【KC-135变身无人机母舰】#无人机##无人机母舰#

2024年2月16日战区网报道：对KC-135进行无人机母舰测试
Tests Planned For KC-135s That Can Fly Themselves, Act As Drone Motherships

美国空军将为其KC-135空中加油机机队测试新的自主能力，这将有助于减少机组人员的工作量并提高其效率，甚至可能在未来完全消除对人员的需求。希望最早在今年夏天展示配置为无人机空中发射平台的KC-135。
The U.S. Air Force is set to test new autonomous capabilities for its KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet that could help reduce crew workload and improve their effectiveness, and maybe even eliminate the need for them altogether in the future. The service is also still looking to demonstrate a KC-135 configured as an aerial launch platform for drones, maybe as early as this summer.

空军上将、空中机动司令部（AMC）负责人迈克·米尼汉（Mike Minihan）在2023年的空军和太空部队协会战争研讨会期间，分享了有关古老的KC-135未来的新细节。自主飞行技术公司Merlin正在支持KC-135自主项目，并直接向我们提供了更多信息，并在新闻稿中提供了更多信息。
Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, head of Air Mobility Command (AMC), shared new details about when the future might hold for the venerable KC-135 at a media roundable that The War Zone and other outlets attended on the sidelines of this year's Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium on Wednesday. Autonomous flight technology company Merlin is supporting the KC-135 autonomy project and provided additional information to us directly, as well as in a press release.

空中机动司令部AMC负责人Minihan将军Merlin周三解释说。“我们可以看看机组人员能做什么，以及自治系统减轻人类的负担....
Merlin is "working on ... the ability to take existing airframes [and] put autonomy in them," AMC head Gen. Minihan explained on Wednesday. "Then we can look at what what crews can do and what [the autonomy system] ... can [do to] take the load off of the human."

“通过与空中机动司令部（AMC）和空军物资司令部（AFMC）的合作，Merlin将首次在KC-135同温层加油机上设计，集成，测试和演示Merlin Pilot的各个方面，”
"In collaboration with Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Merlin will design, integrate, test, and demonstrate aspects of the Merlin Pilot on the KC-135 Stratotanker for the first time," Merlin said in its press release.

Merlin Pilot 是一个可扩展的软件驱动的自主软件包，旨在轻松集成到不同类型的飞机中，以帮助实现一系列功能的自动化。Merlin过去曾在其他类型的飞机上展示过该系统的改型，包括完整的飞行员可选飞行能力。该公司此前宣布，将努力将其中一些自主功能集成到空军C-130大力神飞机上，但该飞机的确切状态

Merlin Pilot is a scalable software-driven autonomy package designed to be readily integrated into different types aircraft to help automate a host of functions. Merlin has demonstrated variations of this system on other types of aircraft in the past, including full pilot-optional flight capability. The company previously announced it would be working to integrate some of these autonomous capabilities onto an Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft, but the exact status of that effort is unclear.

“Merlin的阶梯式方法首先侧重于将Merlin Pilot的各个方面带入KC-135的飞行能力，其长期目标是支持——完全无人驾驶——的空中加油行动，”该公司告诉战区。“我们预计在未来几个月内，C-130项目将取得重要进展。
"Merlin’s stepped approach first focuses on bringing aspects of the Merlin Pilot to [the] flight capabilities [on the KC-135] with the long-term goal of supporting fully unmanned aerial refueling operations," the company told The War Zone. "We expect to have important progress on the C-130 project in the coming few months."

越来越先进的关键任务自动化与飞行员可选操作之间的界限早已变薄。在昨天的讲话中，Minihan提到了他乘坐飞行员可选黑鹰直升机飞行的个人经历，这是美国陆军一直在积极试验的，作为西科斯基（现在是洛克希德马丁公司的子公司）项目的一部分，该项目可以追溯到几年前。
The line between increasingly more advanced automation of key tasks and pilot-optional operation has long thinning. In speaking yesterday, Minihan referred to his personal experience of flying in a pilot-optional Black Hawk helicopter, something the U.S. Army has been actively experimenting with as part of a project with Sikorsky (now a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin) that dates back years now.

“我坐在黑鹰的后座上，他们递给我一个平板电脑，我按下一个按钮，引擎启动了。按下另一个按钮，我们飞了25英里到另一个机场，降落。我按下另一个按钮，发动机关闭了，“Minihan说，并补充说，如果出现问题，飞机上一直有安全飞行员可以接管飞行。
"I sat in the backseat [of the Black Hawk], they handed me a tablet, I pushed a button, the engines started. Push another button, we flew 25 miles to another airfield, landed, [and] I push another button and the engines turned off," Minihan said, adding that there were safety pilots onboard the whole time in case something went wrong.

KC-135无人机母舰演示仍在进行中。除了为KC-135本身增加自主功能外，AMC仍然对使用这些加油机在飞行中发射大型无人机的想法非常感兴趣。该司令部对这一概念的兴趣首先出现在去年Minihan泄露的备忘录中。该备忘录的核心是将军所说的指挥部需要采取的关键步骤，以便为未来在太平洋地区与兔子的高端冲突做好准备
KC-135 Drone Mothership Demonstration Still Coming，Beyond adding autonomous capabilities to the KC-135 itself, AMC is still very interested in the idea of using these tankers to launch large groups of drones in flight. The command's interest in this concept first emerged in a leaked memo from Minihan last year. That memo was centered on what the general said were critical steps the command needed to take to be prepared for a future high-end conflict in the Pacific against China, as you can read more about here.