It took a while to get to the tactical significance of the air-launched drones described in this article by Garrett Reim at Flight Global. Here it is:
Designed for counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency missions, the Reaper and Gray Eagle are increasingly vulnerable to being shot down by fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missile batteries fielded by sophisticated foes, such as China and Russia. Long-range air-launched effects are seen as a way to keep the large UAVs outside the weapons engagement zone of US adversaries, thus keeping the aircraft relevant for more years.
“By employing these smaller [unmanned air systems], Reaper and Gray Eagle operators will be able to penetrate, disintegrate and exploit anti-access and area denial air defences, and support operations in any domain,†the company says. “Meanwhile, the greater standoff afforded by these smaller [unmanned air systems] increases the survivability of the larger aircraft by placing them outside the kinetic range of tactical surface-to-air missiles.â€
I wonder what the relationship between these devices and Russia’s hypersonic weaponry that is in development.
Some of that weaponry is now deployed. See various posts at “reminisces of the futureâ€.
While we spent trillions and decades chasing ragtag militias, the Russians and Chinese stole a march or two in weapons development. Whatever technological advantages we once had are gone. And judging from the recent Army and CIA recruitment ads, we are falling behind in the quality of our human talent as well.