Northrop Grumman X-47B: The Billion Dollar Drone

[@megaprojects9649]

Thanks to Athletic Greens for sponsoring this video. Get a 1-year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D3K2 & 5 travel packs FREE with your first purchase! go to athleticgreens.com/megaprojects

[@MakaDawgG]

yum

[@rackneh]

I'm waiting for AG2, sorry Simon.

[@malcolmjcullen]

It's £80 a month, FFS!

[@jaredyoung5353]

I’m sure we will see all this tech show up in the B21

[@MonkeyspankO]

say "Vitta-mens" more!

[@Username-dy5rd]

Interesting fact: Drone was so accurate with landings. They knew which arresting cable it would catch, and had to adjust where it would land because it was denting the flight deck with tail hook from hitting the same spot over and over.

[@AlanSanchez-ww9qb]

Wow, precision!

[@tokyosmash]

@@AlanSanchez-ww9qb proper use of “precision” instead of accuracy… nice

[@JohnDoe-yq9ml]

I also call bs. It’s probably way over blown. Pretty sure this is a myth

[@Weakest_Bulgarian]

@@JohnDoe-yq9ml source?

[@polduran]

@@Weakest_Bulgarian he is not the one making the clame so ask the question to the right person.

[@thaddeuslorusso4490]

Even though X-47 is a Northrop program, it actually had many parts and systems made by other contractors. If you notice on the nose gear door there is a Lockheed Skunk Works logo. We made the payload bay doors for it. Myself and two of my other buddies worked on them.

[@lalo360elite]

Bro... 🤫 before they pull our clearance! Lol

[@thaddeuslorusso4490]

@@lalo360elite I gather you're a 600 series bldg alumni as well????

[@Erik7prc]

You spray for lockeed?

[@Erik7prc]

​@lalo360elite why was your clearance pulled

[@1winlock]

The whole point of X47B was that 6 of them could replace/free up 18 F-18's from refueling duty. Thus increasing the combat ability of a carrier.

[@geodkyt]

The tanker mission really is the most critical one for a drone to fulfill. It's literally nearly a perfect fit in terms of mission requirements, reduced stress on the rest of thebair wing, and the fact that you can take more risks with a drone tanker than you can with a manned one, as tankers aren't typically terribly great at defending themselves if pressed (and that includes fighters with buddy tanks). While expensive, Robby the Robot doesn't require SAR to ensure he doesn't become a POW (even if it goes down on land, you can just cruise missiles the site at worst case), no lr are we going to be sending any notification parties to the factory to express how deeply the US givernment regrets the loss. The inherently stealthy nature and high subsonic speed of the X-47B also helped with survivability as a tanker - whioe.loitering to tank strike fighters returning from enemy airspace, its hard to see - and if it gets seen (especiallybafter tanking strike fighters either on their way in or out), it can run and hope to drop off radar. The second most important missions are high risk strike or ISR missions - with a slight edge to the strike role (after all, we already have stealthy recon drones, but a noticeable lack of carrier based strike platforms that can loiter, search for targets, and so forth, without running inordinately high risks of somebody's family getting a flag in the very near future if the enemy has competent air defenses. Again, Robbie the Robot is expendable.

[@GintaPPE1000]

This. At best, it was also able to do the Predator and Reaper’s job of flying to a predetermined point and waiting for a signal to drop bombs. Its decision-making capability was limited, if it had any at all, and the onboard AI had no sense of self-preservation. The X-47 is far from the “loyal wingman the fighter mafia killed” that certain parts of the military commentary community call it.

[@timothywertin7423]

2 minutes in before anything… wow

[@bobdadnaila7708]

1 carrier airwing isn't going to dedicate 18 Hornets to refueling configuration. Maybe 4 at the most. Another 2 configured for electronic warfare and the rest for attack and fighter. But the drones do free those up. It's really only a matter of time before almost all combat air operations are drone

[@intercommerce]

Do they use Hornets as refueling tankers currently?

[@martinstallard2742]

3:31 a risky investment 7:36 a pinnacle of aviation 12:38 going forward

[@TheSilmarillian]

Nice indeed tk

[@walterdayrit675]

13:26 the resulting Chinese drone thanks to a billion dollars of "creatively acquired" classified American research materials. 😂😂😂

[@sultanaljuhani1571]

thanks mate, beard guy fucks around a lot, acting British and shit. but u saved a lot of time with your highlights

[@AeroLowdown]

Good timing! I particularly enjoy the military aircraft Megaprojects, keep them coming!

[@herbertkeithmiller]

10:50 the ground controller's reaction to getting that aircraft launched from a simulated carrier catapult is priceless.

[@houyuanjia83]

If anybody here is an Ace Combat Fan, they'd recognize this drone from the 7th installment as MQ 101. It's scary how much the two resemble each other. Let's hope that they're not hiding an "Arsenal Bird".

[@spannerdan4926]

Yes, ace combat fan. I'm thinking more ace combat 6 p112 Aigaion launching a heap of these.

[@sugandesenuds6663]

or arsenal gear....

[@killerwhale__]

Bf2042 just copy and pasted this design

[@ascensionindustries9631]

The military took what they learned from the X-45 tests to create the X-47. I believe what was learned from the X-47 will be incorporated into the NGAD wingman drones, plus more. We're just getting started.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

Pretty much this. All the Boeing folks at VX-1 treated the X-47 as the second coming of Christ trying to get the Navy on board with it. I'm a simple country-minded person when it comes to my multi-million, multi-mission platforms. Frankly, I see the X-47 working best as a low-risk IFR platform. Packing ordinance on it and using it as a beatstick wingman in dangerous airspace is going to cause a lot of expensive avionics to wind up in who-gives-a-shit, enemy territory. A propaganda win waiting to happen.

[@EddyA1337]

Either way, it's looking more like 6th gen's defining features will be wingman drones with state of the art AI though. Remember these drones can pull many more G's than a pilot operated craft too.

[@protorhinocerator142]

@@EddyA1337 The wingman drones will be a real game changer. It's a completely different concept for aerial warfare. Not really even fighter jets anymore. We're moving past all that. They could make fighter jets obsolete. I mean we'll still use fighter jets just in case, but much like the battleship, fighter jets will have an increasingly reduced role. The last battleship, Missouri, was decommissioned in 1998, only 55 years after the aircraft carrier made battleships pretty much obsolete. Going by that, if we got the new bombers with wingman drones today it could be 2077 before the last F-22 is decommissioned.

[@EddyA1337]

@@protorhinocerator142 makes you wonder if all those gravity defying UAPs are unmanned aerial drones. But ya I agree I think AI with the ability to pull major G's are going to change the game as you said.

[@harlyquin]

i love videos that start with almost 2 minutes of ads

[@nickhahn3276]

I was onboard the Roosevelt when they brought one with us for a cruise back around 2015. Very cool to see in person in the hangar bay.

[@intercommerce]

Remarkable that just over 100 years ago, the airplane has gone from canvas and wooden biplane to this futuristic design. Northrop, and several German companies, invented the flying wing.

[@Kiefer0612]

Several German companies is one way to put it lol

[@milesjohnson3796]

You should do one on the Stanley Mickelsen safeguard complex. Billions spent on a massive multi area military site in North Dakota most of which was decommissioned after only a handful of months.

[@trolleriffic]

The history of US ABM systems in general is fascinating. A big problem has always been inter-service rivalry caused by the fact the these systems were mainly planned for the defence of US strategic land based missiles against a Soviet first strike. The reason this was a problem was the those ICBMs belonged to the Air Force while ABM development was being done by the Army so the flyboys didn't like the idea of all that money being given to the Army to defend Air Force missiles when it could be given to the Air Force to get more missiles or better missiles and deploy them more securely such as Midgetman or rail-mobile MX. In the end none of those schemes got off the ground despite major investment and successful proof of concept demonstrations.

[@samuel5916]

Actually this didn’t go to waste, they just made it a black project. The Air Force has a new highly-classified stealth drone. People refer to it as the RQ-180 but we don’t know the official designation. It was caught on camera by two people last year near Area 51. It’s a very large, flying wing design that’s painted white to camouflage at high altitudes. It’s believed to be made by Northrop Grumman in the same facility they’re using to build the B-21. Supposedly it’s a long range reconnaissance drone that replaces other non-stealth drones like the Global Hawk which are all being retired. It looks like a scaled up X-47B and has been rumored to be operational since 2015. Speculation aside, we know for a fact it exists and was made by Northrop Grumman.

[@Tounguepunchfartbox]

Are u sure that wasn’t just the B-21

[@samuel5916]

@@Tounguepunchfartbox Yes, the first picture was taken in 2020 before the B-21 prototypes were even built. From the pictures, it clearly has a smaller body and different engine placement. One was photographed operating near China last year which wouldn’t make any sense if it was a prototype B-21. This is an operational plane already. The Air Force started retiring Global Hawk ISR drones in large quantities last year. They made tongue-in-cheek statements about them no longer being needed with references to black projects they can’t discuss.

[@Tounguepunchfartbox]

@@samuel5916 interesting. I’ll look into it.

[@collincutler2278]

I got to see both X47 a and b when I worked at NG in Palmdale. Truly amazing drones. The X47B is much bigger than you think.

[@junglelane]

I get the feeling they are just being hidden yet still in use.

[@JustaPilot1]

There's only two but ok.

[@SeaCrane1]

I mean they did the same with the F117 Nighthawk. Always a possibility lol

[@JustaPilot1]

@@SeaCrane1 Yeah but this has been in the public eye since day one. The Navy used to fly them out of NAS PAX River during the development program. Sometimes they made the local news.

[@foracal5608]

May have gone through with production maybe but i think the Valkyrie drones and other drones are out

[@SeaCrane1]

@@JustaPilot1 that's entirely fair. I'm just hoping that it either didn't entirely go to waste domestically or that there was an alternative program that won out

[@RAS_Squints]

'Alight Kiff, Let's show these freaks what a bloated runaway military budget can do!" -Zapp Branigain

[@Shmalentine]

"A bit of inspiration". How diplomatic! 🤣🤣🤣

[@e.s.5529]

one huge thing you didn't mention but are not surprised about, and in your defense, it was just confirmed about 10 days ago. The B-21 Raider which will be unveiled to the public for the first time in the 2nd week of December has been acknowledged by the US Airforce Research Laboratory ...the B-21 can be 100% autonomous. There is a direct correlation between autonomous capability and refueling unmanned. The data from the x-47b project as well as the NAVY'S drone refueling program, just FYI.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Yeah I’m looking forward to the unveiling.

[@bartfoster1311]

I really doubt he knew because this was probably filmed at least a month ago. I am looking forward to seeing more of the B-21.

[@e.s.5529]

@@bartfoster1311 yes , it was just publicly acknowledged 10’days ago

[@nikobelic4251]

The B-21 was always supposed to be optionally manned

[@6ixpool520]

I'm curious what full autonomy means here. Like defend itself if threatened levels of autonomy? Should we be worried about skynet becoming a thing? Lol

[@ryanv2023]

The B didn’t carry even half of the sensors, nor having the AI and detection capabilities that you mentioned. It was designed to and capable of carrying some array of sensors but in the end it’s main objective was to demonstrate the ability of a drone to be operated from carrier environment including in flight refueling

[@backpacker3421]

Gee, what a great way to spend an entire year's worth of our military budget. Probably a much cheaper way to figure out if that was possible...

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

@@backpacker3421 You clearly do not know wtf we do at VX-1, then.

[@LoisoPondohva]

@@backpacker3421 1 year worth of your military budget? Do you live in Lichtenstein or something?

[@ceoofconfusion100]

@@backpacker3421 the military has a budget of 722 billion dollars yearly,did you search up another countries budget?

[@kalrandom7387]

@@ceoofconfusion100 and that's just the official budget, is that black book stuff that jumps price tag up even more.

[@shanemonsees4798]

I was a part of team that designed and manufactured the exhaust ducts on these aircraft. So stinking cool.

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

I remember when they hauled the X47B on a flatbed to Pax River (it's first carrier landing test from shore), my collateral duty was gate guard, but my normal job as an AT made me well aware and informed that the X47 was on the way. The thing comes in, as expected and at the end of my watch. Duty phone starts ringing, it's some local Maryland newspaper, asking me what came on base. Not having a good answer, I state they have the wrong number and hang up (even after my phone-answer intro stating I was the place they were looking for). Another ring, this time the Baltimore Sun or something. Pure panic. I call the CDO, he was clearly asleep. I just get a grumbled and "Mrggmhgm... Neither confirm nor deny" **Hangs Up** So, I parrot this: "I am sorry Ma'am, I can neither confirm, nor deny. " **Hang up** Fast forward to Monday, every local newspaper headline: "UFO! UFO! OMG PAX RIVER HAS A UFO!" Don't give the Media an inch, they will take a mile, everytime.

[@michaelfranek7846]

Bro I looked at the footage of 47a landing and was 100% sure something like this had to happen :D

[@thejesterofdarkness]

Should've told them that Max showed up after hitting an electrical transmission tower & was rattling off the build of a Big Mac.

[@JJ-si4qh]

Glad to see our efforts helping others

[@belledetector]

Just because someone took a snapshot and went back to the garage to build an oversized RC plane out of aluminum and bondo filler, doesn´t mean they have the know-how to replicate the capabilities. Just look at the SU-57 and all the other foreign equipment that has been hyped, but ultimately turns out to be second tier or worse.

[@zorakzoran1]

Great video! i Love to see on about the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk

[@SiliconRiot]

I live relatively close to Palmdale and have had a chance to see and photograph both the x-47A and B at the local airshows between 2005 and 2017

[@chrislong3938]

It's cool watching it refuel! Makes you wonder if it called the tanker up and said, "Hey! Fill 'er up!!!"

[@spennie3607]

Yep it'll be able to protect all them people living under and around bridges. Worth every penny

[@Jedi.Toby.M]

I'd say this does have a bit of click bait to it, but honestly the man has like 25 channels and I have yet to be 100% sure Simon isn't a robot. Great content! Cheers!

[@belledetector]

It was a proof of concept demonstrator! - In 5-7 years these vehicles, will pop up everywhere. Most probably in the loyal wingman role for NGAD and/or as an autonomous air to surface platform, for precision guided munition. Scary development, but that´s where the trend is pointing.

[@jimjunior]

I don't know if any of you watches the ads but Simon really knows how to sell a product

[@garrettmastantuono8043]

Kind of surprised you've never done VentureStar. Great video as always Simon!!!

[@subliminus]

I worked alongside this program at VX-23. Interesting aircraft, ultimately nothing more than a prototype.

[@firstlast9813]

Wait a minute! I just realized drones can daisy-chain fighter jets while being fueled by a tanker. If you have a squad of 3 (male) fighters, 2 tanker drones and one tanker, one drone can get fuel, and drop 2 (female) nozzles. The first nozzle connects to a pilot while the second nozzle connects to another tanker drone. The second tanker drone connects to the first tanker drone and drops 2 of the (female) nozzles for the 2 remaining pilots. This fills 3 pilots up at the same time and could increase the range of the mission since nobody has to wait their turn while burning fuel. And if there is a 5th generation (female) jet involved, at any time, the first drone can disconnect the entire group and keep sharing fuel from it's full tanks. This allows the 5th generation figher to get their turn too. Imagine continuing a mission with full 200% tanker drones beside you instead of 150% full ones (150% = Drone Fuel 100% + Shared Fuel 50%). My question is when are they going to make (male) tanker drones to deliver fuel to 5th and 6th generation fighters?

[@joshellis4966]

A 2 minute ad straight after a 30 second unskippable ad is CRAZY.

[@williampulley]

Projects like this help to keep the Chinese Military R&D budget close to zero.

[@jtjr26]

I suspect that they will take everything they have learned about advanced UCAV platforms and incorporate it into their 6th generation programs for the component where either the jets themselves can be operated remotely/autonomously or thee are companion drones developed alongside the jets themselves. I doubt the RnD costs will go to waste.

[@SomeRandomDevOpsGuy]

Kind of sad for kids like me who watched top gun and dreamed of a career flying fighter jets. Even though I never achieved mine due to health complications, I would still wish future generations of kids to have such an exciting dream job. At least humans in space is coming back around!

[@pierrebernard7665]

So basically, we are a few years away from a real life Ace Combat 7 video game. Dr Schroeder would be proud ^^'

[@portcybertryx222]

It might not have gone into production but all of these projects provide valuable insights and quick build times for future projects. I would imagine some of the sensor suite components found their way into the B21 , the flying wingman or even in the drones for the NGAD program. Also with regards to other countries building drones without any hard evidence it’s difficult to judge their capabilities. It’s one thing to fly a shell and it’s a whole other beast when sensor fusion and AI capabilities come into play. Autonomy is hard as any good robotics dev will tell you.

[@fr4me.01]

On a serious note I first saw this thing in a movie called Skyline. I immediately had to look them up. Very cool. Very useful in Arma 3 modded servers :)

[@officialdropnation]

it’s beautiful

[@S7eveThePira7e]

My older sister was one of the sailors on CVN 77 when X47B was being tested!

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

I was one of the sailors at the test and evaluation squadron who launched it from land to that fleet meat receptacle for it's first carrier landing.

[@S7eveThePira7e]

@@attemptedunkindness3632 that's awesome!

[@matios83]

I like turtle

[@CaptainPrice360]

You really had me at "Mini Death Star"

[@kkrobertson1]

Nice to see our dollars being well spent!

[@andrewgause6971]

I have a feeling that the Ukraine war showing that this is well and truly the Age of the Drone is probably going to give this thing a new lease on life...

[@TheBooban]

USA pioneered drones in Afghanistan. But you are right, they seem to be dropping the ball now. They should be investing in mini drone swarms that would just over run the battlefield. But the military industrial complex actually doesn’t like innovation. They want to keep building big expensive things. They would lose alot of money if drones made everything obsolete.

[@andrewgause6971]

@@TheBooban Yes, that it did. But I think the war in Ukraine also shows that they have a role to play against peer opponents as well. For all the pioneering we did, most (but not all) of their roles were as flying snipers and COIN ops. The drones in Ukraine are demonstrating that they can be used against... "traditional" hard and soft targets and be employeed in unexpected ways (like the number of basically commercial quad copters rigged up with explosives to drop on a BMP and whatnot).

[@Obvsaninternetexpert]

It also seems to be the age of cheap drones.... Maybe Sometimes quantity is better then quality

[@pamelamays4186]

Slowly creeping up to one million subscribers.🤞🤞🤞🤞

[@Fortunes.Fool.]

4:38 Dude, teleportation will make for one hell of a Megaprojects episode.

[@vincere_]

They tried it with the Borealis... it didn't go so well.

[@michaelgautreaux3168]

Oh course it cost a Billion. There are what 2 maybe 3? Fleet production dropped the price tag. The -35 is catching hell but $s are for spares for many years + "LO" maintenance. Here we go again with this "Nat'l Asset vs Nat'l Treasure" rheteric. It isn't U're Grand father's Firebee! Or any of the other Model 147 A-L A/BQM charmers! Many thanx Simon, always a treat! 👍👍

[@bares669]

You should film one video just absolutely hammered

[@uslabs]

Who else is here after watching it on a friend's recommendation? Totally worth it! 🙌

[@glynharper]

Always love your videos Simon!

[@cybervigilante]

"A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there. Pretty soon you're talking about real money."

[@JessiBear]

I love how Simon pronounces vitamins 🤭

[@CallMeByMyMatingName]

And says "sixth" like "sickth". British speach impediments / difficulties

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@CallMeByMyMatingName - British English.🇬🇧 From the inventors of the language, correctly spoken. Not some bastardised colonial strangulated and simplified version.

[@CallMeByMyMatingName]

It's not meant to make you upset at the differences. Don't live with so much pent up anger for someone other than yourself! I hope you find peace in your life somehow!

[@tech-vp5xe]

UAS OP here, please do a video of the Aquila drone from the early 1970 to 1980, it's our first attempt at current gen drones

[@Dj.MODÆO]

The X37-B is even more fascinating. Its space capable, can launch satellites, missiles and tactical nukes and on a full tank of fuel can go into space and just chill for years or until it’s given further instructions.

[@It-b-Blair]

That’s a chilling fun fact…

[@paulmurray8922]

With history restarting with a bang in 2022, it's safe to assume we haven't seen the last of the X-47 and its descendants.

[@rustyshaklferd1897]

The fighter/air superiority units will be game changers. The current platforms are limited to 9ish g’s due to the mushy part at the front. With no pilot they could feasibly pull ridiculous g force maneuvering that a piloted aircraft could never do.

[@smile768]

Mmm that green stuff looks great 😱

[@AtheistOrphan]

Soylent Green is people!

[@DomoKuchikan]

Wow that beard oil must be something special! Your beard's beard looks good 🤣

[@dimitrisdimitris9003]

a very suitable sponsor for this video

[@thedavid9366]

The possibilities from this tech demonstrator appear to be well worth the costs.

[@lonewulfyamcha]

Top gun 3: 'Drone gone Maverick'

[@BrandonMeyer1641]

The military got their money’s worth with this project imo. The x-47 a and b were test beds and technology demonstrators. Countless advanced algorithms, systems, and softwares were developed and tested in the field of autonomous drones both land based and sea based. There is no question that tech pioneered in this program will make its way into aircraft on the horizon such as the B-21 raider, ngad, and other similar programs.

[@newagain9964]

Right. And b21 can fly autonomously.

[@BrandonMeyer1641]

@@newagain9964 exactly

[@Cosmic_idea]

Soylent Green is people!!

[@dedmeet11]

Simon said 'oooowas' like the word 'was' had to be buffered or downloaded. That made me chuckle

[@matthewdopler8997]

Apparently the Ford class carriers are designed to launch drones so I would imagine drones being a big part of the naval fleet in the future.

[@belledetector]

You should do a compilation video of how military dark/experimental aviation projects translated into production airplanes years later. The investments are not lost. The know-how just takes time to be assimilated into the production line. Occasionally hundreds of millions are spent on projects, to avoid spending billions on something that doesn´t work. It´s called R&D.

[@davidrutherford6311]

A similar program in Australia is the Loyal Wingman by Boeing which is testing close escort and protection of planes like the E-7 Wedgetail.

[@makegaminggreatagain3907]

People don't realize how dangerous drones are, someone/s could build a covert underground bunker which housed a bunch of unmarked/un-insignia'd drones, launch them to attack their adversaries and not have to claim responsibility. Unlike a manned aircraft, if a drone gets shot down there is no crew to capture and nothing to determine it's origin... If you do it properly.

[@marcuswaterloo]

Someone at Northrop: " We can just build one, we have the technology."

[@dcassidy1]

There is no way you think that smoothie was nice. Your face 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@K113-A]

I think the win from this drone is the control system. NGAD anyone?

[@EAWanderer]

Whoa hello! I instantly recognised this Drone from the Thumbnail alone! From Ace Combat 7 2019! Awacs Sky keeper : Drones confirmed as MQ-101s! Fore runners for the arsenal bird! Me : Wowza, they're based on real Drones? 😮 Operated by the US 🇺🇸 Navy

[@CopyableOak]

Surprised you didn't know this, the MQ-99 Drones are also based upon a real-life UCAV, the EADS Barracuda - albeit with slightly altered dimensions, presumably because Project ACES were unable to secure a license

[@EAWanderer]

@@CopyableOak Most likley that latter half of what you said, also I did not I knew about Drones of course, but Not either of the specific Drones variants mentioned

[@killerwhale__]

Bf2042

[@hankadelicflash]

10:50 This dude loves his job almost as much as Simon.

[@steelekelley5761]

Similar to the Talon Project in the film Stealth. The future is now!

[@wormyboot]

Do a video on Omega Tanker. They're really cool.

[@thermalerosion4556]

“Drones? Are you kidding me right now? Jesus! This is the kinda shit that really chaps my ass.”

[@ayomill]

the two minute advertisement was painful. but great video, thanks.

[@georgejenkins6275]

Simon's vocal cords take AG for breakfast !!

[@mattheww9656]

11:38 Without a reference for scale it looks small in most footage - it looks pretty big in this shot.

[@DomitionX]

I've seen one in person. It's hard to gauge it's size, but the wingspan it's pretty close to a school bus.

[@Grizzly-qw9bt]

You can call them what you want but they will always be known to me as MQ-101

[@attemptedunkindness3632]

Another man of culture, I see. The MQ-8 shall always be the Fire Chicken to those who know.

[@vincere_]

It's a big maze.

[@mikewinter]

C'mon!! Clearly Northrop discovered that they had created Skynet by making the B model and after watching Terminator 3 they put a blanket over it and acted like it didn't exist

[@mikev4135]

I dont think a lot of people understand 3 main points of projects like this. 1st is that the plane itself doesn't cost $1 billion, but the combined cost of the R&D, manufacturing, testing, etc. 2nd is even if the drone fails as a manufactured platform, the project wasnt a waste. The knowledge gained from the project can be applied to other areas. 3rd, trust me, I know first hand how badly the government wastes money, but a billion is a drop in the ocean for such a cutting edge project. A huge reason for how advance and effective the military is is because of R&D projects like this. Ask Russia how failing to innovate their military is working out for them.

[@JudeKnowsWhatYouDoNot]

A lot of that money is being embezzled lol…it’s obvious.

[@mikev4135]

@@JudeKnowsWhatYouDoNot hows it obvious?

[@huntergant9348]

I had a thought and was curious if anyone had an opinion. I know issue for space travel is mirco particles hitting the ship at high speed and a heavy enough piece of shielding isnt practicle from what i understand to take the impact. Could it be possible to use a high powered laser (like for rust removal which is tiny particles) to generate a shield of sorts in front of ship to protect from micro impacts by destroying the particles before they can impact the ship?

[@oO0Xenos0Oo]

To be fair, a development cost of under 1 billion dollars is relativly cheap compared to the money spend on the development of modern human piloted fighter jets and bombers.

[@paulwright110]

The X47B reminds me of the tech used in the 2005 film Stealth. I wonder just how far advanced the X47 series is gonna get, maybe L.E.O.??

[@AtheistOrphan]

That film was so bad it was brilliant!

[@cpcattin]

The fact we don’t know about other versions and purposes doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

[@bingusmctingus4395]

Oh holy shit I saw that plane buzz me at low altitude while I was driving up US395 towards Bishop, CA!!!! It took one left turn and it was practically invisible.

[@power_plushi_emperor97]

*Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown intensifies*

[@GwynCole]

I thought fighter drones were part of the NGAD program?? In what is called the loyal wingman? I think the XQ-58 Valkyrie made by Kratos is on a limited production run in Australia if my memory serves me correctly?

[@vincere_]

Kratos is US, testing under the USAF Skyborg program. Ghost Bat is Boeing Australia's crack at a loyal wingman.

[@harrier1830]

Why do I get the feeling that the "UFO" sightings were just x47s😅

[@Derjyn]

Voice volume up, voice volume down. On all your videos, on all your channels. Thank god for that CC button that works so hard.

[@ShikiKaze]

Yes... Totally not those Stealth Drones seen from Ace Combat 7.. Now waiting for an Arsenal Bird.

[@TacticalBeard]

Drone swarms are the future

[@bluchz79]

This may have been noted. But it’s my belief that the landing tech has now been applied to manned aircraft which has given pilots more freedom to focus on more important tasks. Carrier landings are the most stressful and energy draining endeavors a navy pilot experiences during a sortie.

[@bghiggy]

Pretty wild that they were testing in 2003. Wonder what stuff is being currently developed that we won't find out about for another 20 years

[@keithhargraves7497]

Do the B-21 Raider! I know its highly classified but if you can please do!

[@mill2712]

I think we should give it a bit more time. It's unveiling next month.

[@clarencehopkins7832]

Excellent stuff bro

[@NeoTechni]

What a beauty.

[@jimsvideos7201]

Drones as tankers and ASW platforms seem appropriate.

[@ypaulbrown]

well done Simon