Secret Boeing Strike Program in production.

[flateric]

Paris Air Show 2009
IDS Report
Boeing Industrial Participation

...what is missing in Phantom Works projects? Definitely no word of Phantom Ray here...and something proprietary instead again

again, from July, 2009 Boeing Frontiers Vic Sweberg, Unmanned Airborne Systems chief interview
"...The Phantom Works arm of the division will further develop Boeing’s proprietary common ground-control technology. It will refine its modular, open-architecture system to control many unmanned aerial vehicle types from a single node, minimizing the need for stand-alone ground control."

 

[flateric]

another Phantom Works 'proprietary' in Dennis Muilenburg Farnborough 2010 report
but has it anything to deal with airplanes at all?

 

[Ian33]

I don't see your point flateric.

The Boeing slide clearly stated strike fighters and had that proprietry tag on one of the colomns. So comparing your pictures to the article is like comparing apples and the Titanic.

 

[flateric]

not quite sure if marked can be count as 'strike fighters'

 

[donnage99]

It's not strange that trainers can be configured for combat operation. The persistent strike is not defined to any platform yet, so it can still fit somewhat in that chart. I think the point is that Boeing trying to fit as many existing and potential aircraft under its wings in there for PR reason. If that's the case, and if the program in question is phantom ray, then why isn't phantom eye in there? So "proprietary" program must be beyond that of prototype stage and at least in production. If we open up the perimeter to prototypes as well, then there would be a couple more products in there beside those addressed in the chart. However, the chart seem to limit to just programs that had or will have considerable production units.

 

[flateric]

don't bite me too much
I was just trying to gage

 

[quellish]

You know, that's what really interested me about her statement. The fact that she said it's proprietary, not secret, at least in classic classification terms. Does this mean it's ready for production, without a customer? Which of course, I highly doubt. I can't think of any company putting a military system in production without a customer. So, are they just calling it proprietary to dampen enthusiasm, in the sense that saying it was a "secret" program in production would be more sensational?

A160 has gone into limited production without a "production" customer. DoD has ordered one here, one there for T&E.

 

[Sundog]

You know, that's what really interested me about her statement. The fact that she said it's proprietary, not secret, at least in classic classification terms. Does this mean it's ready for production, without a customer? Which of course, I highly doubt. I can't think of any company putting a military system in production without a customer. So, are they just calling it proprietary to dampen enthusiasm, in the sense that saying it was a "secret" program in production would be more sensational?

A160 has gone into limited production without a "production" customer. DoD has ordered one here, one there for T&E.

But Boeing didn't originally develop it. They bought it. But to me limited production, isn't production, it's building "demonstrator" production machines. I see it more as semantics, that corporations play, which Boeing may well be doing with this graphic.

 

[Ian33]

A160 has gone into limited production without a "production" customer. DoD has ordered one here, one there for T&E.

US SOCOM has a few A-160s smacking bad guys in Afghanistan with US Naval SPECWAR troops. Apparently they love them.

 

[Sundog]

A160 has gone into limited production without a "production" customer. DoD has ordered one here, one there for T&E.

US SOCOM has a few A-160s smacking bad guys in Afghanistan with US Naval SPECWAR troops. Apparently they love them.

Maybe this is the program they're talking about then?

 

[Ian33]

Its designation is YMQ-18A - and they got the first 10 late 2008 / early 2009. They also carry the experimental VADER radar system (Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar) If I recall correctly they took on another 10 as they were so damn awesome (quiet, carried underslung loads as well as a long loiter sensor / strike platform).

So if it is, again I cannot see why they just didn't throw up a name. That said, GA, LM, Boeing and Northrop all got a hanger out at Kandahar so plenty of suprises still in store for us mere mortals waiting to see evidence of their products.

 

[Sundog]

All good points Ian, thanks for the update.

 

[sferrin]

So if it is, again I cannot see why they just didn't throw up a name. That said, GA, LM, Boeing and Northrop all got a hanger out at Kandahar so plenty of suprises still in store for us mere mortals waiting to see evidence of their products.

If they'd said "A160" the response would have been *YAWN*. As it is, look at the interest generated by being coy.

 

[Stargazer]

I've just discovered this discussion, which took place while I was away on holiday. My two cents about it:
Bird of Prey was test-flown long before being made public, and though it was also tested by the military, it remained a private prototype so that it would not appear in defense budgets or logs. Could it be that the "proprietary" design is simply a privately funded strike fighter prototype?

 

[Gridlock]

Interesting that someone mentioned both the Rockwell acquisition ("Boeing B-1") and DE weaponry but not the idea that this might be a combination of the 2?

 

[ouroboros]

Interesting that someone mentioned both the Rockwell acquisition ("Boeing B-1") and DE weaponry but not the idea that this might be a combination of the 2?

There's already talk out of Boeing and friends about using B-1's as test mules for ISR/Long Range Strike, and there was the mention of DEW work as well. See http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,191.msg95828.html#msg95828

 

[Sundog]

Interesting that someone mentioned both the Rockwell acquisition ("Boeing B-1") and DE weaponry but not the idea that this might be a combination of the 2?

There's already talk out of Boeing and friends about using B-1's as test mules for ISR/Long Range Strike, and there was the mention of DEW work as well. See http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,191.msg95828.html#msg95828

But this is a publicly known program without any reason to fly out of Groom Lake, so I seriously doubt it has anything to do with this, especially given the fact that the job description lists a two man crew (Pilot & WSO) and manually folding wings. Also, I don't see the B-1 as being referred to as a Boeing model 119. They would most likely just refer to it as a B-1.

 

[XP67_Moonbat]

a DEW-armed B-1? Very cool. But all of a sudden I'm picturing the laser B-1 from REAL GENIUS cooking that jacka** Professor's house full of Jiffy Pop.