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 Skunk Works Digest       Wednesday, 7 February 1996     Volume 05 : Number 615
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 From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl <schnars@ais.org
 Date: Tue, 6 Feb 1996 03:40:26 -0500 (EST)
 Subject: News about Groom Lake
 
 To get away from the word jousting and name calling, here is something really 
 interesting to the Skunk Works List.
 
 The latest Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST), from February 5, 1996, 
 has two very skunky articles on pages 26-28. I am a little bit behind with my 
 AW&ST summaries, but I think, this one can't wait:
 
 The headlines are: "GROOM LAKE TESTS TARGET STEALTH", pages 26-27, and 
 "PILOTS TO LEAVE COCKPIT IN FUTURE AIR FORCE", pages 26-28.
 
 The first article confirms rumors about two or more new stealth aircraft 
 being tested at Groom Lake. One is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) the other 
 is an aircraft, which can fly manned or unmanned. At least the UAV has 
 apparently already flown, while the other will incorporate "Smart Skin" 
 properties. These include the ability to attenuate radar reflections better 
 than current Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM), as well as the ability to 
 change its color, to blend in with the background. It also incorporates 
 infrared signature limiting technology. The aim is for an "invisible air 
 vehicle" (in the radar, infrared and visual spectrum), which can operate 
 unimpeded day or night. AW&ST also mentions drag reduction by electrostatic 
 fields, again.
 
 Both vehicles have hard points for weapons, but because the current US combat 
 rules do not allow UAVs to drop bombs or fire missiles, at least the second 
 aircraft could fly manned attack missions, besides unmanned reconnaissance or 
 targeting missions.
 
 To make an aircraft truly invisible, the USAF would need to perfect the 
 ability to repeat and reverse radar signals, and further improve infrared 
 signature reductions.
 
 [Besides those two fixed-wing USAF stealth aircraft, it is also rumored that 
 a British stealth aircraft and at least one stealth helicopter is currently 
 tested at Groom Lake.]
 
 The second article (and parts of the first) deal with the "New World Vistas" 
 report, which highlights the technological advances, expected to be used by 
 the USAF in the next 30 years (1995 to 2025).
 
 The possible high-tech weapons listed in a year-long study released by the 
 service are so advanced that special training would be essential to make sure 
 humans are not overwhelmed by science. "The keyboard and the mouse are simply 
 not adequate for the 21st Century," said Gene McCall of Los Alamos National 
 Laboratory (LANL), chief of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Some of 
 the technologies, sketched out in the 15-volume report:
 
 * Use of unmanned aircraft to do more than the spy missions they perform now; 
   Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) and Uninhabited Reconnaissance 
   Aerial Vehicles (URAV), able to out-maneuver missiles at 15-20 g, flying at 
   speeds of Mach 12-15 and operating at altitudes of 85,000-125,000 ft.
 
   Guided from control centers inside the United States or from aircraft like 
   E-3 AWACS or E-8 J-STARS (and their follow-ons), robot planes could roam 
   the world with laser or other high-energy/microwave weapons to destroy 
   ground and air targets. Although it goes against the grain of traditional 
   Air Force people, the idea of pilotless combat aircraft has inherent 
   advantages over manned warplanes. Unmanned craft could be more survivable, 
   for starters. Shape and function need not be constrained by a cockpit, a 
   human body or an ejection seat. 
   
   Gene McCall, who directed the "Vistas" project, told a Pentagon news 
   conference an unmanned strike plane could be designed to accelerate and 
   maneuver at 20 times the force of gravity, or double what a pilot can 
   withstand. With such speed of maneuver the unmanned plane could simply 
   outfly a hostile missile, McCall said. An unmanned bomber or fighter also 
   could be stealthier. The plane could be perfectly flat on the bottom, 
   reducing vulnerability to radar detection. The landing gear could be on top 
   rather than on the bottom, and a simple rollover maneuver -- impossible 
   with a human in the cockpit -- would put it in landing position. 
 
   Small versions of the unmanned combat plane could be carried aboard and 
   launched from large conventional aircraft -- giving them truly global 
   reach. For all its promise, remotely piloted combat planes aren't likely to 
   enter the Air Force for another 20 years or so, McCall said. Even then, 
   pilots will not become extinct. "I don't think we're ever going to replace 
   completely the manned aircraft," he said. 
 
   The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) is working on a modification 
   program for F-16s, to enable autonomous flight and auto-landing capability.
   Other options include an F-117-like delta-wing design without a cockpit, 
   but with a blended surface fuselage, instead of flat planes. [A sketch of 
   this design is included, which might also be a candidate for the "A-17".]
 
 * Hypersonic fighters and UCAVs could soar into battle at 12 to 15 times the 
   speed of sound, enabling the USAF to reach high value targets anywhere in 
   the world in minutes. Hypersonic UAVs would cut costs dramatically and give 
   better performance. Crucial to their development would be advanced dual-
   mode ramjet/scramjet engines and high-temperature, lightweight materials, 
   allowing for long-range, long-endurance, high-altitude supercruise flight.
 
 * Stealth will have to be pushed to a new plateau -- the multispectral 
   approach would encompass capturing, repeating and reversing enemy radar 
   signals, further reducing the infrared signatures and making the aircraft 
   invisible in the visual spectrum. [Considering the difficulties encountered 
   with relatively slow sound waves, the active cancellation of light-speed 
   fast radar signals seems to be quite a feat to me.]
 
 * Mega-lifter with up to 1 million pound gross takeoff weight will be able to 
   deliver cargo within 10 meters of a preselected point at a range of 12,000 
   miles, after dropping them from 20,000 ft. They will be equipped with an 
   all-weather, automatic landing aid, using Differential-Global Positioning 
   System (D-GPS), enabling the pilot to land and taxi with an accuracy of 30 
   centimeters (1 foot) in zero visibility. Those airlifters could also carry 
   UAVs or directed energy weapons like lasers, to be used as survivable 
   offensive weapons platforms in high-thread areas.
 
 * Hypersonic missiles. With on-board links to navigation satellites, they not 
   only will be faster but also more accurate. McCall said a one-second 
   electronic emission from a hostile surface-to-air, or SAM, missile radar 
   would be enough to enable an Air Force plane 200 miles away to strike it 
   within one minute. "We can make the operation of SAM sites the world's most 
   dangerous occupation," McCall said. 
 
 * Precision guided micro-bombs will be able to kill tanks with mere grams of 
   more powerful explosives. Besides being more accurate, munitions will be 
   more powerful, per unit mass, by a factor of 10. Tiny bombs using just 
   grams of explosive could destroy moving targets, even tanks or missile 
   batteries. Natalie Crawford, a RAND defense specialist and chairman of the 
   report's attack panel, said, that aircraft firepower could be increased 100 
   times while reducing the cost for war reserves.
 
 * High-power microwave weapons and Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) generators. 
   These would be used against electronics or computers, not people. McCall 
   said a fighter pilot threatened by a hostile warplane could send microwave 
   signals to confuse his opponent -- perhaps by causing all of the other 
   plane's warning lights and signals to come on. EMP generators were already 
   tested on board of cruise missiles, which were powerful enough to destroy 
   small electro motors and disable auto ignitions.
 
 * Space-based surveillance and reconnaissance is expected to be worldwide, 
   continuous and largely conducted from commercial satellites. A new, highly 
   accurate and jam-resistant GPS system would be available, as well as 
   distributed space-sensors and starring sensors aboard of URAVs, which could 
   continuously monitor important targets with increased resolution.
 
 * Brain-wave guidance of UAVs and other vehicles as well as other advanced 
   human-machine interfaces will be perfected. "Information Munitions" will be 
   developed, to seek out and confuse enemy computers -- the USAF's "Hacker 
   Squadron" (the 609th Information Warfare Squadron (IWS), based at Shaw AFB, 
   SC) is only the beginning. 
 
 * Drugs. Using what the "Vistas" report called "chemical intervention," the 
   endurance and performance of pilots and other Air Force personnel can be 
   enhanced. Chemical and other means can be found to reduce physical and 
   psychological effects of jet lag, for example.
 
 "Let me assure you that this study is not going to sit on the shelf and 
 gather dust. We have already set aside funding for some of these promising 
 new areas of research," Air Force Secretary Sheila Widnall said. 
 
 [Some information was compiled from additional sources like press reports.]
 
 - -- Andreas
 
 - ---                                                                       ---
   Andreas & Kathryn Gehrs-Pahl   E-Mail: schnars@ais.org
   313 West Court St. #305            or: gpahl@raptor.csc.flint.umich.edu
   Flint, MI 48502-1239               
   Tel: (810) 238-8469           WWW URL: http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~schnars/