The Future of Warfare is here

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Everything evolves in the last century at breakneck speed. It took 67 years to go from Wright Brother's first flight to men flying to the moon and walking around on its surface before flying home. In less than half a century, we went from hand crank telephones on a wall that had to go through an operator to talking world-wide on a phone you can carry in your pocket and use while fly-fishing in the Delaware River, miles from the nearest building. Or horseless carriages to self-driving luxury cars; digital music to play anywhere, anytime, and any song at your fingertips; high definition television, etc.

In the last couple of decades, warfare has been on an exponential incline that is nearly straight up on the mathematical graph board. AI, pilotless planes, lasers, outer space vehicles, robots of every type, skeletal framework underneath clothing that can make a man run twice as fast and jump 5 times higher, with perfect balance, etc

With the announcement last week of the start-up of manufacturing of the latest and greatest U.S. fighter plane, the F-47, aerial warfare takes another leap forward. The concept for this plane has been in design for well over a decade, and test flights of various concepts have been flying for more than five years to get the bugs out. The final version was released a couple of weeks ago and winning the contract to build them is Boeing

The figuration is almost the least of the wonders of the plane because of the sophisticated software and AI capabilities. China was amused that Boeing ended up using canards on the plane...as American inventors laughed at China for using canards on their latest and greatest 6th generation fighter. The canards are little separate flaps ahead of the main wings. They rotate and can move up and down. When rotated in opposite directions, the plane can turn on a dime at unheard of speed for such a turn. The main wings are two pieces and the half end of them can swing up or down as well as rotate like the canards, giving the plane incredible turning ability in the case of a dogfight or diversion from a missile. It also has AI capability to take over control of the plane should the pilot pass out from too much G-force (a real possibility during combat)

The only picture released to the public


Artists have compiled what they know, so we get a very clear idea of exactly what the plane looks like


or this


It flies faster than twice the speed of sound, has newly advanced stealth technology so it appears as a speck of dust on a radar screen if at all, and a flight ceiling over 60,000 feet, etc

But that just scratches the surface. Its software is so sophisticated that it communicates with a variety of ships, planes, drones, etc. And with the use of AI, has advanced warning much further than traditional radar, and has anti-radar jamming equipment to black out the radar screens of the enemy in search of the plane. As a huge bonus, if the plane comes under attack, AI can analyze an unlimited number of potential variations in less than a second to take action to subvert the attack and feed that info to the pilot. The pilot on the other hand can let AI take over control of the plane with a flip of a switch because the ultimate actions and reactions of AI far exceed that of a human, using guess work, while under extreme duress

Meanwhile, the plane will travel with a fleet of drones, not unlike the way aircraft carriers surround themselves with a variety of warships. Some which are dedicated to underwater warfare, some for aerial warfare, electrical jamming, laser weapons, etc. Since a carrier cost 13 billion to build, and has about 10 billion dollars worth of planes, its protection is vital





Likewise, the F-47 will fly in a fleet formation with drones that are controlled by the pilot of the F-47 or let AI run them. The drones cannot fly at Mach 2 yet, but they cost a hundredth of the cost of a typical fighter plane and they can be used for diversion tactics or even sacrificed to an incoming SAM to protect the plane.

Some of the drones being tested




Like the mother ship, the drones are being fitted with a variety of weapons as well as laser type guns


The U.S. Navy successfully shot down a missile with a laser gun last month. As it is being perfected, it will be fitted on many ships. There is no need to reload or pay massive amounts of cash to build bombs and missiles as it is just a collection of particles that never needs reloading. And once it locks onto a drone or a missile, the shot fired reaches the target at the speed of light

A ship mounted laser weapon


Next up is the battle going on in space. The U.S. has a highly secret unmanned mini space shuttle that scoots around outer space logging in every satellite from every country, along with precision details of its purpose and position. What type of weapons it carries is unknown, but some believe it is being fitted with laser type weapons. This ship has been flying for the last few years and stays in orbit for up to 440 days. It is called the Boeing X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), is a reusable robotic spacecraft, and is about the size of a small bus. There are two of them in operation and more are being built, as well as the X-37C, a larger and more weaponized version. In short, "Star wars is already here"



I can't even fathom what else is on the drawing boards, but it appears that ideas and testing of various concepts is fascinating. Always keeping one step ahead of China and Russia, who are developing their own versions of a 6th generation fighter and laser warfare technology