Charles R. Smith
Friday, Feb. 11, 2005

Invisible aircraft and robot planes that hunt and kill used to be the stuff of science fiction.

U.S. war planners, faced with a growing shortage of manpower, are turning toward a wide variety of unmanned armed robot planes to fill the gap in firepower. The dangers of the modern battlefield has put unmanned systems at the forefront of warfare and inside wartorn Iraq.

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Northrop Grumman has finished the first phase of testing its new medium-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The aircraft is a prototype of the Hunter II drone, which is designed to conduct ground surveillance and act as a long-range communications node.

The Hunter, like many unarmed robot planes, is being tested with precision-guided weapons. One such weapon inside Iraq is the current U.S. Army Hunter I drone armed with a miniature guided munition named Viper Strike.

Tests in combat with Viper Strike have led Pentagon planners to seek a better sensor system for the guided bomb. The unmanned Hunter and its latest weapon are expected to be in heavy demand since the Viper Strike small warhead is well suited for urban operations.

Predator A-B-C

General Atomics, the main competitor to Northrop, has recently completed sole-source contracts with the U.S. Air Force for its turbo-prop-powered Predator B. The more powerful B version of the famed Predator is slated to undergo weapons integration and testing prior to being deployed into active service.

The conventionally powered Predator A became the first Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) when it destroyed a car full of terrorists inside Yemen. The Predator used a laser-guided Hellfire missile to target and destroy the moving vehicle. The Predator A also performed similar missions inside Afghanistan.

General Atomics and USAF officials, however, are remaining mum on the Predator C program, which is currently classified. The jet-powered Predator C is slated to fly at altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet for 24 hours.

The Predator C is reportedly capable of flying 80 percent of the missions slated for the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk at about 20 percent of the cost.

While the Predator C program is officially in the dark, with USAF and GA officials denying its existence, the Defense Department recently awarded Pratt and Whitney a contract for small jet engines designed for the Predator C.

Senior Prom

More information is also being made available on other Pentagon projects that have been the source of speculation by a wide variety of communities. In his book "Code Names: Deciphering U.S. Military Plans, Programs and Operations in the 9/11 World," William Arkin revealed that the long-rumored Senior Prom program did exist and may have been more extensive than previously thought.

Senior Prom is the code name for a subscale unmanned F-117 look-alike. According to most sources, the Senior Prom aircraft was to be the prototype for a future stealthy cruise missile launched by the B-52. The diamond-shaped robot plane was designed to evade radar detection by its special shape.

However, newly released information shows the Senior Prom aircraft were actually stealthy unmanned reconnaissance drones launched from DC-130 Hercules mother ships. The Senior Prom aircraft flew missions similar to its unsteathly predecessor, the Fire Bee drone, taking low-altitude photographs and using sophisticated electronics to monitor communications and radar installations.

The Senior Prom UAV may have made its first appearance on the battlefield during the Cold War, flying missions over Warsaw Pact nations. Later, the aircraft reportedly flew over Baghdad during the Gulf War and may have been used in covert flights over North Korea.

Chameleon

Anti-radar stealth was the big buzz of the 1980s and 1990s. However, stealth aircraft are visible to the naked eye, limiting attack missions to the dark of night.

Visual stealth has not received the public attention of the anti-radar technology applied on the Senior Prom, F-117, B-2 and F-22 aircraft. There is now a major effort under way by the U.S. and U.K. military to make aircraft nearly invisible in daylight.

In the U.S., visual stealth has reportedly received a major boost in funding. The increase in black budget is attributed to a shift in USAF tactics, away from standoff attacks using aircraft flying at 20,000 feet or more.

Visual stealth aircraft can provide improved survivability against optical air defense systems and supply stealth attack capability to daylight operations.

In the U.K., the British Defence Ministry has revealed for the first time a secret program working on visual stealth systems; the program is called Chameleon. The program used both manned and unmanned aircraft to test visual and infrared stealth technology.

As predicted by this reporter, the visual stealth technology included fiber-optic lighting systems to diminish the contrast between an aircraft and the sky. In addition, a Hawk trainer jet was modified to use powerful light-emitting diodes to mask the aircraft.

Advances in light-diode and fiber-optic panel technology can virtually mask an entire airplane against the bright daylight sky. The fact is that aircraft stand out against the bright sky as darker objects, but by using bright panels of light, the aircraft virtually disappears against the blue sky.

Yahootie

Ironically, the concept is not new. In the 1940s, the U.S. Navy developed operation "Yahootie," the first practical attempt to create an invisible aircraft.

In early 1942, U.S. Navy bombers were considered too slow to visually spot a German U-boat cruising on the surface and attack in daylight. U-boat commanders often spotted the lumbering bombers and dived safely away before the planes could attack.

In response, a string of bright lights was placed on the wings and propeller hubs of the sub-hunter planes. The bomber crews adjusted the lights to match the natural background light behind the aircraft, masking it against the sky.

The principle is called isoluminosity, the perception that different objects displaying the same brightness seem indistinguishable from each other.

The principle worked very well until late 1942, when the Navy introduced airborne radar, allowing bombers to spot and kill submarines beyond visual ranges. The Navy abandoned Yahootie in favor of radar.

The U.S. may very well possess an advanced version of Yahootie, a surveillance aircraft that reportedly uses a combination of lights, low-noise engines and radar-absorbing skin to render itself practically invisible in daylight.

Not only is the aircraft invisible to radar, but also its skin is layered with an array of high-intensity light panels that broadcast the same output as the sky around it.

The daylight stealth aircraft may explain the recent reports of UFO sightings over Iran and North Korea and a series of unidentified aircraft sightings inside and around the U.S.

Clearly, the identification of nuclear facilities inside Iran and North Korea would draw the most advanced attention of Pentagon planners, intelligence agencies and the White House. That attention would also draw in the most advanced surveillance platform yet invented by man.

While invisible aircraft and robot planes may seem to be weapons of the future, one thing is clear: The future is now.

Charles Smith will be on:

The Jerry Hughes Show on Friday, 2/11/05, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.cilamerica.com.

The Charlie Smith Show on the American Freedom Network on Monday, 2/14/05, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.americanewsnet.com/

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