Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates
A Growler carries those electronic warfare systems on the hardpoints which it would carry LRASM...
But Growler will certainly be supporting anti-ship missile strikes with it’s EW capability.
thatsamguy
Member
100th flight for MQ-28A Ghost Bat, and now preparing for an air-to-air missile test later this year or early next year.
Exciting to see that the development roadmap extends into the future even if the focus in the recent times has been around the ISR packages and the mission systems.
Exciting to see that the development roadmap extends into the future even if the focus in the recent times has been around the ISR packages and the mission systems.
It looks small in that image. I wonder why they don’t build the aircraft around a weapons bay that’s big enough to carry a broad range of weapons internally eg 2 x LRASM. By building around the weapons bay, the engine and the right sized fuel tank surely that delivers the capability and range we need?
Boeing winning the NGAD program should give the Ghost Bat a boost. Boeing is also big chance of winning the USN F/A-XX decision which is apparently days away. Add to that Japanese interest in this aircraft and you would have to say its future is looking pretty bright.
Australia timed its involvement with Ghost Bat pretty well and now has a reasonably mature platform at a time when everybody is looking at getting this sort of capability into service ASAP.
Just a thought. LRASMs are very expensive. Being standoff weapons reduces the risk to the aircraft firing them but we are talking about unmanned drones here and risk is not such a big issue. Drones such as Ghost Bat would perhaps be better using weapons such as glide bombs. They are cheap, deadly and unjammable.
Meanwhile Anduril is trying to lure Australia away from the Ghost Bat. Probably not a bad thing to give Boeing some competition although Australia has already invested quite a bit into the Ghost Bat. At last count Australia has spent or allocated around a billion dollars for Ghost Bat.
breakingdefense.com
Anduril's Fury hopes to woo Australia away from Boeing's Ghost Bat - Breaking Defense
Anduril has held talks with other countries in the region, executive David Goodrich said in an interview, but Australia is clearly a prime target.
breakingdefense.com
Re Anduril.
Dunno if it’s been mentioned here previously, but perhaps this might be a good cheap adjunct to bulk up and compliment LRASM war stocks?
nationalinterest.org
Dunno if it’s been mentioned here previously, but perhaps this might be a good cheap adjunct to bulk up and compliment LRASM war stocks?
New Barracuda Missiles: A Game-Changer in U.S. Air Military Strategy?
Summary and Key Points: Anduril Industries has unveiled its new Barracuda family of cruise missiles, designed to address the U.S. military’s cruise missile shortage. With three variants—Barracuda-M 100, 250, and 500—the missiles offer advanced capabilities at lower costs, thanks to Anduril’s...
nationalinterest.org
Apparently Ukraine has introduced something to jam glide bombs
Ukraine Has Been Jamming Russian Glide Bombs. Now We Know How.
Owing to sophisticated jamming, it now takes up to 16 glide bombs to hit one target.
www.forbes.com
Ghost Bat is Cheap compared to a F35 or F18 yes but still looking at $10-$15 mil a copy. Not exactly expendable.
Don't normally venture into the RAAF realm but saw this article and was a bit puzzled by it. I'm not sure what program this acquisition came from and for that matter does anyone know what's happening with MC-55A Peregrine. Haven't heard a peep about it since the photos of the "prototype" came out.
www.defenceconnect.com.au
Bombardier Defense to deliver 2 ISR aircraft for Australian ops
Bombardier Defense has announced that Principle Finance, a leading provider of customised operating leases for aircraft in Australia, has acquired two Bombardier Challenger 650 jets earmarked for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
www.defenceconnect.com.au
John Fedup
The Bunker Group
This would seem to be additional ISR capability. The MC-55A is still on and it is both a ISR and EW platform.Don't normally venture into the RAAF realm but saw this article and was a bit puzzled by it. I'm not sure what program this acquisition came from and for that matter does anyone know what's happening with MC-55A Peregrine. Haven't heard a peep about it since the photos of the "prototype" came out.
Bombardier Defense to deliver 2 ISR aircraft for Australian ops
Bombardier Defense has announced that Principle Finance, a leading provider of customised operating leases for aircraft in Australia, has acquired two Bombardier Challenger 650 jets earmarked for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Yesterday, it was reported that the first MC-55 will be delivered to the RAAF this year.
First MC-55A Peregrine Expected for Delivery to Australia in 2025
And Italy's buying some similarly equipped G550s (JAMMS) also converted by L3Harris, as well as more AEW G550s & a couple in a different configuration: 10, altogether, including the AEW ones already in service.
The Italians bought some basic G550s for conversion just before they went out of production. Common fleet makes sense.
First MC-55A Peregrine Expected for Delivery to Australia in 2025
And Italy's buying some similarly equipped G550s (JAMMS) also converted by L3Harris, as well as more AEW G550s & a couple in a different configuration: 10, altogether, including the AEW ones already in service.
The Italians bought some basic G550s for conversion just before they went out of production. Common fleet makes sense.
MARKMILES77
Well-Known Member
Possibly for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority?Don't normally venture into the RAAF realm but saw this article and was a bit puzzled by it. I'm not sure what program this acquisition came from and for that matter does anyone know what's happening with MC-55A Peregrine. Haven't heard a peep about it since the photos of the "prototype" came out.
Bombardier Defense to deliver 2 ISR aircraft for Australian ops
Bombardier Defense has announced that Principle Finance, a leading provider of customised operating leases for aircraft in Australia, has acquired two Bombardier Challenger 650 jets earmarked for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
Challenger aircraft | Australian Maritime Safety Authority
We have four Bombardier Challenger 604 jet aircraft for search and rescue. The Challengers are based out of Perth, Melbourne and Cairns.
Or maybe for Border Force?
The ghost bat is a relatively small drone. Its load capacity is not a lot, I think about 500kg. I doubt it would have the lifting capsctity for a LRASM which is about 1200kg per unit.
We would need a bigger ghost bat to be able to perform as a weapons platform
LRASM is a big heavy weapon with long range. It's basically a drone itself. Particularly if you want a stealthy internal carry.
Building a 30-50t drone platform, it might as well be manned.
LRASM has a 455kg payload and is $3.5m USD per shot. LRASM has the same weapons payload as a whole ghost bat. If you attached it to the Ghost bat, would the ghostbat be the payload for the LRASM?
These smaller platforms would be great with SDB-II stormbreaker, Spear3, hellfires and air to air loads. That is still a heck of alot of missions it can do either fairly autonomously or in support of manned platforms. Then purely as a sensor platform, or for decoys.
The future of the Ghost Bat seems a little cloudy at the moment. As things stand the RAAF will be getting back to the government latter this year with its recommendations on the CCA. The idea of testing Air-to-Air missiles with the Ghost Bat seems to be more of a Boeing initiative. The RAAF is yet to really layout what is required of this aircraft. Until then just about everything about the Ghost Bat is speculation.
The Ghost Bat really isn't suitable as a strike platform. It is just too small to carry a significant weapons loadout. Even fitting Air-to-Air missiles may be pretty meaningless, unless the MQ-28 is also going to be fitted with a fairly sophisticated radar and other advanced sensors. You may well be able to build a CCA for a fraction of the cost of an F-35 but you will get what you pay for. If you want an air-to-air or strike variant then be prepared to pay for it.
It should be noted that the reason Lockheed Martin, and I suspect Boeing, missed out on the USAF CCA program was that they exceeded the specs for what was supposed to be a low cost attritable drone. This was only for the first increment of drones however. Things will change with the second increment where they may be looking for long range, stealther, drones to escort aircraft such as the B-21 and NGADs. Kind of understandable now why Boeing wants to arm the Ghost Bat with Air-to-Air missiles. Boeing winning the NGAD program is pretty good for Australia since it now appears that Boeing or the US will be picking up the tab for adding air-to-air capability to the Ghost Bat.
The Ghost Bat really isn't suitable as a strike platform. It is just too small to carry a significant weapons loadout. Even fitting Air-to-Air missiles may be pretty meaningless, unless the MQ-28 is also going to be fitted with a fairly sophisticated radar and other advanced sensors. You may well be able to build a CCA for a fraction of the cost of an F-35 but you will get what you pay for. If you want an air-to-air or strike variant then be prepared to pay for it.
It should be noted that the reason Lockheed Martin, and I suspect Boeing, missed out on the USAF CCA program was that they exceeded the specs for what was supposed to be a low cost attritable drone. This was only for the first increment of drones however. Things will change with the second increment where they may be looking for long range, stealther, drones to escort aircraft such as the B-21 and NGADs. Kind of understandable now why Boeing wants to arm the Ghost Bat with Air-to-Air missiles. Boeing winning the NGAD program is pretty good for Australia since it now appears that Boeing or the US will be picking up the tab for adding air-to-air capability to the Ghost Bat.
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Isn't the whole point of the Ghost Bat its ability to operate as part of a network of systems?
In such circumstances, the fairly sophisticated radar and other advanced sensors will be supplied by other platforms in the network.
Targeting information can then be relayed to the drone which acts as the shooter.
MB