NGSW, disruptive innovations, and the small military team?

[LRRPF52]

Yes, we’re actually several major iterations into net-centric warfare now across the Air, Land, Sea, and Space component forces.

Link-16 is on at least its 4th iteration for legacy air/land/sea/space platforms. F-22A has a massive leap over that with IFDL, and JSF/F-35 has a massive leap over IFDL with MADL. MADL has also been integrated into the combat-coded B-2As so they are interoperable with JSF.



The developments in Aerospace have eventually trickled down to the lowest-priority Land Component forces.

SOF has been using all kinds of RPVs, UAS, along with having constant support from MQ-9 Reaper.

The days of collecting sensor data and then returning to base to download it, feed it to the analysts, then send those products to the leadership, who then incorporate it into their planning process to be kicked down to subordinate elements are long gone.

I was thinking with NGSW technology, they could have a lightweight cannon in a drone, with a certain stored linked ammunition magazine depth in addition to the underslung Hellfires, GBU-12s, or SDBs, but I still think it would require a clean-sheet design unless they went podded.

From an air-planner perspective, I think I would rather have things that make bigger boom-boom on the hard points than a direct-fire cannon.

For some existing aerial platforms, hybrid polymer-cased ammo will significantly reduce the weight of ammunition that is carried, but I’m not seeing any big changes to volumetric displacement with drums and canisters.