US Air Force Seeking Drone Game-Changer

US Air Force Seeking Drone Game-Changer

drone
An MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle flies over the crowd during the Aviation Nation Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Nov. 10. This year's show commemorated 60 years of air power during the Air Force's year-long 60th anniversary celebration. (U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Robert W. Valenca)

This post is also available in: heעברית (Hebrew)

The U.S. Air Force is seeking drones that can be refueled in midair, by other drones. Currently, the drone must interrupt its mission to return to base, or a manned tanker aircraft will have to fly to where the drone is to refuel it. But since the whole reason for drones is to keep humans out of harm’s way, sending a tanker and its fighter escorts into hostile airspace to fill up a drone defeats the purpose.

The U.S. Navy has already demonstrated that its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft could be refueled by a manned tanker. Now, a new Air Force research proposal is calling for drones to refuel drones. The proposal, titled “Aerial Refueling of UAVs”, is aimed at developing a better way for air-to-air refueling of Class 4 and Class 5 UAVs, which comprise the larger drones such as the Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper.

“In order to maximize potential on-station capability, it is desirable to minimize the distance the UAV must travel in order to reach the refueling orbit,” an Air Force source told nationalinterest.org. “Since many military UAVs operate inside hostile territory, bringing a large manned tanker into this arena is problematic. Because of this, an unmanned, automated tanker could be a potential solution.”

Regardless of whether the flying gas station is manned or unmanned, refueling drones in flight presents new challenges. The Air Force cites five:

the two aircraft have to avoid collisions, they have to know each other’s exact position if those collisions are to be avoided, the tanker or UAV must be able to react quickly if a problem arises, refueling must be possible at night and in bad weather, and the refueling hardware must be lightweight.

Unmanned aircraft also tend to fly a bit slower than their piloted counterparts. While manned aircraft might refuel at a speed of around 250 knots, the Air Force wants a system that can refuel drones flying at a maximum speed of 130 knots.

As long-endurance drones become more numerous, they will tax scare manned tanker resources. So delegating refueling to other drones makes sense. How will the technology will work remains to be seen. One has to realize that If the concept works, drones will take on an even more prominent role over the battlefield.