
I love your work mate, so let me say first, hope you had a good silly season & thanks for not dumbing down your presentations.
Given how little information Boeing released about MQ-28's specifications, I was shocked at the low price of the MQ-28! It's fantastic! All that built in Brisbane, for only a few million! As you say, it gives us the opportunity to learn so much about how to do UCAV operations, their real world performance, improving the AI models etc that is invaluable IP to have at this point in the century. For that reason alone, I would like to see greater investment in their production facilities. Ideally we need every branch, particularly the RAAF & RAN, learning what these systems can do for them.
My dream aircraft for Australia would be a long range, medium bomber sized UCAV. Something we can send 2,000 NM with a belly full of LRASM or JASSM-ER. It wouldn't be supersonic or as stealth as B-21, but it would be able to perform long range ISR, strike & ASu missions.
We've bumped heads over F-35B for the RAN before, as I'm against it on cost grounds. I definitely think naval aviation would be outstanding for us, for all the reasons you mentioned & more. However I'm of the uncommon opinion that a cheaper manned aircraft would be ideal for the RAN. Something like a capable of long endurance light/medium strike aircraft. Ideally a COTS navalised advanced trainer or light strike aircraft. It would have an AESA, visual & IR sensors, 2 crew, & the capability to fulfil many roles for the naval task force. e.g. I'd happily see such an aircraft with Mk-46's & a pod to drop sonar buoys.
I love the MQ-28 for the Canberra. However I am not as optimistic as you about the cost & complexity of outfitting the class for fixed wing aviation. I wish the RAN weren't so stubborn about it when we were getting them built. Due to the extra weight the strengthened gear, airframe & hook entails, I'm not as optimistic about the ease of making a carrier capable MQ-28. I would sure love to hear that Boeing were seriously investigating it though as it's a capability we could always find customers for.
You still need a decision maker and intuitive thinker far enough forward in order to understand what is going on. He might be in a stealth fighter and directing mobs of drones what to kill while having the means to defend himself.
– Domestic Amphibious LAV (should've been built by subsidised Holden but that's long gone),
– Catalina Sea Plane domestic supply chain.
– PT boat domestic supply chain.
– long range missiles & missile shield.
– They need to forget these large one off orders and focus on domestic industrial manufacturing and supply chains with staff retention to establish a skills base.
We need a bigger defense force. We need to understand this as a country. We have been resting on our Laural's for way to long. These aircraft should be controlled by a copilot. Leaving a pilot to do his job. We don't have anything for this. It would be like a stranger game on a PC
Australia doesn’t need its own Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier. Might not need a Queen Elisabeth-class carrier. But something like the size of the Japanese Izumo-class carrier. Able to carry up to 12+ F-35B aircraft.
As for procurement of future NGAD and/or B-21 Raiders. I highly doubt US Congress would allow exportations. Just like the ban of the sale of F-22 Raptors.
Another outstanding and very well researched article. Thanks so much for your efforts. Let's hope some decision makers in the ADF and government are watching…
My son is an Army Cadet and I have made all of your videos part of his summer study program.
Wow – how valuable would those MQ-28B’s be though!
This is quite entertaining as well as informative…perhaps the blue bottle also deserves a little investigation
BABE, WAKE UP! HYPOHYSTERICALHISTORY JUST UPLOADED!
Wait… Boeing Australia is the Australian division of Boeing? I'm shocked
its like the movie "money ball" but for the development of a military team
an airforce you can store in the shed and bring it out when you need it, with almost no holding cost. No pilots to pay, no training, no wear and tear on platforms……the cost saving just go on and on. You can use one plane to develop the AI and then upgrade thousands of platforms sitting in a shed over wifi.
Every plane performing at the same level, no inexperienced pilots.
How will China perform grey zone warfare against a drone?
China: your plane shot down our plane
ADF: yeah, sorry about that, its programmed to defend itself……… can you explain what your pilot did?
Canadian military cries after looking at Aussie military capabilities.
Don’t have time to watch it all now but so far so good.
I would say manned 7th gen fighter are a waste of time. Manned aircraft will be useful, just not in fighter form. You want the aircraft with humans in to be the least discoverable as possible. So a single seat small b2/b21 would be much better. Then it can be supported by less stealthy drones as the fighter back up. The stealth manned aircraft is there as a decision maker, should the link from drones to base is lost through jamming. If the link between manned and unmanned is lost the the ai would manurer them into close enough range for alternative data transmission. Ultimately there will be a day when the ai will auto attack. It’s almost inevitable.
2Hrs! Wow! But enjoyed every minute. I'm still surprised at Australia's reluctance regarding light carriers. A Queen Elizabeth or CVX carrier would seem to be an outright necessity to an island nation.
Scaling up the ghost bat is a good idea, but I suspect that it would then have to compete with American drone platforms, which by the next half dozen years will likely be in mass production and offer lower cost. It's still arguably more important to maintain Australian production and technical expertise, but the lower cost may be enough for political classes to toss the upscaling program aside
It wouldn't be a shame if Australia were to lose this potential indigenous capability
Australia's very restrictive Rules of Engagement – forcing human launch of weapons and making armed drones impossible – will probably completely waste this plane…. it'll only ever be ab ISR platform.
Ghost Bat letting our small air force/military punch above it's weight despite our small population is huge. Exciting times: we should take advantage of our highly technical and rich population, in collaboration with our allies. I'm also aware of similar projects the Navy is doing with drone boat swarms 🙂
The interesting thing will be the use of Terahertz comms, which the THz Gap has now recently seen a huge leap forward. Will allow for incredibly high bandwidth and incredibly low latency for LOS data links, and in a way that near-peer adversaries simply don't have the EWAR capabilities to disrupt right now.
I love your work mate, so let me say first, hope you had a good silly season & thanks for not dumbing down your presentations.
Given how little information Boeing released about MQ-28's specifications, I was shocked at the low price of the MQ-28! It's fantastic! All that built in Brisbane, for only a few million! As you say, it gives us the opportunity to learn so much about how to do UCAV operations, their real world performance, improving the AI models etc that is invaluable IP to have at this point in the century. For that reason alone, I would like to see greater investment in their production facilities. Ideally we need every branch, particularly the RAAF & RAN, learning what these systems can do for them.
My dream aircraft for Australia would be a long range, medium bomber sized UCAV. Something we can send 2,000 NM with a belly full of LRASM or JASSM-ER. It wouldn't be supersonic or as stealth as B-21, but it would be able to perform long range ISR, strike & ASu missions.
We've bumped heads over F-35B for the RAN before, as I'm against it on cost grounds. I definitely think naval aviation would be outstanding for us, for all the reasons you mentioned & more. However I'm of the uncommon opinion that a cheaper manned aircraft would be ideal for the RAN. Something like a capable of long endurance light/medium strike aircraft. Ideally a COTS navalised advanced trainer or light strike aircraft. It would have an AESA, visual & IR sensors, 2 crew, & the capability to fulfil many roles for the naval task force. e.g. I'd happily see such an aircraft with Mk-46's & a pod to drop sonar buoys.
I love the MQ-28 for the Canberra. However I am not as optimistic as you about the cost & complexity of outfitting the class for fixed wing aviation. I wish the RAN weren't so stubborn about it when we were getting them built. Due to the extra weight the strengthened gear, airframe & hook entails, I'm not as optimistic about the ease of making a carrier capable MQ-28. I would sure love to hear that Boeing were seriously investigating it though as it's a capability we could always find customers for.
Some Aussies pumping out quality military content recently.
👍👍👍❤❤❤
The problem with flying really fast on low altitudes is the friction created by the air. The airplane melts.
I have no military knowledge, this high quality essay gives me sufficient confidence that Australia's defence is well addressed. Thanks
VMFA-323! That is what is on the tail of that F-18 flying with the F_111.
So these are the assholes I was shooting down in Ace Combat
You still need a decision maker and intuitive thinker far enough forward in order to understand what is going on. He might be in a stealth fighter and directing mobs of drones what to kill while having the means to defend himself.
Convinced me. Well presented.
– Domestic Amphibious LAV (should've been built by subsidised Holden but that's long gone),
– Catalina Sea Plane domestic supply chain.
– PT boat domestic supply chain.
– long range missiles & missile shield.
– They need to forget these large one off orders and focus on domestic industrial manufacturing and supply chains with staff retention to establish a skills base.
– Networked Drones / Cheap Maneuverable drone swarm shield & amphibious HIMAR.
– Develop a better relationship with SpaceX and push for sister Space-Port in Oz using beneficial tax agreement and subsidy.
– Only 'easy' if Australia secures semi-conductors which it currently has not,
– Honestly, the cheapest solution is to just pack standard hollowed out jumbo jets and decommissioned cruise ships with long range missiles.
– God knows why we just bought a bunch of main battle tanks…on an island south of an archipelago.
– Run these as joint projects with Japan.
We need a bigger defense force. We need to understand this as a country. We have been resting on our Laural's for way to long. These aircraft should be controlled by a copilot. Leaving a pilot to do his job. We don't have anything for this. It would be like a stranger game on a PC
Iran is already converting cargo ships into drone carriers so skynet here we come! (See video by channel "What's going on with shipping?")
Australia doesn’t need its own Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier. Might not need a Queen Elisabeth-class carrier. But something like the size of the Japanese Izumo-class carrier. Able to carry up to 12+ F-35B aircraft.
As for procurement of future NGAD and/or B-21 Raiders. I highly doubt US Congress would allow exportations. Just like the ban of the sale of F-22 Raptors.
Another outstanding and very well researched article. Thanks so much for your efforts. Let's hope some decision makers in the ADF and government are watching…
Can't help but wonder what happened to the window at the THALES building at 23:50, bird fly into it lol?
Impressive. Your exemplary insight and critical no bullshit analysis makes this one of the most intelligent stategic analyses ive witnessed ,