Scaled Composites Model 151 ARES

[donnage99]

It's not obvious from the article but ARES flew in the Huntington Beach air show over the weekend.

EARshow. the beach was so foggy only the f-35C was able to do a few rounds around the beach. However, either fog was so heavy or new ultra secret optical stealth was employed that only its engine was heard.

Some chaps said they caught a glimpse of the f-22 but that was due to hallucination after 6 hours of waiting and smelling car smoke sitting next to the highway.

 

[TomS]

USAF would lose their minds if it was pursued as a FAC plane. That 25mm gun would get all their panties in a bunch.



Maybe. I'm not sure about a 25mm gun on a UCAV for CAS, though.

DARPA's Gunslinger project studied a missile-like platform armed with a gun. And of course PCAS used an A-10 as a CAS drone surrogate, though I don't think they used the gun.