Lockheed unveils Vectis CCA

[Zaphod58]

After a teaser early Saturday, Lockheed unveiled their Vectis Collaborative Combat Aircraft. There had been questions about Vectis after a patent application was found earlier this week. According to Lockheed, Vectis leverages work done on their 6th Gen prototype, the RQ-170, and "other systems in the classified spaces". The plan calls for the first flight to occur in two years and is aimed at the USAF CCA Increment II. The AF has yet to announce requirements for that portion of the program, but Lockheed is aiming for the reusable end of the spectrum with Vectis. It could also be aimed at the Navy, as well as international partners, which would put it up against the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat.


 

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works is taking work it did to compete for the U.S. Air Force’s sixth-generation fighter and applying it to a new stealthy, survivable Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) design for both U.S. and international customers.
The new Vectis uncrewed combat aircraft will fly in two years, with the goal of providing air-to-air, air-to-surface and surveillance missions alongside crewed aircraft.
O.J. Sanchez, vice president and general manager of Skunk Works, told reporters the Vectis design takes work from the sixth-generation prototype that the company built and flew, along with the RQ-170 low-observable uncrewed aircraft vehicle (UAS) and “other systems in the classified spaces.”

https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraf...aft-design

[Avicula]

Reminds me of the render of a low observable tanker they released a year or so ago. I can’t find it for some reason…Same general planform but much larger (obviously), and I think it had outward canted vertical stabilizers. 

The lambda wing profile has been popping up a lot lately, too.

Very interesting all around.

[Signal Witch]

After a teaser early Saturday...

 A little more on this, conjecture and rumors...

People close to the program say Vectis isn’t just another drone mock-up. As the Aviation Week article states, Lockheed drew on years of work from the F-35, RQ-170 and early NGAD studies, aiming for something that can stay low on radar but still fly tight with a manned jet. The airframe is built with maintenance in mind: panels and edges can be swapped or touched up without a full stealth hangar visit, a sign they expect it to serve, not just demo.
 
Flight controls are fully digital, tuned so it can maneuver near an F-35 instead of dragging behind. That points to a wing loading and thrust more like a light fighter than a sensor truck. Insiders think it uses a custom turbofan in the 6 - 8,000-pound thrust class, enough to push a fifteen-to-twenty-thousand-pound airframe past high subsonic speeds.
 
Sensors will be modular: a basic radar and infrared suite for most customers, with optional jamming or signals gear that can drop in without changing the shape. Autonomy is planned to grow from simple route-keeping to helping a pilot manage threats and weapons, but human approval will stay in the loop at first.
 
The real hurdle is cost. If the price climbs near a manned fighter, air forces will lean on cheaper CCAs already flying. If Lockheed can hold it somewhere in the mid-teens of millions and prove its stealth survives day-to-day service, Vectis could become the “hard target” drone, the one you send inside dense defenses while the low-cost swarms hang back. The Navy and F-35 partners may be the first to buy if the numbers add up.

[Blackfingers]

No ejection seat,no Oxygen or life support equipment.More room for fuel or payload.I think stuff on the shelves already will make it in the air pretty quick.Outside shape is pretty easy to design just the people with calculators and CAD Monkeys need to slice and dice it to make it all work.
No squishy thing inside makes the airframe take more Gee,s.

[rickymouse]

I wonder what the cost of these will be when they are finished?  I suppose that depends on what add ons they have.

[Zaphod58]

I wonder what the cost of these will be when they are finished?  I suppose that depends on what add ons they have.

Vectis will be more expensive than a something like the YFQ-42A or YFQ-44A, but both of those are designed to be as cheap as possible, and for us to lose them. Vectis is designed to come back and be used again and again. That's going to increase price.

[Blackfingers]

Off the shelf stuff will help cut down costs.Especially if they pinch a lot of the F35 and B21 digital architecture, avionics and radar.
No pilot systems will cut out a lot of it.

[Avicula]

So largely known and proven “off the shelf” systems and components inside an airframe that the good people at Lockheed ADP actually gave some though to with respect to the maintainers and possibly sub-optimal maintenance facilities, all in a low observable package that puts decades of practical, real-world experience into use. Got it. 

If Lockheed can manage to keep the cost…reaosnable… and can manufacture enough to add appreciable mass to the inventory, that hardly sounds like a difficult choice. Not sure if I missed it, but are foreign sales a possibility? That would certainly help drive costs down.

[Zaphod58]

So largely known and proven “off the shelf” systems and components inside an airframe that the good people at Lockheed ADP actually gave some though to with respect to the maintainers and possibly sub-optimal maintenance facilities, all in a low observable package that puts decades of practical, real-world experience into use. Got it. 

If Lockheed can manage to keep the cost…reaosnable… and can manufacture enough to add appreciable mass to the inventory, that hardly sounds like a difficult choice. Not sure if I missed it, but are foreign sales a possibility? That would certainly help drive costs down.

Yes, they’re looking at foreign sales, as well as increment 2 of CCA.

[Raptured]

I wonder if it's what this guy spotted being tested for RS or other