America's plan to TRIPLE the range of its air-to-air missiles (and a lot more)

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DARPA’s Longshot is a single-use jet meant to be launched in a variety of ways, including from under-wing, blurring the line between armed drone and cruise missile — zooming out ahead to hunt down enemy aircraft and engage them all on its own with an onboard payload of advanced air-to-air missiles, before being shot down, or simply discarded.

Let’s talk about Longshot and similar systems in development today, how they can change the way air warfare plays out, and whether or not disposable drones really do have a place in air warfare.

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Citations:

[bholdr----]

"A missile that launches its own missiles!" ...What's it take to get some sharks with frickin' laser beams around here!

[Ed]

"Hey bro I heard you liked missiles so I made you a missile that shoots missiles"

[beesod]

You absolutely slayed 2024, thanks Alex and have a great newyear!

[TheJZoom]

You mentioned Rapid Dragon, but just think of sticking these things inside VLS cells on any major surface combatant. Every frigate or destroyer could carry their own emergency combat air patrol.

[kgreen]

As I was listening to you, even before you said it, I thought deploying this weapon system with Rapid Dragon would prove to be a game changer. This idea is a strange concept to me being that I was a KC-135 crew chief for 17 years, and I never thought that a cargo aircraft would ever be able to deploy a weapons system. It makes my eyes well up with tears of pride and joy to know that us simple cargo guys might actually be able to score a kill in warfare, “ Merica!”

[Ebongreen]

As useful as this approach may be for air-to-air, I can imagine it being even more valuable for EW and SEAD tasks. "Hey OPFOR, we're going to send a bunch of drones your way. Some will shoot down your airborne assets, others will screw with your sensors and C3I, and others still will kill those sensors. You don't know which are which. Have fun!"

[jamesmanger]

1949 USAF: "Parasite fighters are impractical and dangerous."

2024 USAF: "Boss, I have this idea..."

[EuphoricLiquid]

B52 about to get air to air kills? had to giggle...

[Nmr]

I’m surprised nobody is talking about vertically launched AMRAMS . One of the slides from NGAD showed a them mounted internally at a 45° angle between two engines in the back of the aircraft

[Edcreviewer]

Let's go!! New video from Alex and I'm always happy to watch!

[texasranger]

4:36 if you already know about ground news and want to skip the ad

[willadeefriesland]

Sooo... 'Missile truck' missiles, carried by 4th Gen aircraft, stealth and non-stealh bombers, palletized for cargo planes, leading the way for stealth and non-stealth fighters AND unmanned wingman vehicles...
DAMN! Talk about "confusion to the enemy"...

[ConnieShearer-gm]

Wow, Alex! So much data and analysis packed into one report package….. I’m going to need to re-watch this one a couple more times to have much hope of absorbing it all. Another great job!

[iwillramble]

Well done! I might add that once the truck missile has launched it's cargo it could electronically disguise itself as a fighter and draw enemy missile fire and perhaps save the loss of an expensive fighter aircraft and most importantly a pilot.

[magdovus]

I think you missed two obvious use cases. Poseidon and Wedgetail could benefit- Poseidon might be able to act as a "truck" for them, while Wedgetail might be able to have wing rails fitted for self defence. Imagine a concerted push against a Wedgetail- not inconceivable against a force multiplier like that, but then a few Longshots give the Wedgetail a huge ranged AAM capability.

[phillipbartowsky]

That would be a killer asset for a b21. Deploying one would shake any fighter inbound. This capability would even make the B1 more survivable in long range counter naval missions. A fighter would have a hell of a time catching a supersonic B1 while having to shake a counter air drone.

[Mr_Fission]

This is seriously something straight out of Ace Combat. What a time to be alive!

[jackofall]

I kind of always thought about this when they went into the capabilities of networking and control of the b21

A bunch of these on a rotary launch system all carrying their own payload etc, a rendition of the 747 air carrier that never was

[everettputerbaugh]

It is my understanding that F-22 and F-35 now have available pylons that drop off cleanly, allowing them to carry Longshot to a point near detectability, launch, and continue slick. Including AGM-89 HARMs or AIM-9X short range missiles in the mix will be interesting. I've been wondering for a few years why this (Longshot) has taken so long to come about.

[brettsteinbook]

after the JDAM fix to dumb bombs. longshot makes sense to fix short and medium range missiles' range issues.