Good to see a combat version of the ghost bat now in development. Its still very lightly armed with only 2 AIM120s but that is still a dangerous platform. I wonder if the gen III will get an upgraded engine to go with the larger frame.
Might have to wait for the fourth generation for something with a strike capability and able to hold a JSM.
Seems a suprisingly fast turn around for the Government who only a few months ago had a published position of focusing on ISR.
Now that the ghost bat is getting bigger, I wonder if a version of the ghost bat could be a tanker. The Stingray from what I've read is very expensive, upwards of $150 m per unit, whereas the ghost bat has a build cost (excluding R&D) of apparently in the order of $20 m.
Might have to wait for the fourth generation for something with a strike capability and able to hold a JSM.
Seems a suprisingly fast turn around for the Government who only a few months ago had a published position of focusing on ISR.
Now that the ghost bat is getting bigger, I wonder if a version of the ghost bat could be a tanker. The Stingray from what I've read is very expensive, upwards of $150 m per unit, whereas the ghost bat has a build cost (excluding R&D) of apparently in the order of $20 m.