The U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force will use the Sky Warrior (pictured above and below), which was initially developed as an Army project. There are already a few autonomous UAVs able to operate without any human control. The U.S.A.F. is particularly keen on making their UAVs more autonomous, to help ease the stress on its overworked UAV crews and the service is planning on replacing its Predators with the Sky Warrior. The latter is developed from the former and both are built by the same manufacturer. The U.S.A.F. and the U.S. Army have already agreed to cooperate on maintaining and further developing Predator and Sky Warrior UAVs, which will save money for both services.
However, according to this report, the U.S.A.F. is alarmed at some of the U.S. Army's ideas for operating Sky Warrior. For example, the Army wants to rely more on the software than trained pilots to fly the UAVs. In fact, the army will not use pilots at all as operators. This appalls the Air Force, which is scrambling to turn fighter and transport pilots into Predator operators. The Air Force does use non-pilots for micro-UAVs (similar to the army's five pound Raven), which are used to help guard air force bases. But for larger UAVs, the Air Force is concerned about collisions, with other UAVs, or manned aircraft. The army believes the future holds technological solutions for this problem. Additionally, the army cannot spare pilots to man its planned force of over 500 Sky Warriors.
General Atomics, the manufacturer of the Predator UAV, is developing the new Sky Warrior UAV. The army wants 45 squadrons (each with 12 UAVs), at a cost of about $8 million per aircraft (including ground equipment). The Sky Warrior weighs 1.5 tons, carries 300 pounds of sensors internally, and up to 500 pounds of sensors or weapons externally. The UAV has an endurance of up to 36 hours and a top speed of 270 kilometers an hour. Sky Warrior has a wingspan 56 feet and is 28 feet long. The Sky Warrior is heavier than the one ton Predator, and a bit larger, but is also more capable. Basically, it's a "Predator Plus", with the added ability to land and take off automatically, and carry four Hellfire missiles (compared to two on the Predator).