Global Hawk

[psysicx]

Whats scary is there already shooting missles off of them.Huggy do you think that they will ever replace the U-2.

 

[Birdstrike]

You guys are mentioning pulling G's, shooting guns/missiles, and engaging in ACM. No way - that's not what it's designed for. Perhaps some OTHER unmanned vehicle will be designed to do this in coming decades...

I hear ya reference Hawk, but I'm guessing the latest unmanned fighter platforms are already flying under a black budget and are much closer to fielding than decades....

 

[Jafar]

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/x-45-ucav/

That is a lot closer to being a fighter than GH is. X-45 is a weapons delivery platform. As has been stated, GH is a recon and realtime imaging platform. Something tells me we aren't going to see Global Hawks with slammers and JDAM's hanging off the wings, zooming around blowing up Iranian nuke facilities and shooting down North Korean MiG's anytime soon.

That being said, this X-45 program (as well as others) is cultivating unmanned aerial combat technology. So it's coming, yes. It's all pretty primitive at this stage in my opinion. I think we can all agree that the last fighter pilot hasn't even been born yet.

 

[Huggyu2]

Whats scary is there already shooting missles off of them.Huggy do you think that they will ever replace the U-2.

No, they are not shooting missiles off of GH.
No, it will not replace the U-2. Someday, the U-2 will go away. However, GH will not be able to replace it.